Ballarat Rugby is hot favourites for the clash given its unbeaten record at home this season and +51 point differential across its two meetings with Kiwi Hawthorn in 2016. With its last meeting at the venue in round 9 resulting in a 53-7 victory.

President Luke Miller believes the travel will be a factor in the result along with its ominous record at Doug Dean Reserve. Given Victorian Club Rugby’s unique fixture, teams are broken up into two conferences. Ballarat happened to fall into the five-team conference with three of the top four sides.

While teams do inevitably play everyone, Ballarat were forced to work hard to qualify for its finals spot (top three in its conference) but have been the beneficiary of the fixture quirk. Now set to play Kiwi Hawthorn who finished third in conference A but have won 6 games compared to Ballarat’s 12 overall.