And the reward for Saturday’s Central Highlands Netball League A-grade clash between the top two sides at Buninyong will be a spot in the grand final. 

Bungaree coach Prue Douglass said while her team respected the calibre of Learmonth, preparation had been inwardly focused.

“They are a very well coached team and a very well drilled team,” she said. “We really are concentrating on what we can do and how we can control the game.”

The Demons lost their first final to rivals Springbank before defeating Waubra by just four goals last week.

“We’ve had a terrific finals series,” Douglass said. 

“We came up against a very strong and determined Waubra and it was great to have a really good game leading into this game… I think it did us good and made us think about things we need to perhaps mildly change in our game.”

Douglass said the preliminary final will be the first time she would have a full squad available with players previously missing due to being overseas or with other netball commitments popping up this season.

“I’d like to see 100 per cent effort over the course of the four quarters,” Douglass said. 

“I think this year we’ve certainly learnt to do that. We still have a very young team, but they’ve learnt through experience now to handle and tough out those 15 minute quarters.”​

Last time Learmonth and Bungaree met it was round 11 with the Lakies 19-goal winners – but the Demons were missing some key personnel including their coach.

The time before that was the preliminary final last year.

This time Douglass is hoping for a different outcome.

With a lot of hard work and determination, Hepburn has enjoyed a fairytale run in Central Highlands Netball League A-grade finals so far.

The Burras are set to meet reigning champions Springbank in a preliminary final on Sunday in Learmonth and and will look to disrupt the Tigers’ attempt at a fifth premiership in seven years.

Springbank has dominated this season with just the one loss.