Hanwood will have to do it the hard way if they are to defend their Pascoe Cup title, starting with a an elimination final against Young in Wagga on Sunday.

The defending champions will be without leading striker Daniel Johnson and Jordan Beltrame as they serve one-game suspensions.

Agresta has faith in Hanwood's ability to defend their title but admits they are looking no further than Sunday's sudden-death final against Young.

"Yeah absolutely, we've obviously got to get through this week first. That's first and foremost and we can't look too far ahead," Agresta said.

"I think whoever gets through this week will be pretty confident going forward because obviously you win this one and you've got a bit of momentum going forward.

"Last year we had it a bit more comfortable, we had the double chance and went straight in, this year we're going to have to dig deep and we're definitely going to see what the squad's made of."

Young enters finals in good form and are one of the few Football Wagga clubs that boast a strong record against Hanwood.

The two teams have met three times over the past two seasons for two draws in Griffith, and a Young win at home.

Agresta concedes that makes Hanwood's task even more challenging.

"In the two years we've been in the comp, we haven't beaten them yet. They've had the wood on us that's for sure," he said.

"We drew earlier this year. It was a good even game and we're expecting another tight tussle.

"They're a good even side, they push the ball around pretty well and got a couple of quick boys up front that can get you on the counter, and on the breaks so we're going to have to be careful of that.

"They're pretty solid across the park so they're going to be a tricky opposition that's for sure."

As for replacements for Johnson and Beltrame and how Hanwood will line-up, Agresta is still weighing up his options.

"It's not ideal, it's going to make it that bit trickier for us but we've got to go with what we've got. I'm still confident we've got a good enough team and a good enough squad," he said.

"If we have to bring up a couple of reserve graders or even our third grade, they finished on top, there's a couple of good young kids there that we may look to bring up, whether it's on the bench or whatever. We've been tinkering around and we'll see what we can come up with."

Agresta does not believe finding goals, in the absence of Johnson, should be too big of a concern.

"We've got Michael Cimador, who obviously scored the two goals in the last game. He can score goals for us," he said.

"Nathan Battochio is another one, he's pretty mobile and pretty quick up front as well.

"I'm still unsure as to how we exactly go about it, whether we tinker with our formation a bit to change things up or put a few people in different positions, we'll see how we go."

Another challenge for Hanwood is the fact they haven't played since September 13. They had the bye in the final rescheduled round and then missed the next two weekends like the rest of the Pascoe Cup finalists.

"Between the suspensions and a couple of niggles we had, if we had of played the following week it could have been very tricky," Agresta said.

"In a sense it's probably given us a bit of time to freshen a couple of boys up and get a couple of niggles out of the way hopefully.

"Hopefully it will help us with getting a pretty good team on the park this week."

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