In what shapes as a battle of ‘wily old buggers’ against ‘youth and experience’, the club’s two reserve grade sides will meet in this year’s decider after both teams clinched thrilling semi final wins last weekend.

Hawks’ senior player Brad Ingram said the pre-game chat had been flowing since last weekend.

“It’s been fun and it started pretty much straight after the semi finals, but it’s all friendly banter,” Ingram said.

“We watched the end of their penalty shootout and we stormed the field after they got up, so we’re really happy to see them go through.

“They’ve got all that youthful exuberance so we’ll just see how it goes and whether they let us get another premiership.”

The Hawks have taken out the Gardiner Shield for the past three years but the Falcons’ teenage brigade are out to knock off their nest mates.

Falcons’ leader James Thomson said their previous games had been close and cheekily tipped his side to get up in the intra-club showdown.

“We won the first game 3-1 but they beat us 1-0 last time around,” Thomson said.

“We’re pretty keen for it this weekend and we reckon we’ll win.”

Ingram wasn’t having a bar of it and happily stepped up the pre-game banter, branding his younger club mates “brash and cocky”.

“It’s all good fun though and, at the end of the day, Henwood Park still wins.”

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