On form Nick Greenhalgh's Illawarra South Coast Dragons side will take some beating in Saturday's Country Championship under 23s final at Mudgee.
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But the Forbes Magpies product knows if there's one side that can seriously test the Dragons it'll be the Monaro Colts.
Monaro won the 2017 championship and then appeared in last year's final too, making the Colts a serious contender again this winter.
Drawing from the large Canberra rugby league basin, Monaro has a stack of quality players - including Dubbo gun Harry van Dartel and fellow Magpies graduate Matt Woolnough - and Greenhalgh says his side won't have it all its own way on Saturday.
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Certainly not like they did in 52-10 and 64-4 round wins over Riverina and GSR Wests Tigers, respectively, or even the 42-22 victory over North Coast Bulldogs in last week's semi-final.
"Our first two games we won by a fair margin but I don't think those results were reflective of the games we've been playing; it's really tough in the first 20 minutes and we've had to work pretty hard to get on top," the 2016 Group 11 title winner said.
"Monaro, they're a good side. A lot bigger than us and more physical than we've faced before. Again, though, if we can match it with them for the first 20, 25 minutes then our defence has been good enough, we haven't leaked too many points.
"We can score a lot, but our defence is the key."
Greenhalgh isn't the only Western product lining up for the Dragons, either, with Dubbo CYMS premiership-winner Tony Pellow named at fullback for the Illawarra side.
Former Orange Hawks backrower Max Wolfson is also in the Illawarra side, in fact he and Pellow won an under 18s premiership together while with the two blues in 2014.
In 2019, Greenhalgh and Wolfson play together for Group 7 club Shellharbour while Pellow is a gun for the Wests Devils in the Illawarra competition.
"Tony and I played junior reps together so it's good to link up again," Greenhalgh added.
"Me and Matt (Woolnough) won in the 18s with Forbes together and I've played against Harry before when he was with Macquarie, as well.
"It'll be good to catch up with them after the game ... hopefully I'm the happy one."
COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS DRAW
Saturday, April 4 at Glen Willow Regional Sporting Complex, Mudgee
ANDREW JOHNS CUP 10am ' Western Rams versus Northern Rivers Titans
LAURIE DALEY CUP 11.30am ' Western Rams versus Illawarra South Coast Dragons
WOMEN'S 1.10pm ' Riverina Bulls versus North Coast Bulldogs
UNDER 23s 2.30pm ' Illawarra South Coast Dragons versus Monaro Colts
