North Launceston and Launceston have named unchanged sides for Saturday's TSL grand final.
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Northern Bombers draft hopeful Jackson Callow will be given until matchday to prove his fitness for the second week running after sitting out last weekend's win over Clarence.
Out with an ankle injury since early September, the 18-year-old has been named as an emergency for Saturday's 2.30pm clash but is a best-22 lock if fit.
Coach Taylor Whitford said his young star must be 100 per cent to play in the Bombers' first grand final meeting with Launceston in 35 years.
"He's had two weeks of training now so he'll be in our squad," the five-time premiership Bomber said.
"We had our main session [Wednesday] night so it depends on how he pulls up and backs up again [Thursday night], but that decision will be made as it goes along, basically on how he feels.
"If Jackson's ok to play he'll play, but he's got bigger and better things to do than Tasmanian footy I believe.
"He did the warm-up pre-game [last week] and just realistically it probably wasn't worth it, the squad we had last week we felt was a good enough team to go and win that game of footy and it was in the end."
Meanwhile, Launceston coach Mitch Thorp is confident he's found his best 22 after last week's eight-goal win over Lauderdale.
The Blues will again go in with the two-pronged ruck combination of Tim Auckland and Joe Groenewegen while Jake Hinds has been named on the ball after a scintillating past month.
"At this stage we'll go in unchanged," Thorp said.
"We've tailored our program after a decent start to the year being 5-0 to manage some of the loads for the boys.
"We probably knew what our best 22 looked like a fair way out and we've tailored everything to try and get everyone available for the first final against Lauderdale.
"That worked relatively well and ... it was a strong performance last week."
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The Blues trained on UTAS Stadium on Tuesday night before returning to Windsor on Thursday ahead of their first TSL grand final since 2012.
Thorp and Whitford agreed it was exciting to have both Northern teams contesting the grand final.
"Traditionally it's either been one side or the other that's been really dominant - through the early 2000s Launceston was a really dominant side and since 2013 onwards North Launceston have clearly been the most dominant," Thorp said.
"So it's probably at a point now where we're as close as we've been for a long period and hopefully Saturday's a good spectacle."
FULL TEAMS
NORTH LAUNCESTON v. LAUNCESTON
UTAS Stadium, Saturday, 2.30pm
North Launceston
- B: J. Avent, C. Nankervis, A. Richter-Salter
- HB: J. Foon, F. Bennett, B. van Buuren
- C: M. Walsh, B. Cox-Goodyer, D. Withers
- HF: J. Laskey, T. Donnelly, B. Lowe
- F: T. Bennett, B. McCulloch, J. Rushton
- R: A. Lee, J. Ponting, T. Whitford
- Int: S. Egger, O. Sanders, B. Simpson, C. Young
- Emg: Z. Burt, J. Callow, J. Curran, R. Sanders
Launceston
- B: J. Boyd, J. House, R. Tyrrell
- HB: J. Dakin, A. Wright, M. Hodge
- C: C. Brown, J. Harper, J. Smith
- HF: J. Blackberry, M. Thorp, F. Seymour
- F: M. Musicka, J. Groenewegen, D. Riley
- R: T. Auckland, J. Hinds, T. Jones
- Int: I. Chugg, B. Palfreyman, B. Taylor, J. Tuthill
- Emg: J. Donnellan, S. Foley, G. Holt, B. Pearce
Hamish Geale
Hamish Geale is a senior reporter at The Examiner. Got good news? Email: hgeale@examiner.com.au
Hamish Geale is a senior reporter at The Examiner. Got good news? Email: hgeale@examiner.com.au
