On Saturday at Diggings Oval CSU will line up for a fifth consecutive cup decider, Flanagan and his men eager to taste premiership glory for the first time since 2019.

But the desire within the Warriors' outfit, who are playing in their maiden Mid West grand final, will be just as strong.

"I think from day one I pretty much knew that if there was a match up with us in the finals then this would be it," Flanagan said.

"The competition throughout the year has been pretty close and pretty great for us to test our players and test our strengths and weaknesses, but at the start of the year I said Warriors would be our toughest challenge, they've clearly proven it, they still are.

"I think whatever happens this weekend, it's going to be a pretty big bout."

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From the three meetings between the rivals already this season, CSU has won twice. The most recent of those, a 28-16 major semi-final success, came four weeks ago.

In each of those games the Mungoes have had to absorb the pressure created by a big Warriors pack and Flanagan, who plays at hooker, knows it will be a test once more.

"I think that's a big part of their game plan, I do see that their big fellas are the ones they go to, especially early on at least. But I think we've got the strength to hold them there, I think we do, fingers crossed," he said.

"If we can set our platform early and absorb their barrage of offence for that short period, then I think we can really look to do what we did in the major semi-final."

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As for where CSU's strength lies, Flanagan thinks fitness and their cohesion as a unit will be key.

This year's Mungoes unit has built its success off that united approach rather than relying on one or two star players.

"Our ability is our fitness, to just stay there in the contest and pretty much keep going when everyone else thinks we are going to give up," he said.

"During my three years with the Mungoes we've on occasions looked to individuals to perform for us, I think think this year there isn't an individual that's been our saviour, there aren't five people I could pick who are going to win us this game, it's going to be all of us.

"We've been put down as the smaller uni side that probably wasn't going to survive the barrage of big forwards, but we're still here.

"As a coach I'm heaps proud of that, that it's going to be all of us in the middle, heads down and we're going to rely on each other to get us through this game.

"Now we all want the run, we all want the tackle, we are all standing shoulder-to-shoulder fighting in this together.

Kick-off on Saturday is at 3pm at Diggings Oval.

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