Win or lose, the decider marks the end of a long season – nine or 10 months or hard work finally over.

But the year isn't over yet for some of the Murray Bushrangers’ draft hopefuls.

Seven of them have been picked as part of two under-18 All-Star teams, to play at the Punt Road Oval on Friday afternoon, after the grand final parade finishes in Yarra Park, just a short walk away.

Ryan Garthwaite, Zach Sproule, Will Brodie, Max Lynch, Esava Ratugolea, Todd Marshall and Harry Morrison will play on Friday, the first three for the Chris Judd team, coached by former Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson and the remaining four in the Tadgh Kennelly-coached Michael O'Loughlin side.

Corowa-Rutherglen defender Garthwaite said while he was still processing last Sunday's TAC Cup grand final loss, Friday's game was an exciting opportunity.

“I haven't had time to think about last week really,” he said.

“It was an awesome experience though, getting out onto Etihad Stadium was a lot of fun.

“It was great to have some of the boys from Corowa up supporting me, we had a good crowd from the Border there.

“Getting into the All-Star team is great recognition, but I'm a little nervous about it as well.”

Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, Garthwaite won’t have to look far to find a familiar face.

“I’ll probably be playing on Todd Marshall,” he said.

“It’ll be a bit funny lining up against him, but I’ve done that a fair few times at training this season so this probably won’t be too different.”  

Bushrangers teammate Sproule said the All-Star match, as well as the draft combine in October, would be a positive note to end the year on.

“It’s pretty good to be going up against the best talent in the country,” he said.

“It’ll be a great experience, hopefully we can learn a few things from it.

“I’ll try and bring plenty of pressure to the contest, that was one of the things we were missing last weekend.

“But we have to forget about that game and move on to the next challenge.

“Looking ahead to the combine, it’s a bit nerve-wracking knowing there’ll be a lot of people out there looking at what we can do.

“No matter what happens though, it’ll be something I’ll remember for a while.” 

The three-day draft combine, which will test practically every facet of each player’s football ability, will run from October 6-9.

The All-Star game is set to get under way from 1.30pm on Friday afternoon.