It's "head down, bum up" for Launceston ahead of their table-topping clash with the Tigers despite some off-field banter between the two sides.
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Blues coach Mitch Thorp received a personally-addressed letter this week, which was a back-page image from an edition of The Mercury featuring Kingborough tall Marcus Gardner.
On the page were the words "beware, we are coming", with Thorp initially saying it was Gardner who sent the letter before settling on it being a loyal supporter.
"I think it's come from one of their supporters who is happy with their season and rightly so," Thorp said.
"It just adds some feel to the game. We've obviously taken the humourous approach to it as opposed to the real serious stuff but we want to see that sort of stuff at State League level.
"We want supporters and stakeholders caring about their teams and clearly someone has and they've gone out of their way to remind us that they've had a strong season."
It was suggested that Thorp sent the letter to himself to get his side motivated given they've only lost one match for the season but the two-time premiership mentor laughed that off as well.
"A few of the boys asked if I sent it to myself as well but we've certainly got plenty of motivation within our group," he said.
"We're trying to find what our best 22 looks like - we don't have Jobi [Harper], Jake Hinds, Miller Hodge this week - so the pressure for spots is well and truly on.
"We've got a very self-motivated group, so I think if we were starting to go down that path, that would be fairly amateur style of stuff."
The elder Hinds brother, who is leading the competition in goal-kicking, will miss this weekend through suspension.
He and Miller Hodge will be replaced by Josiah Burling and younger sibling Jayden.
It's also been a big week off-field for Burling, with the release of a video by Riverside business Jude's Cafe featuring the young forward talking about the loss of his mother.
His mum, Kate, died the day of a match against Clarence almost a year ago, with Burling still playing the game before eventually being a part of Launceston's premiership side.
"It's been a little while now since Jos has had that period with his mum and we experienced it," Thorp said.
"Jono, our welfare officer, felt it was the right time to shed some light on exactly what happened.
"The work Jono and Michael, his brother, did on that video was amazing and it reminds everyone around the footy club as to why we've had some success because it's far more than just on the field."
On-field, Saturday's match-up will be a direct preview of the qualifying final in three weeks' time.
Despite Hinds' absence, both sides feature potent forward lines with the Tigers' Jordan Lane and Tyler Carter combining for 76 goals while Launceston feature four other players in the top 12 goal-kickers - Jackson Thurlow, Zach Morris, Brendan Taylor and Ryan Tyrrell.
"They've got some strengths in front of the footy and if you allow them to take contested marks, they have a lot of shots on goal," Thorp said.
"Our midfield work needs to be sharp and we want to make sure that their entries are ugly and not pure.
"In the games that we've played this year, for the most part we've done a pretty strong job in that area."
The Blues are also wearing a unique guernsey this weekend, celebrating their annual pink day.
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