After 18 rounds of football and three weeks of finals we have the best two teams meeting in what I’m calling the ‘coat of arms grand final”.

Dubbo Kangaroos and Orange Emus finished as the top two at the end of the regular season, and it’s only fitting they should meet on the biggest day of the year.

But there can only be one winner and that will be the mighty Roos.

Call it parochialism if you want, but Dubbo has all the pieces needed to hoist the trophy aloft at roughly 5pm tomorrow.

A tough and rugged forward pack featuring the likes of Cockatoos hooker Peter Nau and big prop Max Ma’a Nelson combined with a lethal backline that includes Scott Burgess, Wade Richardson and Filisione Pauta will ensure Emus will need to be at their best if they want to head back down the Mitchell Highway as champions.

A raucous home crowd will also help the Roos, although that may be negated by the fact that six Orange teams will be involved on the day and Emus will bring a fair crowd along with them.

It will be interesting to see who the Orange City fans that hang around after second grade are cheering for as well.

As in all rugby matches, discipline will play a key part in the result.

Orange City found out first hand last week what can happen if you give Nigel Staniforth a shot from any range, so the Roos defence will need to be clean and not give away penalties.

If that happens not only does it negate the boot of Staniforth but it also makes Emus earn their points the hard way, and they will need to score plenty because if the Roos get within range they can pile on tries at will.

Emus have also had a hard three weeks of football, with two of those matches sudden death affairs.

In reality, they have done well to make it this far but perhaps they’ve used up their petrol tickets (and luck) simply by making it to grand final day.

It should be a ripping contest, good luck to both sides but go the Roos.

THREE weeks ago if you’d told me I’d be writing a column ahead of the 2014 Blowes Clothing Cup grand final, it would have probably been about how Orange Emus can re-group in 2015 after bowing out of the race for this year’s title in straight sets.

But a week is a long time in footy.

Three an eternity.

And now, just one sleep away from this season’s decider at Dubbo’s No.1 Oval, here we are, Emus one win away from grand final glory.

Heading into the business end of the season looking to break a finals drought that started back in August, 2008, Emus stumbled at the first hurdle in this year’s post-season race, going down in a qualifying semi-final thriller 35-29 at the hands of two-time defending premiers Orange City.

Plunged into elimination rugby, it was sink or swim for Emus if the club was going to make an impact in 2014.

And, crucially, Emus lifted.

And that ability to lift when the chips are down is why and how the greens will claim this year’s grand final.

Knocking out the Bulldogs with a 29-18 minor semi-final victory at Endeavour Oval, Emus then provided the killed punch when it was needed most in last weekend’s preliminary final to exact revenge on the Lions, Nigel Staniforth’s successful penalty right on full-time securing a truly memorable 21-19 win.

Ruthless in attack and brutal in defence, in all three finals appearances this season, Emus showed glimpses of the side that boasted the early makings of a grand final contender way back in May.

But, for Emus, it was always going to take more than glimpses to win anything of substance.

And, in the final two games the greens showed something they hadn’t all season - grit.

Largely untested throughout the regular season, how Emus’ players reacted when faced with any kind of adversity on field was the Blowes Clothing Cup’s burning question.

Those asking that question now know the answer.

Momentum firmly in the corner of Andrew Logan’s now finals-steeled side, Emus travel to No.1 Oval with the belief they can win from just about any position under any circumstance. 

And that belief couldn’t have come at a better time.