![Northern Jets coach Jack Harper alongside The Rock-Yerong Creek counterparts Heath Russell and Brad Aiken at Thursday's Farrer League grand final media conference. Picture by Les Smith Northern Jets coach Jack Harper alongside The Rock-Yerong Creek counterparts Heath Russell and Brad Aiken at Thursday's Farrer League grand final media conference. Picture by Les Smith](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/8tYDWUpBiaA8SfdG6xkddz/d506511f-841d-4f52-97d4-c7ef8371a400.jpg/r0_92_4136_2417_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
NORTHERN Jets coach Jack Harper likened a potential grand final victory to a 'fairytale' as the club prepares for it's first grand final appearance in 16 years.
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The Jets have climbed from a sixth-placed finish last year to embark on their first finals campaign in seven years and progress through to Saturday's grand final against The Rock-Yerong Creek.
Harper, 22, is in his first season as coach at the Jets and has guided his home club to their first grand final appearance since their 2007 premiership.
He said a win on Saturday would be the stuff of fairytales.
"It would be massive, to be honest. It would mean more than any other premiership," Harper said.
"It's been festering, living in Canberra, you always want to come back and play for your home club and things have fallen in line over the last couple of years, the same with Mitch (Haddrill), Jerry (Lucas) and Lenny (Haddrill) coming home and all that sort of stuff.
"It's shaping up to be a really nice fairytale story for us if it was to be but we'll just see how it comes along on Saturday."
Asked whether he believes in fairytales, Harper said he does not but he does think that there has been something special brewing at the Jets all season.
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"It's massive, it's been 16 years since we've been in a grand final, there has been a lot of anticipation building and I feel over the last couple of years, Josh Avis has done a fantastic job of building a foundation and we were able to get some more local juniors back and bolster our side a bit and finally get to a grand final," he said.
"The buzz and the vibe's right up there, that's for sure, we've had people come to training for the last couple of weeks trying to get us over the line and we've got buses of supporters coming to the game on Saturday and hopefully we can do them proud.
"Every little bit of support helps and we love them for it."
The Jets have spoken all year about the vibe at the club and they are also proud of the fact that 19 of their 21 footballers on Saturday will be one-point players.
Harper believes the closeness of their group could prove an advantage.
"It can do. At the end of the day everything's still got to click and still got to happen on Saturday," he said.
"You can do all the work during the year, you can play good footy, you can train well, you can be best of mates but unless you show up on Saturday then you could probably say it doesn't really matter.
"We've got a great vibe, a great culture, we're basically one big family out there, we're all mates, we all hang out when we're not playing footy even so it would be great if we could get over the line.
"It would be fantastic for the community and everyone that's put in a lot of work this year."
![The Northern Jets playing group get around each other after last Saturday's preliminary final win over Marrar at Robertson Oval. Picture by Les Smith The Northern Jets playing group get around each other after last Saturday's preliminary final win over Marrar at Robertson Oval. Picture by Les Smith](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/8tYDWUpBiaA8SfdG6xkddz/3dbca626-d3d4-4ab8-96dc-5a922c169f45.jpg/r0_0_3274_2335_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Full-forward Matt Wallis will certainly not be a surprise inclusion as he is in Adelaide getting surgery on his dislocated elbow.
Fellow forward Adam Flagg is rated a '50-50' chance of coming back in, according to Harper, but it all revolves around training on Thursday night.
"There's no real reason to change the side from last weekend when you win against a quality outfit in Marrar," he said.
"If he gets through tonight, Flaggy is a quality player and his footy IQ is through the roof so that will give us a bit of a selection dilemma but we're just weighing up all the options at the minute and Sam and I will make a call later tonight."
Harper also dismissed any concerns with Jeromy Lucas' hamstring after he pulled up short late in last week's preliminary final and was iced up immediately.
"He's moving fine, he's just got a little bit of tightness. We ended up pulling away on the weekend so there was no issue with him just going off and resting up," he said.
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