Shoalhaven and Avondale favourites in their do-or-die Illawarra rugby finals

Shoalies were deserving winners of the Illawarra District Rugby Union competition minor premiership this season.

But because of the big wet this season's finals series runs for only two weeks.

So unlike in previous seasons, the minor premiers don't get the luxury of a second chance or even week off. They will have to play an elimination final against Shamrocks at Shoalhaven Rugby Park on Saturday afternoon.

The winner will progress straight to the grand final, where they will meet the victor of the Avondale v Tech Tahs semifinal at Woonona's Ocean Park on Sunday.

Shoalhaven player-coach Miller has no intention of dropping the ball now and has set his sights on guiding his side to grand final glory.

But Miller is wary of the challenges of winning a do-or-die semifinal against a Shamrocks outfit he rates highly.

"A lot of minor premiers get knocked out...it's a completely different game now," he said.

"At the start of a season you're always wanting to win the comp, now that it's actually happened we just have to keep building and not get too far ahead of ourselves.

"In finals footy you can't take anything lightly, it's do or die, and it'll be exciting to see how the boys react to that."

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Shoalhaven had the better of Shamrocks in both contests this season, dispatching them 50-0 and 40-7 home and away respectively.

But Miller has no plans on underestimating the "hard-working and talented" Shamrocks.

His counterpart Paul Ridgeway is backing his Shamrocks side to give a good account of themselves against the Shoalies.

Speaking to the Mercury after his team's last-start loss to Tech-Tahs, Ridgeway said Shoalhaven deserved to be favourites but his chargers would be doing all they could to score an upset win.

"They are a very good side. They didn't finish first by luck but we won't back down. We will show up on Saturday and do our best and hope to get the win," he said.

Ridgeway will be sweating on the availability of star duo Jesse Parahi and No 6 Tyreece George, who came off injured in the loss to the Tahs.

"It's a knockout final, anything can happen ," he said.

"Shoalhaven are a high quality team and we will be going down there with a lot of respect for that but we will just put our best foot forward and work on the strengths that we've got and see how we go."

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In the other semifinal on Sunday, Avondale will be gunning for their seventh win on the trot when they battle Tech-Tahs at Ocean Park.

The Joe Aiona-coached Wombats head into the grand final qualifier well rested, after not playing last week due to a Vikings forfeit.

They are also in red-hot form, with their last loss coming at the hands of the premiers Shoalhaven on June 25.

About a month later though Avondale handed Shoalies only their second loss of the season, downing them 31-12.

Their winning streak also includes a 34-14 victory over the Tech-Tahs. The Tahs team coached by Matt Evans did however beat Avondale 29-7 the first time they played this season.

"Avondale are a really good team. It is going to be a big challenge to beat them," Evans said moments after his side secured third position with a win over Shamrocks.

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