It is the second year in a row Lake Albert have won the qualifying final to advance into the decider after taking a 3-2 win at Jubilee.

Lake Albert had the green team on the back foot right from the start with the opening goal early on when keeper Dennis Purcell was beaten.

Despite the addition of Nathan Szymanski, Harlequins were unable to dominate proceedings as usual.

Craig Knowles and evergreen veteran Paul Oakman led the way for Lake Albert with Benson Williams and Rhys McManus, back from injury, defending well.

Harlequins equalised each time throughout the match, but Lake responded.

The match was still in the balance up until the last minute, when Harlequins earned a short corner, but the Lake Albert defend held out to earn a grand final berth.

Harlequins will look to respond when they tackle Royals on Saturday.

Royals made history, notching their first ever finals victory with a 2-1 win over CSU/Rivcoll.

With CSU upsetting the team when they last played, Royals were on the board early scoring the first goal.

CSU eventually equalised when Kyle Buckley found the net beating keeper Logan Wilford.

Royals lifted the work rate in the second half as CSU were unable to find the magic as the Royals made CSU defend hard.

Jarrod Thorne and Jack Boyd played well for Royals as the university side felt frustrated as four different players spent time in the middle dugout for minor offences.

CSU’s Bevan Swaffield tried hard but unable to find the equaliser.

In the women’s, Royals came out on top of a lacklasture affair to book their grand final place.

Royals never looked challenged by LAC United after taking a three-goal lead in the first half.

LAC United had a big chance to beat Royals who were missing their highly influential captain Emily Paul and with Jacklene Macarthur still recovering from injury.

With a grand final spot up for grabs, the minor premiers maintain their unbeaten record as the LAC United were unable stamp their authority on the match with their regular match winners well beaten. 

Leading goal scorer in the competition, Vic Schiller added another two goals to her tally with Ashleigh Yan, back from injury, scoring the other.

LAC United get another chance to make the decider after CSU/Rivcoll proved far too strong for Rosellas.

For the first time in four years, the CSU/Rivcoll women team won a final and it was their biggest victory in three years when they thrashed Rosellas 6-0 in the do or die elimination final.

For the past three seasons, Rosellas have ended CSU’s premiership dreams every time in finals but it wasn’t the case this time around.

With both teams not at full strength, CSU missing Chayse Holland and Rosellas having Kira McBeath out through injury, the match appeared to pretty even.

However, CSU right from the start dominated possession and play as Rosellas tried frantically to defend.

Captain Emma Lynch and Millie Worldon took control as Leanne Thorp and Sophie Gough both scored goals from deflections as Rosellas were rocked.

By half time, CSU team was 5-0 up and as both teams began to tire as Rosellas were unable to penetrate the circle with just the one goal scored in the second half.

Gough managed a hat-trick of goals and Thorp two in the win.

FULL-TIME

MEN’S

QUALIFYING FINAL

LAKE ALBERT 3 (R McManus, M Davis, A Boyd) d HARLEQUINS 2 (C Skillen, M White)

ELIMINATION FINAL

ROYALS 2 (P O’Donnell, J Boyd) d CSU/RIVCOLL 1 (K Buckley)

WOMEN’S

QUALIFYING FINAL

ROYALS 3 (V Schiller 2, A Yan) d LAC UNITED 0

ELIMINATION FINAL

CSU/RIVCOLL 6 (S Gough 3, L Thorp 2, J McAuliffe) d ROSELLAS 0