In 2021 when Medlyn coached the Saints to victory in the inaugural Western Under 21s competition, the blue and whites drew with eventual runners-up Dubbo CYMS and lost to Forbes Magpies along the way.

This season saw the competition take a different format with three round games. The Saints progressed undefeated, beating Cowra (44-10), Orange Hawks (13-0 forfeit) and Parkes (24-12) to claim the minor premiership and advance directly to the grand final.

"It wasn't about trying to go through undefeated, it was about getting these young boys to believe in their ability. We have got a pretty decent forward pack, but have only got two of the boys who were there from last year - we didn't have a template so we had to start again," Medlyn said.

"We had nearly a completely different side, so it was a challenge I was excited about, trying to take another young group of boys to a grand final and working on where we could be better.

"I didn't really think about it too much, we pretty much just took each week as it came, so I didn't really think about the grand final because I knew there were some good teams.

"I wasn't really expecting it, I knew Parkes had a really, really good side, with Panthers I knew that they are good, I didn't know too much about Hawks, I wasn't looking too far into it to be honest."

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Standing in the way of the Saints making it back-to-back premierships is a Dubbo CYMS outfit which is also yet to suffer a loss.

Dubbo beat Orange Hawks (20-12), Parkes (22-12) and Cowra (40-0) in the round games to narrowly miss out on the minor premiership on for and against, but then downed Bathurst Panthers 28-0 in the preliminary final.

"I was talking to Yeoy [CYMS coach Paul Yeo] a couple of weeks ago and I said to him it would be good if we could both get back into the grand final and he just said 'We don't have the calibre of players we used to'. Yeah, I think that was a bit of a tactic," Medlyn laughed.

"Last year we had an 18-all draw over at Dubbo so we did get a look at what they had to throw at us and where they were dangerous and where we could benefit with our style of football.

"This year we don't really have an indication of what they have, you know they could turn up and put things together that we just don't have, we might be able to do the same. So you need a bit of luck in a grand final, it just comes down to how well you've prepared during the season."

Friday night's grand final at Jack Arrow Oval kicks off at 8.30pm, with the Western Under 21s plate decider between Parkes and Cowra contested beforehand from 7pm.

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