Two sublime free kicks from the edge of the box and a late penalty saw Grove bring up his hat trick before half-time and set up a commanding 4-1 lead.

His first free kick came inside the opening 10 minutes and rocketed into the top left corner.

City pulled one back through a nice effort from Patrick Brown less than 15 minutes later, but Boomers' were back on top within the blink of an eye as Grove sent his second free kick to the top right corner, leaving City keeper Campbell Taylor no chance.

Kye Halloway got in behind the defence and converted to put Boomers 3-1 up, before Pieter Noordewier drew a penalty on the stroke of half-time, with Grove making no mistake to make it 4-1 at the break.

It didn't get any better for City in the second stanza with Japanese young gun Shunsuke Kadono scoring his first senior goal to make it 5-1, before Noah Spiteri closed out the 6-1 scoreline with a late header.

Grove, who recently became a father for the first time, couldn't have performed any better on Father's Day.

"It's probably the best we've played all year, so it's come good at the right time of the year," Grove said.

"We played pretty similar to last week (against Cobram) and moved the ball well, it was just the fact we took our chances this week.

"We've got to go again next week, we can't stop on this."

The result sets up a tantalising semi-final with Wangaratta at La Trobe next Sunday after the league champions got past Melrose 4-2.

"We can score against them and we feel confident," Grove added.

"We're going to have to play even better than this to beat them."

The loss was Matt Maw's final outing as coach of Albury City after five seasons in the top job.

"They were much better out of the blocks, we spoke about not giving up set plays and we gave them two," Maw said.

"Then they got one over the top and it was always an uphill battle from there.

"They knocked it around really well and played football the way it should be played."

Maw admitted his side limped into finals.

"We weren't in the best form coming into it and unfortunately we've gone out the way we went into it," he said.

"We've missed Isaac Read, since he's left we've lost that spark."

Meanwhile, Cobram (6) produced the upset of the weekend with a 2-0 triumph against Albury United (3) at Melrose Park, with Shaun Willis and Nathan Thomas on target.

They'll meet Myrtleford at Savoy Park next Saturday night after the reigning cup champions got past Twin City 2-0 at Alexandra Park.

Connor Caponecchia gave the Savoys a 1-0 lead at the break, with Jake Miles scoring late to seal the result.