But an injured Henwood Park keeper Nathan Trinder could only watch on as the Hawks secured a dramatic penalty shootout victory in the 2017 decider against Lake Albert.

With Trinder battling an ankle injury replacement keeper David Rainbird stepped up with two saves in the penalty shootout to secure the Hawks the premiership after it finished 4-all after extra time.

The veteran shot-stopper gets another chance to feature on the big stage when the Wagga rivals do battle in Sunday's preliminary final at Junee.

Trinder was influential in last week's 2-0 elimination final win over Junee, and is ready for another shot at Lake Albert after they beat the Hawks 2-1 in extra time in the qualifying final.

"The latter end of the season playing the bottom teams didn't help us for last week (Lake Albert), our intensity wasn't there and to get beat with a minute to go really hurt the boys all week," Trinder said.

"The local rivalry is never an easy game but we'll certainly be up for it. There's guaranteed to be one Wagga team there (in the grand final) and hopefully it's us."

Trinder said the squad had little difficulty picking themselves back up after two-hour slug fest against the Sharks.

"It was easy, everyone was hungry and disappointed," he said.

"We took our chances (against Leeton) and defended really well.

"Our defence has been awesome all year, we've only let in 17 (goals). A few times we just haven't found the back of the net but it's starting to click."

Sharks captain Ben Angel said the squad hasn't used the 2017 grand final defeat as a spur this week, but said the hurt didn't subside until the beat Young in last year's decider.

"It took a bit of sting out of it winning last year but I still hurt from that one, it was the one that got away," Angel said.

"We started behind and clawed our way back to lead in extra time, to lose on penalties was heartbreaking.

"We haven't used it as motivation, but we still have a fairly constant squad from that game that would love some revenge and knock Henwood Park out."

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