You come at the king, you best not miss.

Wangaratta will enter Sunday’s grand final as the underdogs, aiming to deny rivals Rovers back-to-back senior premierships for the first time since the 1990s – there’s sure to be plenty of feeling in this one.

Punters may have written them off at times, or at least stretched the odds so long they were an outside chance to even make finals, but Wangaratta is an insanely good team, a fact they’ve proven time and again.

Their road to the final started back in April, in a derby opening round win over the recently crowned Rovers, signalling their intent to challenge for the title once again.

The Magpies won five of their first seven games, including statement wins against the resurgent Wodonga and North Albury.

While they did suffer some losses, they were never down for long, and weathered a tough late draw of three losses on the trot to still qualify for finals.

From there, the Magpies proved their class, coming up with the goods against North Albury, Lavington (thanks to an after the siren goal which brought the crowd to their feet), and even against Myrtleford, who they hadn’t defeated all season.

In his first year at Norm Minns Oval, Magpies coach Jason Heatley said the rollercoaster season had them in the best possible state to challenge for the crown.

“It’s vindication of the journey that we set ourselves on in the back end of September-October last year,” he said.

“The club’s been extremely supportive, and the history of the Maggies over the last eight or 10 years has been around turning up and giving yourselves opportunities to play in games like this.

“It’s good to look on both sides of the fence throughout the course of the year, that’s why footy seasons in some sense become a marathon.

“You get growth out of that, you get growth out of winning, you get growth out of losing, adversity and injury – each one of our guys can tell a story outside of footy, and I think that’s the most important thing.”

There are so many stars on the park for the Magpies, of all ages, from the dependable Michael Bordignon and Cam Barrett, to the new wave of emerging talent like Max Bihun and Blake Newton.

Xavier Laverty is reliable in front of goal, Alex Federico is one of the slickest ball-users in the competition, and big Chris Knowles is putting together a courageous and dominant finals series.

But it’s the group’s team-first mentality which has seen them win through to the biggest game of the season.

“We don’t compromise on anything else but team first,” Heatley said.

“Our job is to bring it all together with everyone playing their part.

“We don’t need any stars, we just need contributors.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s match, Heatley said the battle in the guts would go a long way in determining the 2025 premiers.

“I think the game will be won around the midfield,” he said.

“If you look at all of the finals games and largely throughout the course of the year, I think the side who gets more looks wins, to put it really simply.

“It’s certainly one of our key strengths, it’s certainly one of Rovers’ key strengths.

“They have some real top-end talent that aids their journey and progression, so there are a lot of things that we’re looking at, but we have supreme confidence in our group as well.

“Our list, there’s no question it’s started to get healthy, and for it to get healthy, we needed the guys to go through situations like this in preparation.

“We’ll put an exceptional side on the field – there’s a lot to play out, but we’re in a good space.

“It’s obviously been a tough time in this neck of the woods, there’s been a lot happening, and I just think for the Wangaratta community to embrace two great footy clubs who have a lot of history and a lot of passion, but more importantly have a lot of respect for each other when you really break it down.”