Tamworth allegiances will be tested in the Hockey One men's grand final after Ehren Hazell's NSW Pride and Matt Willis' Perth Thundersticks won their way through to Sunday's decider with contrasting semi-final wins in Bendigo on Saturday.
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After just scraping into the four on goal difference, the Pride, which also features Armidale's Nathan Czinner, overcame minor premiers the Brisbane Blaze in a shoot-out to keep their title defence alive.
The Thundersticks then booked their first grand final appearance with a 6-3 defeat of the Canberra Chill.
The Western Australians took just four minutes to find the net and pretty much controlled the game from there with a hat-trick from Tom Wickham pushing them out to a 6-nil lead in the third quarter. The Chill did stage a late fightback but the damage had been done.
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Earlier it was a welcome return to form for the Pride, who had lost their last three games of the regular season, starting with a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of the Blaze.
Saturday's semi-final had a bit of everything - even a rain delay that required the squeegees to come out.
The game was halted for 15 minutes midway through the second quarter after a deluge left the pitch waterlogged and deemed unsafe for play to continue.
Fortunately the weather cleared and they were able to restart, albeit with some patches of water still on the edges.
Locked at 0-all at that stage, the Blaze took the lead on the cusp of half-time via a penalty corner rebound. Matt Dawson got the Pride back on level terms eight-and-a-half minutes into the third quarter.
Hazell was involved in a good opportunity for the Pride to go ahead in the final minutes of the third quarter with a nice run and pass to Tom Brown, but Brown was unable to finish.
The Pride had the better of the final quarter, but despite a man advantage for the last five minutes and some good circle incursions were unable to break the deadlock sending the game into a shoot-out.
They were perfect in that with all five players converting, to join their female counterparts in the finale after they defeated the Thundersticks 1-nil in their semi-final.
The men's final will be played at 4.15pm following the women at 2.15pm.
