The Seagulls stunned the Saints with a 70-point thumping back in the season-opener, and Koroit was only too happy to return the favour with a 68-point drubbing of its own when the arch rivals met again in round 12.

“That won’t be happening again,” Koroit coach Chris McLaren said of the lopsided scorelines.

The triple reigning premiers are fresh off a break in the opening week of finals and are set to regain a couple of quality players for the clash.

McLaren declared Jeremy Hausler and James North certainties for the clash, while league leading goalkicker Marcus Darmody, who is on the comeback trail from a hamstring injury, is an outside chance to return.

“‘Jezza’ and North are 100 per cent – they could’ve played last week,” the Saints coach said. “They’ve had a really big week and probably a really big fortnight on the training track.

“Marcus is back in full training, which is really good – that’s probably a week earlier than expected, to be honest.

“If he doesn’t play this week, he’ll be a certainty for the next game.”

Port Fairy could also regain some star quality of its own, with utility Jack Hollmer and key tall Robbie Hare possibilities to return from hamstring complaints.

Seagulls coach Brett Evans said the pair would have to prove their fitness at training on Thursday night, but were not out of the equation to return.

Like McLaren, the outgoing Port Fairy leader expects Saturday’s semi-final – which determines the first team to make the 2017 senior footy grand final – to be a tighter contest than the top teams’ previous encounters.

“I think it will be a lot closer than the first two times,” he said. “The first time we got away from them in the one quarter, and they basically did the same to us in the second game.”

Evans said the Seagulls emerged unscathed from Saturday’s hard-fought qualifying final win over South Warrnambool, albeit with some tired bodies.