East Wagga-Kooringal captain Brocke Argus will lead the Hawks in a final for the first time

A total of six points have separated the Hawks and The Rock-Yerong Creek in their two meetings this year.

The Hawks finished strongly to win by five points at Gumly Oval early in the year, before Argus missed a shot after the siren to give the Magpies a one-point victory at Victoria Park last month.

With the first crack at Marrar a week later up for grabs, Argus believes the midfield battle is going to be crucial to each team's chances of victory at McPherson Oval on Saturday.

"Mate, they always bring it. It's a good match up actually, their forwards and backs and our forwards and backs, they match up really well and it's usually won in the midfield," Argus said.

"Obviously Budd and that are playing great footy but then the same token, we've got Jezza Piercy, Harry Fitz, and Luke Cuthbert, he's just come back, I reckon it's going to be won in the midfield.

"Once you get out there, all that planning and that goes out the window once you get in that footy brain. It will be interesting, it will be a good game, a real good game."

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Argus is in his second season as captain at EWK but it will be the first time he leads his beloved Hawks into action in a final.

The occasion is not lost of him but he's keen to keep things as normal as possible.

"It's something different, obviously," he said.

"I talk a lot with Matty (Hard), he's been there and done that so he said don't change anything. It's sort of a cliche but he said just keep going about your business the way you're going because you're doing well so as long as he's happy, I'm pretty happy."

Argus suffered a scare late in the season when injuring his hamstring in the round 16 win over Charles Sturt University.

He missed the following week against Barellan but returned for last week's final round win over Northern Jets at Ariah Park.

The lively forward was happy to get through.

"It wasn't too bad. I took it as it went," he said.

"I played a different role with Ariah Park being a smaller ground so I pushed down the ground a bit and opened the forward line up for Turns and Boey, they've been doing the most damage on the scoreboard so just played the team role and that worked well so it was good."

Since their loss to TRYC, the Hawks have won their last four in impressive fashion.

Argus agrees that EWK might be peaking at the right time and puts that down to getting some key personnel back.

"Yeah you could say that. I think it's more just a bit of consistency with our team," he said.

"We had a bit of a shocking run with injuries. I know it's no excuse and everyone else has had the same thing.

"I really reckon the top five teams you could throw a blanket over them. Everyone seems to have beaten everyone else, except for Marrar obviously, they stand ahead of everyone else but it's whoever is going to be healthiest at the end of the year I reckon. Whoever's got the players at the end of the year will be hard to beat.

"Anyone can do it on their day and that's what makes it such an exciting series. No game will be taken for granted or you can't rest on your laurels or anything.

"It's going to be an interesting series and anyone could take it."

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