The minor premiership winning Rebels had started the match at George Park 2 the stronger of the two sides as they looked to secure a home ground grand final.

At quarter-time the hosts led 4-3-27 to 1-2-8, but after that things got tighter. By the long break the Rebels held a slender four-point advantage at 7-3-45 to 6-5-41, while Tigers outscored their rivals by eight in the third term.

But while Rebels could only manage one major in the last quarter as their efforts earlier in the game took a toll, Tigers booted four to be the first side through to the decider.

“We played very well for most of the match, but unfortunately Orange just finished really well,” Rebels co-coach Steve Grundy said.

“Their midfield was very good, but in saying that, we played Adam Ryan in the midfield for the first time and he was probably our best.

“They won a lot of clearances, but our back line was very strong too.

“We led for large parts of the game, it was just that see-sawing type of match and unfortunately they finished on top.

“The wind wasn’t really strong enough to have too much of an influence, but in saying that, when we did have it at our back in that third quarter we probably just needed another two goals to put it in our favour.

“Unfortunately we just ran out of steam and they ran out the game very strongly.”

Both Alex Sparks and Ryan finished with a pair of majors for the beaten Rebels, who will now face club-mates the Outlaws in this Saturday’s preliminary final.

“Speaking after the game Matt [co-coach Matt Griffin] and I were incredibly proud of the way we went about it. Obviously we didn’t get the result we would’ve loved, but everyone did what we asked of them,” Grundy said.

“It’s the situation we were trying so hard to avoid, but we’ve made a promise that we will go out there and belt each other and hopefully whoever wins goes on to lift the cup in a couple of week’s time.”