Boxall offered the blunt assessment ahead of Sunday's elimination final against Myrtleford when asked what Hodgkin had brought to the table in his first season at the helm.

"I'd say it's a lot happier," Boxall said.

"We are a lot happier down there.

"We are all united this year.

"Stuff happened with Filo (Brodie) but we are all good mates now and we all know what each other wants."

Boxall, who is coming off a career-best eight goals, conceded the Raiders would start underdogs against Myrtleford after finishing the home and away series with four less wins than their opponents.

The Alpine Saints also won their two head-to-head battles.

"We see ourselves as the underdogs," Boxall said.

"We are a bit behind the top four but anything can happen in finals.

"We have been there before.

"A lot of our players have had experience in finals.

"We will take a lot of confidence into it so we will see what happens on the weekend."

Myrtleford coach Jake Sharp said he was pleased the club had played Albury, Lavington and Wangaratta in the lead-up to the finals.

"They were mini finals for us," Sharp said

"We set ourselves to bring a finals type atmosphere.

"To be well in those games gave us some great belief, particularly our younger and inexperienced players.

"It was really good for them to experience that going into a big game."

Sharp admitted genuine excitement had swept over Mytleford ahead of its first finals appearance since 2016.

"The town is up and about," Sharp said.

"We had some good news last week with a key signing (Dawson Simpson) and it's rolled on to this week with the juniors playing finals as well.

"It's a good community to be in at the moment."

Meanwhile, Albury has declared Chris Hyde and Daniel Cross certain starters in Saturday's qualifying final.