Cricket North: Launceston and Riverside battle it out for a home final

The home ground advantage could become increasingly important due to the weather forecast and adds a layer of intrigue to the final round of the Cricket North regular season.

Riverside are in the box-seat to book their ticket for a final at Windsor Park as the second-placed team while third-placed Launceston need a strong win to move up the ladder.

"That's been the focus, we want to go into a finals campaign with some wins under our belt and we want to be at our ground in a final, especially with the weather about," Launceston coach Andy Gower said.

"You just want to be in a position to finish as high as you possibly can."

The sentiment to carry that winning feeling into finals is shared by Gower's Riverside counterpart Lyndon Stubbs.

"I think you want to enter finals with a win and be in good form, which is more important than where the game is held," he said.

"We just didn't have that match-winning knock where someone's gone past 50 and made it count so I think that's where we want that improvement.

"We wanted someone to go on and be the match-winner but it didn't happen, we had guys contributing a bit but that's the goal for me this week."

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After ensuring their title defence will continue into the finals series last week against South Launceston, Gower's side is taking the positives after playing a season-defining fixture.

"We spoke about that before the game, just resetting our season and we haven't had the results that we wanted throughout the year but we can reset from last Saturday," Gower said.

"And we'll look forward to what happens in the next four or five weeks."

In the other game of the round, last-placed Mowbray are looking to land a major upset against Westbury in this season's equivalent of David v Goliath.

The Eagles enjoyed the bye last round and are eager to end the season with a two-game winning streak after beating South Launceston in their last time on the park.

With all the Cricket North sides having access to their Greater Northern Raiders players, Mowbray are set to have a full strength side for the first time since October.

"We're really looking at it as a chance to have a crack at a full-strength Westbury team, a premiership favourite and see how we line up," Mowbray captain Luke Scott said.

"Finals are obviously out of the question for us but we're looking to take some momentum into next season and I think Westbury are a pretty good team to judge yourself against.

"If you can be competitive against them then we know we're heading in the right direction for next year."

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For Westbury, the game away at Mowbray represents a crucial hit-out before they head into a finals series as a strong favourite.

The Shamrocks also stand on the verge of capping an undefeated roster season for the first time in over five completed seasons in the Cricket North.

"This could potentially be our last game before the grand final so we need to make sure that people understanding what their role is and how to play them and how we want them to go about it and hopefully doing it in the right way," Westbury captain Daniel Murfet said.

The Shamrocks can have access to Raiders in Nathan Parkin, Oliver Wood and Jono Chapman with Raiders on the bye in the Cricket Tasmania Premier League.

"In a sense, we've sort of got two different teams that we've got to have in our mind with our Raiders guys in one and one without our Raiders guys.

"I guess what this weekend offers is the opportunity to see how our team shapes up when we have a full strength list available."

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