IT has been 17 years since Oberon last won a top grade senior men's rugby league premiership and if the Tigers are to end their title drought this Saturday, coach Dallas Booth knows it will require something special.
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Back in 2003 the Sean Hooper coached Tigers beat Blackheath 28-12 in the Mid West League Cup decider, a victory that triggered huge celebrations in Oberon.
Since then Oberon's top side has played in other grand finals but not been able to clinch another premiership, their most recent shot coming in the 2017 Group 10 premier league decider which they lost to 23-22 to Orange CYMS.
The Tigers returned to the Mid West League this season and now they are one win from an elusive title, but the team they must beat to end their drought is defending premiers CSU.
It was CSU who handed the minor premiership winning Tigers their first loss of 2020 in the major semi-final a fortnight ago, the Mungoes prevailing 14-10.
"It will be the first game of the year that we'll probably go into as under dogs, so it will be interesting to see how we handle that," Booth said.
"I mean they beat us last start and now they're at home, so they are definitely the favourites. They are the defending premiers and if you work out between last year and this year they won 15 out of 17 possible games.
"They are young, they're fit, they're well structured, they're well drilled, you know Rhys [Power] their coach has done an unreal job with them. There's no doubt in my mind they are favourites.
"We'll be up against it and have to be at our very best to be a chance.
"Look, I know that if we can put in a complete performance we'll give ourselves every chance of winning. I have full faith in the guys that we've got."
That major semi-final loss meant the Tigers had to survive a tough preliminary final against Orange United last Saturday to earn a grand final berth.
However, Booth feels missing out on a direct path to the decider may actually be a benefit to his side.
"I know it sounds kind of silly to say - but having a loss could be a blessing in disguise with the situation we were in," he said.
"We hadn't played back-to-back in seven weeks, so having that extra game against the Warriors, we got that extra match fitness.
"Leading into the grand final having had that extra game, a tough, physical game, and that loss probably out our egos in check as well, as strange as it sounds, it was a blessing in disguise and gave us a better preparation."
While admitting his side fatigued against CSU a fortnight ago, he feels they won't suffer the same fate on Saturday.
"It told in that game against CSU, we gassed, we ran out of puff. It was a combination of us having limited football and them playing really good football and moving us around," he said.
"We do play different style it will come down to I guess who wants it most on the day."
Kick off is at 3.15pm at Carrington Park.
