Leagues fell to Hanwood after a tough two-day battle in the qualifying final, while Diggers were able to keep their season alive when they knocked out defending premiers Coro Cougars.

Tom Valeri played a starring role with an unbeaten 83, and Diggers captain Trevor Richards said it was pleasing to see Valeri show some of his potential.

"It was probably the best Tommy has batted all year, but we have always known he has that capability, but he just put his head down on the weekend and batted sensationally," he said.

"Hopefully, he can back it up again this weekend. Obviously, we would have liked to more people to score runs on the weekend to not put all the pressure on him, but it was good to see him put his hand up."

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The most pleasing thing for Richards was the bowling performance which restricted Coro to just 109, and knows his side will have to replicate that performance against the minor premiers.

"Ash Verhagen bowled really well as did Doss (Daniel Dossiter)," he said.

"I don't think we had a bowler that didn't bowl well. Even if they didn't pick up wickets, they were bowling nice and tight, which restricted the runs.

"They (Leagues) have been playing good cricket all year, and they will be a tough ask again. If we can front up with the same attitude as last weekend and perform like we did, we will give ourselves a reasonably good chance."

The Diggers line up will be bolstered by the return of Luke, and Matthew Peruzzi and the Diggers skipper knows Luke will be a key inclusion.

"Luke has opened the batting for us all year and done an admirable job," he said.

"As far as bowling goes, he has probably been close to our best bowler all year. He never goes for a lot of runs, and he gets key wickets which is a big thing for us, and he can bowl long spells.

"We have a fairly long bowling list, so we have options, but if Luke is bowling well, you can just let him keep going."

Leagues will also be welcoming back some key players for the crucial clash with Daniel Bozic set to return after being a late withdrawal last weekend, while Paul Plummer looks set to return from a hamstring issue picked up against the Cougars three weeks ago.

In the meetings between the two side sees the wins split at a win apiece with two washouts. Diggers took the most recent clash, but Leagues were without captain Jimmy Binks.

Day one will get underway at 1.30pm on Saturday.

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