Canberra Raiders feeder club Mounties have been waiting for the 2016 NSW Cup grand final since their campaign ended one game short last year.
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Mounties and their opposition, St. George Illawarra feeder team the Illawarra Cutters, are quite evenly matched.
Both sides had four players named in the NSW Cup team of the year with Mounties halfback Sam Williams named captain, but easily could have had more.
Cutters coach Jason Demetriou was named coach of the year, leaving Mounties mentor Steve Antonelli to fill the assistant coach role.
With all three grades in grand finals on Sunday – NSW Cup, Ron Massey Cup, and Sydney Shield – Antonelli wasn't exactly pleased by finishing second.
"I'll be letting them know when we win about it," Antonelli said.
Antonelli has been blessed with an embarrassment of riches this season with Canberra's depth seeing players spill out of Ricky Stuart's NRL side and into reserve grade.
But the challenge for any reserve grade coach is helping players regain confidence and eventually return to the top flight, so Antonelli says his first job is to keep them happy.
It means Antonelli doesn't have to be "too much of a coach" – he has to be a man manager.
"They're like any NRL players – when they come back they're down a little bit," Antonelli said.
"My first job is to make them happy and enjoy their football. Once I've got that, my next step is to get them playing good footy where they're putting pressure on the blokes in the NRL.
"I think that's why it's been so successful this year, because of our depth in the squad down at Raiders and the blokes in Cup performing up to their best putting pressure on blokes in the NRL squad."
Four key players in Williams, Jeff Lima, Adam Clydsdale and Brenko Lee are on standby for the Raiders side in Melbourne. It means Antonelli won't see them until game day, but he says it is part and parcel of being a reserve grade coach.
A win at Parramatta Stadium would be the Raiders' second reserve grade premiership in the NSW competition. Mounties would be Canberra's second affiliate to claim a reserve grade title after Souths Logan's 2008 Queensland Cup win.
Antonelli says the partnership will only get stronger between Canberra and the Mount Pritchard outfit as he continues to work on a full-time basis under alongside Stuart.
The Mounties coach believes learning on a weekly basis from the likes of Stuart and his assistants Dean Pay and Mick Crawley has rubbed off on his players.
"It's why our standard is so high, because we try to implement the same thing back at Mounties," Antonelli said.
"It's the difference come grand final day, just doing all the little things right, it's getting you over the line. With me learning that down there and bringing it back into the Mounties system I think it works a treat."
NSW CUP
Grand Final: Sunday - Mounties v Illawarra Cutters at Parramatta Stadium, 4:15pm. TV Time: Live on Fox Sports 1.
