Panthers’ under 16s and 12s have taken different paths to get to this weekend’s last day of the season, but they both have the same winning ambition.

John Fearnley’s under 16s team have been a regular feature on grand finals day during the years through the junior competition.

It’s no surprise to see the consistently strong outfit make their way to the finale again, and they meet a familiar foe in last year’s premiers Orange CYMS.

Fearnley will like his side’s chances of turning around 2016’s result after finishing this season as minor premiers.

“Last year the grand final finished as five tries each but they kicked more goals than us,” he said.

“We’ve only lost the one game this year, and that was in the fifth round at Blayney. It was quite a big score actually, 34-10, but that became our turning point this season.

“There hasn’t been much between us and CYMS this year. Orange have some good forwards who have played finals, and some speedy backs. It should be a good contest.”

Appropriately it was Blayney-Cowra the Panthers beat, 32-18, in the major semi-final to book their place in the decider.

Fearnley is expecting the Panthers’ big boys to prove the difference this Saturday.

“CYMS have come through from fifth place but if they play to their best it will be a tough one,” he said. 

“We have four boys in the team who have played for Western Rams, and one for country, ‘Zippy’ [Nick] Barlow. Our forwards should lay the platform for us, guys like Nathan Ward, Brad Fearnley and Mackenzie Atkins.

“Noah Griffiths is at five-eighth, and we’ve missed him for a while on rep duty. Dylan Miles moved up from fullback to halfback and has been a great partner for Noah.”

The under 16s certainly won’t be short on momentum. They will carry a nine game winning streak into the grand final.

Meanwhile the Panthers under 12s had to do things the hard way to get their ticket to a grand final.

Shane Hastings’ boys finished the regular season in fourth, meaning it’s been sudden death football the whole way up to the Wade Park decider.

They meet Lithgow Storm in the grand final.

Storm will go in as favourites after racking up a 24 point win over the Panthers during their last regular season meeting but Hastings is looking forward to seeing what his boys bring to the table.

“I’m over the moon with how they’ve gone this year. The boys have worked so hard and have been keen to turn up to training every week,” he said.

“Pete Morris is the coach for Lithgow and he’s a great bloke. Him and I get on like a house on fire and we’re both very passionate about our teams.

“I’ve got 18 boys and every one of them do their job. They’re a great group to coach.

“There’s three rep players [Shannon Hastings, Ronan Hunt-Cameron and Blake Powyer] who do a strong job and the rest of the team follow their example.

“In the last three games Ronan has scored 12 or so tries, and the rest of the teams feeds off that performance.”

Panthers sent a message to the Storm by knocking over minor premiers Bloomfield Tigers in the preliminary final.

Tigers had lost just the one match during the regular season.

Under 12s face the Storm from 11am while the 16s search for a win over CYMS at 3.30pm.