IT'S one of the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association's great rivalries.
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Of the past six end-of-season grand finals, Russells Creek and Woodford - now known as North Warrnambool Eels - have featured in two.
Throw in a Twenty20 decider, two one-day finals and suddenly the two clubs have battled it out in five grand finals across three different formats since the 2016-17 campaign.
The ledger is slightly skewed in the Eels' favour. Both teams have one end-of-season triumph to their name but Woodford and North Warrnambool has won the Twenty20 and two one-day hit-outs.
But this one is a little different.
North Warrnambool will field a drastically different side to the one which has been a dominant force over the past decade while Creek has just one player - Craig Britten - which hasn't previously won a premiership in blue and white.
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Russells Creek captain Matt Petherick said the rivalry had been built on competitiveness.
"I think it's good when you turn up to a game and you just don't know what the results is going to be," he said.
"There's almost a mutual respect there from both teams so I'll look forward to it again on Saturday and I think it'll be another great game."
North Warrnambool skipper Nick Butters echoed Petherick's words.
"We're starting to put together a pretty good rivalry with Creek. We've played a lot of big games against them and you always want to test yourself against the best sides," he said.
"They're certainly that so we really enjoy playing against them."
Creek will enter the clash as a slight favourites but in what has been dubbed the most even Warrnambool and District Cricket Association campaign in recent history, picking a winner is harder than ever.
They've met just once in 2021-22 - in round three at Jetty Flat - but Saturday's decider promises different conditions.
Jetty Flat is one of the district's smallest cricket grounds and it's wicket has favoured batting teams after it underwent renovations throughout the 2020-21 season.
We know each other inside out so it'll be interesting to see if there are different plans or whatnot on Saturday but I'll keep those pretty close to my chest.
- Matt Petherick
Merrivale Oval - the home of Saturday's grand final - is renowned as a drier wicket with a deep outfield.
Petherick said Creek, known as one of the strongest bowling teams in the competition, had strong knowledge of North Warrnambool's key batsmen and would back in similar plans to get them out.
"Hopefully we can surprise them with one or two things on the day and just little things like that," he said.
"We know each other inside out so it'll be interesting to see if there are different plans or whatnot on Saturday but I'll keep those pretty close to my chest."
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Butters, meanwhile, said "not much would change" from its approach.
"We've got a couple of little things we'll try and hopefully it'll work but you know most of the guys you're playing against," he said.
"The ground does come into consideration when you're batting, certainly.
"It'll be harder to hit fours and sixes but not much changes for us. A lot of the grounds are bigger football grounds.
"For us, we've obviously played away all year the majority of the games are on bigger grounds and it's probably more of a change for Creek as they've played on a small ground like Jetty Flat all year."
Both teams are expected to field unchanged sides for the clash.
Butters said it was important to stay proactive batting against Creek's restrictive bowling.
"That's probably their mantra. Guys like Petherick and Blake Evans, they just try to dot you up and build pressure," he said.
"Joe Kenna can go into that category too. They just build pressure and then you get yourself out. Maybe Shiv (Kumara) and Jimmy (Elford) have probably got more wicket-taking sort of ball as such."
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