THE Queanbeyan Blues and Kangaroos will play in a local derby for the second time in as many weeks, with the Blues hosting the Kangaroos in the reserve grade preliminary final at Seiffert Oval on Sunday.
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It comes after the first graders played in a physical encounter in the major semi-final last Sunday at the same ground, with the Blues running away 43-10 winners to go to the grand final.
The Blues reserves finished as minor premiers, but lost to the second-placed West Belconnen Warriors by two points in the major semi-final last Sunday, while the Kangaroos earned a week off with a 16-10 win over Gungahlin in the minor semi-final two weeks ago.
Kangaroos coach and captain Peter Hunt said his men were confident of an upset after watching the Warriors edge out the Blues.
"At the end of the day we'll need to beat both teams to win the grand final, and it never bothered me which team we played first," said Hunt.
It has been a tumultuous fortnight for the defending premiers, who were fined $1000 by the Canberra Region Rugby League for singing a team song with offensive language outside the Workers Arena grandstand in Goulburn.
The incident also had Hunt suspended for the rest of the season, but the club have appealed both punishments to the Country Rugby League.
But Hunt said this had not been a distraction for his men, who have been training with the first grade side.
"We've got Kody Parsons, Tre Williams and Aaron Wighton coming up from under 18s," he said.
"We've had a week off which allowed some blokes to get over injuries, and we've trained well, so we'll see how we go on Sunday."