On Saturday evening as fellow co-captain Jarred Portegies slotted a penalty attempt in golden goal extra-time to beat Parkes 3-2 in the preliminary final, Osborne was watching from the sideline.

He had been helped from the field with seven minutes of regulation time remaining after injuring his right knee in a clash with a Parkes rival.

It was impact that saw him begin grand final week on crutches.

"The impact just came through the side of the knee and I just sort of felt it collapse inwards and crack," the Panorama leader and defender said.

"It is what is, I suppose you run it back and look at it and think how you could've done things differently ... but it was just football.

"It was pretty tough watching and I knew the injury was pretty bad, so I was pretty despondent at that point. It's pretty hard to sit and watch at the best of times, let alone when you've come off with a potentially serious injury.

"Obviously I won't be taking the field this weekend unless some divine miracle happens."

The win over Parkes earned Panorama a place alongside minor premiers Waratahs in this Saturday's grand final.

While Waratahs has four prior WPL crowns to its credit and Saturday's grand final will be the club's eighth appearance in the league's decider, for Panorama it's a first.

Having joined the league for the first time in 2020 when it was revived, Panorama's path to the grand final has taken plenty of hard work.

Osborne has been there for that journey. He spent much of it on the sideline battling Gullian Barré Syndrome - a condition where the immune system attacks the nerves - but got back on the field this season.

That's why even though Osborne is bitterly disappointed he won't be playing in red and black on Saturday, he's still immensely proud of what Panorama has achieved.

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"I'm so happy for the squad and the team, they deserve to be there, I'm so proud and pumped with everything they've done, but in the same breath, I had a pretty long road to get back on the field so to have the opportunity to close out the season taken away in those sort of circumstances was pretty disappointing," he said.

"But now the dust has settled I'm really happy with the guys, if we win on the weekend the win will still feel like mine. I've played a big role this year and I'm very proud of that.

"I think we always knew we are a strong side and could be a bit of a force in the region, but I don't think we quite had the depth before that we have this year.

"That's all by design and creating a good culture of people wanting to come and play at the club. It takes time to build that sort of stuff, we can't buy players, we're a community club."

Panorama and Waratahs have had a good rivalry this season.

The Goats bettered their Orange rival 2-0 in round two, while Waratahs prevailed 2-1 in the return match.

In the major semi-final a fortnight ago it took a goal in injury time for Waratahs to defeat Panorama 3-2.

Though it was a loss, Osborne said his team-mates still got positives from that clash they'll carry with them into the decider.

"We got a bit of confidence from that game in that the two goals they scored in the first half, one was a deflection and the other one was an error coming out of the back and again another deflection," he said.

"You know we were the better team, I felt, by a long way in the second half and got it back to 2-2 then they score a worldie in the last minute, what do you do there?

"But I think that last 45 minutes against them, we've taken a lot of confidence out of that. We know we've got the football in us to get it done, now it's just about trying to do that for longer than 45."

The Western Premier League grand final between Waratahs and Panorama will kick-off 3pm Saturday at Waratahs Sports Park.

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