Coach Cam McCormack attributed the turnaround to captain Murray Price, saying Price had led the way for the young side.

“He’s a had a few rough weeks with the bat, but he’s kept his chin up, he’s led the way at training, so I’m really excited to see what he can do against the Rangers,” McCormack said.

“All of our young players have really improved this year, I think they really deserve to be playing finals.”

While his batting has been inconsistent lately, Price led the way with the ball against Yackandandah last weekend, spearheading their outright victory with seven wickets across the two innings.

Price said that he was feeling confident heading into the match, but that the experienced Rangers were no easybeats.

“We’ll certainly have to be on our game, players like Vince Moran and Rohan Pearce have plenty of experience and have played at Provincial level before, so we know they’re both dangerous,” he said.

“But we’ve had heaps of people get down to training to help us out, and I think our younger bowlers are going to have a ripper game.

“Guys like Caleb Boxall and Chris Anderson have been looking good, so hopefully we get out there and give them a real run for their money.”

Both Price and McCormack thought the game could go down to the wire, and Rangers captain Mitch Ryan echoed their sentiments, emphasising his team’s need to bat well.

“We need to bat our full 70 overs out, otherwise I think we’ll struggle a little bit,” Ryan said.

“There’s some quality bowlers out at Barnawartha, so we’ll definitely have to be on our game.

“In saying that, we definitely back our bowlers in to get the job done.

Vince Moran will open the bowling, and our opening bowling partnerships have brought us over 50 wickets for the season, so we do see that as a strength that we have.

“Zach Leach and Paul Munro are two batsmen we see as being able to stay in the middle for a long time, so hopefully we’ll be able to really build our innings.”

Fourth-placed Mount Beauty will get a rematch against Eskdale, after their 54-run loss to Jamie Baude’s side.

Ashan Ranaweera played an outstanding game, taking five wickets and top-scoring wih 45.

He’ll need a bit more support if they want to cause an upset, with captain Will Betheras a likely source of inspiration.

Betheras was handy with the ball last round, snaring three wickets, but will have to build on his innings of 15 to be able to take it to the consistent Eskdale side.

The key wicket of Greg McLennan fell early last weekend, and if he fires Mount Beauty will be in it up to their necks.

Eskdale captain Jamie Baude said McLennan can take a game away from a team in a flash if he gets started.

“He’s a very dangerous player, so getting him out early is important, it allows bowlers to put some pressure on the rest of their batsmen,” Baude said.

“We saw last week that they still have some very good batting down the order, Ranaweera and Damien Jenvey are very good players, so it’ll be a very tight contest.”

Howlong will have it all to do against minor premiers Kiewa, after their loss to Wodonga in the last round of the season.

Aaron Hoskin’s men did well to rally late in the season, creeping into the finals ahead of Bethanga and Yackandandah, but the odds are against them making any further inroads.