This year the preliminary final fixture and the round 16 result are the same, but hosting rights lay with the Knights after Launceston was forced to attempt an unlikely late charge for third spot.

A stellar final three weeks paid off and having knocked out Riverside against all odds, Lions captain Alistair Taylor is keen to vanquish South as well.

"Probably after the Riverside game when we lost ... we thought the winner of that game would go in," Taylor conceded.

"We thought we were going to battle a bit from there and then we lost to Westbury on day one, but credit to the group, they've worked really hard the last three weeks.

"It's a great achievement because I don't think any of us thought we'd make it - we've won less games than Riverside and knocked them out so it just shows you're always still in the hunt in this competition."

MORE CRICKET:

The Lions will make just one change to the side that registered a six-wicket first innings win last weekend as Ben Humphrey, Cam Lynch, Sam Elliston-Buckley and Ethan Conway all made 50-plus.

The side will, however, have as many as five different faces from last year's preliminary final team, not including injured spinner James Curran, who will miss the rest of the season.

"We haven't spoken too much about last year which is good," Taylor said.

"We know we probably missed a bit of an opportunity but it's a new year, pretty much a new team so we're going there optimistic that if we can play our best cricket we'll give it a good shake.

"Sean [Harris] is pretty key to them and you always try and get the skipper early ... we'll see how we go, they're a pretty well-rounded side."

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT:

South Launceston will take an unchanged line-up into their third preliminary final in four years.

With James Beattie the only Knight to have played regular Raiders cricket this season, Tom Waller has enjoyed a settled line-up with opener Doug Ryan the only player boasting fewer than 10 A-grade appearances.

"We're reasonably confident," the South skipper said.

"We're wary of Launny's current form - they've hit an uptrend at the right time of year but we take confidence that it was a similar fixture last year.

"They beat us quite easily and then we played them in the [preliminary] final the next weekend and beat them so we're taking a bit of confidence from that and hopefully we can follow in those footsteps.

"We'd like to think we've got a bit of finals experience up on those boys and it'll hopefully hold us in good stead."

Waller believes his side has more depth this season than last.

"We'd like to think we're a little bit stronger than last [year] but time will tell.

"When we went out to get our overseas player, we wanted someone who could bat and bowl and I think we've got that in Anders [Bulow] and obviously Ish [Shah] as well," he said.

Play will begin at 10.30am at the NTCA No.2 on Saturday and Sunday.