And in another rematch from last year, the pair will also meet in the last preliminary round this Sunday.

Last year’s combatants booked their spot in the decider in the penultimate round of the competition at Myrtleford on Sunday — Yarrawonga easily accounting for the home team and the defending champions edging out Mansfield.

Beechworth captain Dylan Pool said they wouldn’t lay down ahead of the decider.

“You don’t want to go tinkering with the line-up in the last game before the final — winning form is good form,” he said.

“We will go down to Mansfield and give it our best crack.

“It would be good to go into the final with a win against our opponent, but last year we were able to turn around a loss in the last round to beat Yarrawonga in the final, so whatever happens won’t really bother us too much.

“And both Nathan Schneider and Tim Purtill are still undefeated and in line for pennant player of the year.”

Pool said they again had won in a tight contest on Sunday.

“Schneider and Vaughan Saunders won convincingly, but two of the other games went down the 18th,” he said.

“In all but one round our wins have been 3-2, so the results could easily have gone the other way.

“The toughest decision will come after this weekend when one of our six will have to watch the final from the sidelines — it won’t be an easy choice.”