Hanwood will go into the grand final at Equex Centre as clear favourites given they finished the season as minor premiers, before downing second-placed Tolland to win through to the decider.

Cootamundra finished third and were beaten 9-0 by Tolland in the opening week of finals, before qualifying with a 2-1 win over Junee.

While disappointed with their results against Tolland, Cootamundra have proven far more competitive against Hanwood. They lost 3-0 at Cootamundra earlier in the season, before claiming a 1-1 draw at Griffith in the second round.

It is those results that give the Strikers confidence heading into the grand final, according to coach Annette Parkinson.

"Quite a lot of confidence. We'll definitely be going out there and putting all our effort in," Parkinson said.

"We've been a lot more competitive with them than against Tolland. We've struggled during the season to keep the same players on the paddock with work commitments and stuff like that.

"The first semi-final we played against Tolland, we were missing three of our midfielders and it just showed in the scoreline. You take two or three of your better players out of your side and you struggle to build the play and keep your structure."

Keeping the team structure will be the key to rolling Hanwood on Sunday, Parkinson says.

"Making sure our play is structured and keeping that structure," she said.

"We've worked hard on that during the season and when we played them at their home ground last and we ended up finishing 1-1, I think it showed where the girls are at.

"The last round against Tolland and the first final was a bit disappointing with those heavy losses but the girls have been working hard.

"Hanwood are a quite young side, and so are we, we've got four girls who are 15 and 16, so we're looking forward to it."

It has been a while between drinks for Cootamundra's Leonard Cup team. Their last premiership came back in 2008 and grand final appearances have been few and far between since then.

"We're pretty excited. It's a huge achievement for the girls, considering what the season's been like, we've probably been lucky to keep on playing this year so to get to a grand final is an absolute bonus," Parkinson said.

"The girls are looking forward to it. We're trying to keep everything as relaxed as we can this week."

Cootamundra will be looking for big games from captain Ash Holder and fellow key players Michaela Webb and Kayla Palmer.

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