Northern Suburbs and Warringah meet a week earlier than they did last year and although neither side will leave North Sydney Oval with a trophy on Sunday evening, fans can expect a grand final type atmosphere this weekend.

Warringah held off a persistent, but under strength Manly outfit at Rat Park last weekend to book a spot in Sunday’s preliminary final, while Norths defended well in the second half and beat Eastwood

“We were really happy with the weekend’s result and the performance. I thought we defended really well and we dug in and worked hard in what were really tough conditions,” Norths coach Shannon Fraser said ahead of Sunday’s grand final rematch.

“We haven’t spoken much about last year to be honest. It’s a different year and a different group of players on both sides so I don’t think you can take too much out of it. It’s also been quite a long time since we played them back in round one this year so we’re looking at this game with fresh eyes.”

Following a knee injury to star playmaker Angus Sinclair, Fraser was forced to shift centre Harry Burey to flyhalf ahead of the clash against Eastwood.

“Harry has played almost as a second playmaker all year when Angus has been there and he plays that role very well. With Irae (Simone) outside him, the combination between those two remains strong even though it moves in a little tighter and I think they did well on the weekend,” the coach said.

“Their timing was a little off at times but that will only improve this week.”

On the other side of the spectrum, Warringah coach Darren Coleman has named an unchanged side for the very first time this season.

“It’s a bonus to be able to do that. We’ve actually had a pretty bad run with injuries all year but we’ve never had too many in the same position group so we’ve been able to cover it most of the time,” Coleman said.

“This week, we’ve got 29 of our top 30 available for Norths, so that’s a positive.”

Coleman agreed that there was little point spending time talking about last year’s decider but said the battle at the breakdown would be important once again.

Norths welcomed back Waratahs No.7 and 2016 Catchpole Medal winner Will Miller ahead of the finals and Coleman said Warringah will rely on physicality of their back row – Tom Preece, Mahe Vailanu and Sam Ward – to secure their own ball.

“Miller and a few others like to get their hands on the ball at the breakdown so it will be interesting to see how the referee interprets things.”

“For us to win, we just need to keep our error rate low. It sounds simplistic but when we control the ball, we score points and win games.”

“We don’t need to change anything because of the occasion.”

Norths host Warringah at North Sydney Oval on Sunday afternoon.

Northern Suburbs (1-15)

Ezra Luxton, Sam Kitchen, Dan Solofa, Connor Vest, Hugh Sinclair, Taylor Francis, Will Miller, Gary Bautz, Nick Duffy, Harry Burey, Lochie Creagh, Irae Simone, Cam Clark, Richard Woolf, Sam Giltrap.

Warringah (1-15)

Rory O’Connor, Luke Holmes, Harry Rorke, Sam Thomson, Jack Tomkins, Tom Preece, Mahe Vailanu, Sam Ward, Josh Holmes, Hamish Angus, Esera Chee-Kam, Sailosi Tagicakibau, Seb Wileman, Tyson Davis, Dave Feltscheer.