OVER the past five years, the Vincentia Van Goghs have established themselves as one of the powerhouses of the Illawarra District Rugby Union third grade competition.
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The purple and gold will look to add to that impressive resume on Saturday at WIN Stadium, as they contest their third grand final in five years.
During the 2019 campaign, the Van Goghs finished with a 13-4 record, seeing them end the regular season in second.
"Our team has played solid football all season despite injuries having an effect on some results midseason," Van Goghs' John Walker said.
"The younger boys coming through the team really stood up and proved they can hold their own."
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Despite finishing second to Bowral on the ladder, the Van Goghs' opponent on Saturday is actually Vikings, who finished the season in fifth - with the latter downing Vincentia 28-nil in their most recent encounter on July 20.
"The key to winning Saturday is to start well," Walker said.
"If we get off to a strong start, we can control the game.
"Our set plays all year have been good and we have a lot of speed out wide that can trouble most teams."
Walker last tasted premiership success with the Van Goghs in 2015 and he knows this team isn't too dissimilar to that victorious side.
"Our team certainly has what it takes to win the grand final," he said.
"There is a good balance of youth and experience as well as speed and size.
"A lot of credit needs to go to our coaches Ian Cook and Sean Bugg.
"As a smaller club, we don't have as many hands to get all the jobs done, but the boys have done there best to make sure the team was out on the paddock each week."
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If the Van Goghs do claim their third premiership (2007 and 2015) in club history, Walker, 38, appreciates how much it'll mean to him and everyone at the club.
"I'm getting to the later stages of my career but the feeling of playing in a grand final never gets old," he said.
"Grand finals are never easy to get through to - when we started training back in February, we set the goal to make it all the way and it started then.
"We did the first six weeks down on the beach at Vincentia and the boys have done a great job at maintaining that fitness we set early in the seasons.
"It will be a lot of the boys first time running out on to WIN Stadium that into self will be a buzz.
"Then if we are able to hold our nerves and get the job done, which I'm confident we can, it will be absolutely amazing - it's hard to describe what winning a grand final feels like but I hope I get to experience it again on Saturday."
The Van Goghs' final against Vikings will kick-off at 12pm at WIN Stadium, which will be followed Shamrocks and Bowral at 2pm (second grade), the National Rugby Competition (NRC) game between NSW Country and Fiji Drua at 4pm and finally the first grade decider between Avondale and Shamrocks at 6pm.