RIVERINA FOOTBALL LEAGUE
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GANMAIN-Grong Grong-Matong coach Jayden Kotzur is quietly confident the Lions have what it takes to cause an upset in Sunday's elimination final against Wagga Tigers.
The Lions will enter the finals series as clearly the fifth best team of the home and away season with just seven wins from 16 games but Kotzur maintains that will count for very little come Sunday.
The odds are stacked against GGGM with the two teams only meeting a fortnight ago in a game that resulted in a 50-point victory to Wagga Tigers.
GGGM will welcome back Mitch Steele, Luke Walsh and Daniel Rankin for the sudden death final, with Luke Kohlhagen set to be the only player missing as he battles a knee injury.
Kotzur used the final three weeks of the home and away season to prepare for finals and now he believes the Lions are primed for battle.
"We probably haven't had the best season but that's why there is a top five," Kotzur said.
"It doesn't matter how many times you've beaten sides above you, it's nil-all come Sunday. "We had a really close battle with them the first time, there wasn't much the difference.
"It should be a fairly good battle and if we can get over the line then we'll be confident we can challenge the next team that comes at us."
The query will be whether GGGM can match Tigers' run.
Tigers had too much run for GGGM a fortnight ago but Kotzur is not reading anything into the round 17 clash.
"Absolutely not, we had a couple of things we wanted to get in place and we took the opportunity to see a few guys play in different positions," Kotzur said. "That (result) didn't faze us one bit.
"Last year we beat the top team in the last round and then came out and lost the week after."
Kotzur recognises Tigers' run forward but believes GGGM has the ability to hurt them the other way.
"They've got great run and spread, they run forward of the ball a lot but I don't think they push back as much as they push forward," he said.
"So we'll try to hurt them the other way and get them on the turnover."