What's more, when it came to who performed best over the entire qualifying round in the Tui Cup series it was Greytown who had the edge.
Adding flavour to tomorrow's final is that Greytown coach Ritchie Robertson was joint coach of East Coast when they won the premier division title in 2008 and is currently their delegate on the WBRFU council of clubs.
But wily as Robertson may be, he won't be fooling his East Coast counterpart Mark Percy who has the benefit of some first-hand knowledge. He was actually coached by Robertson on both the representative and club scene during his playing days.
You get the feeling that both Robertson and Percy - who coaches in partnership with Sean Bennett - will be happy with the prospect of having Chris Jefferies as referee. This will be the fourth successive grand final he has controlled and he has a well earned reputation for letting play flow, something which should suit the style of play likely to be adopted by both sides.
Having said that the odds are that Greytown will take a more conservative tactical approach than East Coast. They will be backing tough nuts like Kurt Simmonds, PJ Freeman, Jayden Carter, Norm Henricksen and Gareth Van Dalen to gain an important edge in the tighter exchanges of the forward battle and, consequently, the rolling maul and "pick and go" are likely to be the launching pads for their most potent attacks.
There are no secrets about the way East Coast will play. Wet or dry, calm or breezy, they are at their most dangerous when the ball is spread wide and the pace and flair of backs like Jesse McGilvary, Nick Olson and Matt O'Connor is utilised to the fullest extent. That Olson, who will probably be at centre, is the danger man virtually goes without saying. He goes into the game on the back of a rich vein of form, having notched a hat-trick of tries in each of his last two appearances.
Olson will also be taking the goal kicks for East Coast and up until last Saturday his accuracy in that crucial department could have been seen as a major advantage for them. However, young Greytown first-five Reece Lett banged over penalties and conversions with such aplomb in the semi-final victory over Gladstone last weekend that may no longer be the case.
Who then to win? So little is there between the two sides on paper a smart punter would sit on the fence or take a dollar each way, but for the sake of argument we'll plump for East Coast....just!
The likely starting line-ups are:
EAST COAST: Matt O'Connor; Jamie Fraser, Nick Olson, Jesse McGilvary, Richard Cameron; Byron Karaitiana; Jordan Carroll; Tom Bowie; Sully Alsop, Wiremu Grace, Zandy Wallace, Joe Feast; Hayden Kerr, Josh Greenfield, Kane Nooroa.
GREYTOWN: Seanoa Isaac; Tavita Isaac, Tapaga Isaac, Kingi Kaiwai, Hamish Meyrick or Sean Duffy; Reece Lett; Joseph Sio; Tana Isaac; Khan Walker, Gareth Van Dalen, Norm Henricksen, Josh Faraimo; Kurt Simmonds, PJ Freeman, Jayden Carter.
Heartland squad named page 30.
