The former Ovens and Murray footballer said the Warriors – who were rusty after two byes in four weeks leading into the clash – had quickly moved on from the 51-point defeat and had set their sights on preliminary final opponent Nirranda.

“We’re not too stressed about it,” he said. “I reckon we’ll come out strong.

“(We’ll) just forget about the weekend – it’s really only one game in the last 10 that we haven’t played our best footy.

“We had a good night at training (Tuesday) night and had plenty of blokes there.”

Hibberson is new to the Warrnambool and District league club this season, but played in a preliminary final two years ago for former club Chiltern in the Tallangatta and District league and also played finals at Ovens and Murray club Wodonga Raiders.

Old Collegians is two-from-two in its clashes this year against reigning premier Nirranda, which defeated the Warriors in last year’s decider.

The Warriors comfortably won the grand final rematch in round one, thumping the Blues by 52 points, but also took the honours against a much-improved Nirranda in round 12.

“It ended up only being a couple of goals (that we won by), but we never felt like we weren’t in control of the game,” Hibberson said.

Saturday’s preliminary final has been moved to Merrivale Recreation Reserve.