Bathurst District Football: Collegians defeat Abercrombie Gold to book spot in men's premier league grand final

But fast forward 12 months and the club's return to the men's top flight competition has seen the club qualify for its first grand final in 12 years thanks to a 3-1 win over Abercrombie Gold in the preliminary final on Sunday.

Collegians president Anthony Dunn said it's pleasing to see his club qualify for the decider.

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"This time last year, the prospect of having a first grade team seemed distant," he said.

"For us to be able to get a team together and for them to be playing consistently enough to get into the grand final is very pleasing.

"From a club's perspective looking forward, our job is to make sure this team remains sustainable and we're here for a long time."

Collegians were coming off a narrow 3-2 loss to men's premier league minor premiers Abercrombie Navy in the major semi-final the previous weekend and were facing the prospect of elimination from the finals if they lost to Gold on Sunday.

But the threat of losing was never really apparent, with Collegians pulling out to a 3-0 lead before Gold scored a consolation goal late in the game.

"Our first goal was a spot, which we got around 25 minutes in. Our captain Dylan Harvey scored that," Dunn said.

"Brodin Corby scored the second goal and he got it off a little bit of a tap-in. A cross came in and one of their defenders collided with the keeper and then it fell down for Brodin to tap it in. That was 2-0 at half-time.

"Ben Muller scored the third, which was basically off the back of a sequence of passes through the middle. He finished, as he always does, very nicely.

"Towards the end it got quite scrappy and niggly, I have to say. They started to get under our skin a little bit and they ended up getting a goal towards the end, with probably 10 minutes to go."

Dunn said he pushed hard to make sure Collegians had a team in the premier league this year.

"My view has always been that you've got to have a team in the top league, because it gives our juniors and everyone else coming through the club something to aspire to," he said.

"Our steps moving forward is to really strengthen that pathway for our juniors, to make it really clear that for those players coming through that they can have a goal to play at the top level.

"When our top team is doing well and playing in the grand finals, I think that helps build our club pride and that aspiration, which will help us sustain and grow the club.

"While our focus is make sure the men's program is sustainable, it's also making sure we're putting some attention and effort into the women's program.

"We had a third grade team this year and half of the women were brand new and did extremely well. Our program was really successful and we made the second grade competition as we did so well.

"That's where we'll put our attention too, because we have a three-year plan to have a women's premier league team."