The Whites will be vying for their first back-to-back premierships since 1982/83 after recording their first minor premiership in 26 years during the regular season. Queanbeyan broke a 24-year premiership drought when they defeated the Gungahlin Eagles 33-12 in last year’s grand final.

Easts’ spell without a title is significantly greater with the Griffith-based club not returning a premiership since 1947 when they defeated Northern Suburbs 17-3. Their last grand final appearance was in 1973 when they were beaten by Wests, 33-10.

The Queanbeyan/Easts ledger stood at one game apiece during the regular season with Easts taking the points, 22-13, in Round Three at Griffith before the Whites responded with a 28-15 home win at Campese Field in Round 10.

Queanbeyan qualified for the grand final after defeating Easts 17-12 in the major semi final a fortnight ago. The tri-colours won through to the decider with a 36-30 win over Royals during last weekend’s preliminary final.

Easts coach John Osbourne, who has named an unchanged line-up following last weekend’s victory, says consistency has been the key to his side’s success this season.

“We didn’t set our goals at winning a grand final at the beginning of the season,” he said. “We thought we had a team – with the acquisition of a few players – that would be better than we were last year. We weren’t that far off [last year] even though the results didn’t necessarily indicate that; we lacked a bit of consistency and a bit of depth. I thought this year we’d be more competitive and hopefully be up near the top four.

“We’ve also been pretty lucky as our injuries have been limited this year and 90 per cent of our top XV players have played every game.”

Easts captain Jack Vanderglas says he’s pleased to see the side turn their fortunes around after a number of lean years.

“It’s a bit surreal and everyone’s really excited about it but I don’t think we’ll be overawed,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of new players to the club and I don’t think it will affect them too much and for some of the older guys who’ve been there for a few years –like myself, [Jeremy] Osbourne, Zarby [Eddie Zarb] and Sione [Asohivi] – it’s a good reward after playing through the bad years and trying to avoid the wooden spoon.

“We’ve all believed in ourselves throughout the year and as we stayed in or within reach of top four throughout the season, I think that was the biggest reassurance that we were ready for it. When we started to string a few good wins together I think people realised that we could shake this up a bit.

“Ozzy [John Osbourne] told us not to play the game in our heads before we got there and that’s our challenge leading into Saturday.”

Queanbeyan coach Glen Christini, who will be without Jack Kennedy with the tighthead prop joining the Queensland Reds for 2009, says this year’s grand final poses a completely different prospect for his side.

“Last year we came through from third position and it’s got a totally different feel about it this season,” he said. “We’re just looking to get the job done but coming from first position probably does add a little more pressure.

“We’ll take a lot of confidence out of last year though; it showed to ourselves and to our supporters that we can get the job done. I think it also put to bed the myth of finals football and showed us that grand finals are just another game.”

Queanbeyan captain Josh Hastings, whose side will field seven members from last year’s starting XV, says his side will draw from last year’s experience.

“We haven’t put too many expectations on ourselves, we’ve just taken it one game at a time,” he said. “In the back of everyone’s mind we were all hoping to be in the grand final but we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves.

“We’ve grown up a lot as a team since last year and we’ve got a lot of confidence in ourselves and our ability to play football. I’ve got take my hat off to our coaches Glen [Christini] and Wayne [Southwell] who’ve brought best out of every player which showed last year and it’s showing again this year.”

Saturday’s match will kick off at 3.15pm.

In the Saturday’s other grand finals, Gungahlin will meet Queanbeyan in Reserve Grade (1.40pm), Tuggeranong and Wests will clash in Third Grade (11.50am), Queanbeyan and Uni-Norths will contest the Colts decider (11.55am), Royals and Wests face off in Fourth Grade (10.15am) and Royals and Uni-Norths will decide the Women’s final (1.25pm). Gates open at 9.30am.

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