The Wests Rosellas bench forward has been in nine of them. Just don't ask him what it takes to win one because you'll draw a blank. His record stands at 0 from 9.

And then there is the bloke he works with every day at Wambo mine at Warkworth in the Hunter Valley. Cessnock coach Todd Edwards has been to the big dance five times in first grade without finishing on the right side of the ledger.

On four of those occasions, it was with the Goannas in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 with Lantry in the team. Twice ['08 and'12], they were beaten in thrillers by the Rosellas.

Now, for the first time, they are in opposing sides on the big day, ensuring at least one of them will break his duck.

"Todd doesn't come underground anymore but our baskets are right next to each other so we are about a metre apart when we get dressed of a morning," Lantry said.

"We haven't said too much about it this week. We've been all good, pretty quiet but there has been a lot of banter thrown around among the boys at work who have been giving us stick as you can imagine."

Lantry, who lives at Adamstown Heights, only joined the Rosellas this season after coaching the Goannas in 2018. At the same time, Edwards was guiding Lakes to the decider. After just avoiding the wooden spoon, Lantry stood down and he knew Edwards was the right bloke to come back in and take over.

"The players and talent has been there but Toddy just does what Toddy does - gets people clicking and gets people going in the right direction," he said.

"It's probably something I couldn't do but it's his home town and Cessnock hasn't done anything for four or five years and I knew he was the right bloke to get the club back to where they should be."

As for his move to Wests, Lantry said: "I'm loving it. It's a good group of boys who have made me feel really welcome. Everyone looks after you. It's a good culture club. Everyone hates you from the outside but inside, it's very tight so it's good."

Wests will start hot favourites after dropping just two games all season but one was to the Goannas. "It would be nice to finally get over the line in one,"Lantry said.