LEAGUE - Winner too close to predict

• GRAND FINAL: Kaikohe Tigers v Takahiwai Warriors, Jubilee Park, Whangarei. Saturday, 2.30pm
• GRAND FINAL: Kaikohe Tigers v Takahiwai Warriors, Jubilee Park, Whangarei. Saturday, 2.30pm
THERE SEEMS TO be little doubt that tomorrow's grand final between Kaikohe Lions and Takahiwai Warriors will go down to the wire before a winner is found.
The only consensus that can be taken after a brief poll of league contacts, taken from the office yesterday, is that there is no clear favourite for overall league honours this year.
Maybe that has something to do with last year, when Hikurangi Stags were such hot favourites for the title that many people got egg on their face when Moerewa Tigers won, or maybe it is because little separates the two teams in their 2008 results.
Takahiwai won their first round fixture 36-32 way back in May. Apart from their two defaults against Ngawha Saints for political reasons, they have arguably been the most consistent team throughout the round robin series with only two narrow losses.
The Lions have also had their share of wins, finishing just one point behind Takahiwai on the league table. But they have struggled dominate opposition in the same way Takahiwai has.
Kaikohe's no-nonsense 18-10 win over reigning champions Moerewa Tigers in the semifinal last weekend put paid to any lingering doubts that they were lucky to make the final.
Warriors coach Mark Freeman was one of the spectators at Jubilee Park last Saturday and is expecting a close match if both teams bring their A-games.
"There's one of two possibilities: it will be tight-as and that's my pick, or it might blow out, if one side suffers from nerves from the big occasion and then somehow drops their load [and gets a hiding]," he said.
"It will all depend on who turns up, if we hit our straps then I'd have to say I'm confident, but it's really a matter of who turns up on the day," he said.
Freeman was impressed with what he saw in a semifinal played under difficult conditions last week.
"They've [Lions] got experience on their side with players like Woody Maihi playing, and you can't coach against that," he said.
Lions assistant coach Benson Selwyn believes both teams are too similar to easily pick a winner.
"They [Warriors] basically play the same style of football as we play ourselves, even to the level that their danger men are in similar positions to ours," he said.
Selwyn said he hopes the battle will be won in the forwards - like the last game between them - when Takahiwai were defeated 26-22.
"When we played them last up here in Kaikohe, we beat them in the forwards and hopefully it'll turn out the same way for us in the final," he said.
There's little doubt that, without the possible exception of Ngawha Saints, the final will feature two of the strongest and best supported clubs in the league.
Both clubs have had great numbers training all year and for both coaches the toughest decision every week has been who to leave out. "I think there are around eight blokes in the squad who won't get to play in the grand final and that's the worst job of the year - to tell those guys that they won't be needed," Freeman said.
The Ruakaka club's players will stay on the marae on Friday night, showing how seriously they are taking the grand final.
A host of blue-clad supporters are expected for the match and Kaikohe Lions chairperson Willie Maihi said the Lions' supporters will also be turning up en masse for the game. Maihi has organised prize money for the best designed painted feline faces on show at Jubilee Park and said the club had come a long way in just a few short years.
"I have to congratulate those players who have held strong through the tough times, when they had to go into games with nine players just to avoid paying fees for defaulting, to those players and the new stock of today who will wear the Lion's jersey at the grand finals, this makes it all worthwhile," Maihi said.