In what has seemed to be a scarily short amount of time, the Yass District Cricket Association grand finals have arrived.
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This weekend will feature the grand finals for all three grades, which will take place at Victoria Park (A Grade), Joe O'Connor Park (B Grade) and the Binalong Recreation Grounds (C Grade).
First grade will see reigning champions, the Yass Bowling Club Pirates, take on the Yass Golf Club Snipers, and Pirates wicketkeeper Brad Wylie said that it was gratifying to have made the final again considering that his side had played to save its season on many occasions.
"We knew it was possible but we made it tough on ourselves," Wylie said.
"We've done it the hard way again, finishing fourth so we only just scraped into the finals. It made the last half of the season pretty hard on us, knowing that we had to win everything."
The stage is set for an intriguing A Grade grand final, as both the Pirates and the Snipers ran hot and cold early in the season, and both have come into form late in the piece.
The Snipers defeated the Yass Golf Club Piranhas in the first semi-final to book their place in the grand final, while the Pirates defeated the Bowning Buffaloes in the semis and the Piranhas in the preliminary final last weekend.
Meanwhile, the B Grade grand final will feature the Gundaroo Goats and the Boorowa Cricket Club.
Gundaroo's season was one of fleeting highs and sudden lows, and while they managed to sit atop the A and B Grade ladder for a significant stretch mid-season, inconsistency in the back half of the year saw them fall outside the top-four cutoff for the A Grade finals.
However, the Goats have good reason to be confident, as they obliterated Boorowa in the first round of finals on March 2.
While Boorowa have since bounced back, Goats player Mitch Callagher said that his side is confident of repeating its semi-final form.
"I'd say we're feeling pretty confident," he said.
"It's a standard week, the banter's pretty good in the group chat."
The only issue the Goats are looking to address is their struggle with consistency.
"The last game we played against them, we all went 'we've almost got it' and threw a few wickets away," Callagher said.
"You've got to put your head down and just do your job."
Saturday's C Grade final in Binalong will feature the Binalong Bushrangers and the Yass Golf Club Taipans.
The Bushrangers are heavy favourites ahead of the clash, having finished at the top of the ladder with 10 wins and three losses for the season, while the Taipans only just made the top four and appear to have hit good form just at the right moment.
All grand finals will begin at 12.30pm this Saturday, March 16.