KEY POINTS:
Harbour League co-coach Ken McIntosh quite likes the sound of becoming the Bartercard Cup champions for time immemorial.
His side take on the Auckland Lions today in the last Bartercard Cup grand final before the competition is scrapped in favour of a return to a club-based alternative in 2008.
The Lions will start heavy favourites, especially considering they have won the title for the past three years. But if today's game is anything like when the two teams last met, the NZRL will need to ensure they know where the switch is for the Mt Smart Stadium lights.
The two teams battered each other for 102 minutes a fortnight ago before Auckland scored the winner to gain direct passage to the grand final. Harbour faced a powerful Canterbury Bulls side last weekend in another bruising encounter before emerging 28-24 victors.
"We've had two pretty hard games in the last couple of weeks," McIntosh said. "Auckland deserve to go in as favourites but after the semifinal, we know we can live with these guys. We can take a lot of confidence out of that semifinal. The way we lost that semifinal, to see the faces of the players and how disappointed they were, the guys feel they owe them one."
Auckland are the only side to have beaten Harbour this year, while the Lions were upset by Wellington in July and held to a 30-30 draw against the Tamaki Titans in June.
Harbour League was formed from the combination of the North Harbour Tigers and Hibiscus Coast Raiders when the Bartercard Cup was streamlined for the 2006 season. Today represents the last time they will play together as a franchise and, like a lot of the players, McIntosh doesn't know what his future in the game will hold.
But for the time being, it's all about today's game. Harbour have done little training in the past couple of weeks to ensure the players recover from two tough games and McIntosh is hopeful skipper Jared Trott will have recovered from his hamstring strain to play.
