After being beaten by Goulburn Workers in last year’s final the Diesels looked like they had missed their chance.

Captain-coach Matt Hands said the club had always intended to nominate again but had been caught short by the popularity of the competition.

Hands was thrilled to be on the end of a bit of fortune.

“We are very fortunate to get a start as we wanted to use a pretty similar build up to the build as we did last year,” Hands said.

“It seemed to work for us so I’m very happy we are in now.”

Hands expects to take a full strength squad as they look to go one better this year.

“We are getting reasonable numbers to training and should be pretty strong again,” he said.

Hands also doused rumours that crafty hooker Trent Schubach wouldn’t be playing with the club.

“We made sure we got him locked in as soon as we could,” Hands said.

After Yenda withdrew Cowra were offered the first opportunity but had already scheduled another trial.

Group Nine teams will now make up half the field with premiers Gundagai, Southcity, Brothers, Kangaroos, Albury, Temora and Young.

The draw for the event on February 26 and 27 is set to be released next week.