But even he admits "it would be nice to get one back" on Newcastle Olympic on Saturday night in their semi-final at Magic Park.

Traditional rivals Broadmeadow and Olympic meet in the second versus third play-off at 6:30pm for the chance to play premiers Edgeworth the following weekend for the first spot in the Northern NSW NPL grand final.

For Runge, a former Newcastle and Central Coast youth player who was also at Weston, the match-up takes on even more significance.

Runge returned from a season with Dandenong in the Victorian NPL and linked with Olympic before they secured Nate Cavaliere from Edgeworth in the week of the scheduled competition start in March.

The season kick-off was delayed because of COVID-19 and Runge found his way to Broadmeadow, where he was back-up to Lachlan Watson before coach Anthony Richards gave him a chance in round nine against Adamstown.

The 21-year-old has kept the No.1 position and he was excited to be part of the derby semi-final.

"It's going to be a big game, not just for me personally, but for the two clubs, with the history they have," Runge said.

"It's always a really good game and I remember watching those games when I wasn't a player for one of the teams. The crowd was always getting into it and there was a buzz about it.

"We are treating it like any other game and we know if we play like we can, we are better than any team in the comp. We know we'll be up for it so hopefully we can put our best foot forward.

"For me personally, it would be nice to get one back, but I don't really hold grudges. I'm not that sort of guy and being a young goalkeeper, you've got to take those knock arounds. It's character building and you've got to have thick skin being young in the NPL."

Despite gaining the starting spot, Runge is unsure if he will be part of incoming coach Damian Zane's plans at Magic next year. Watson, meanwhile, will join Maitland, who are losing Matt Trott to retirement.

"I'm not too sure what Zaney's going to do and there's always rumours circulating about players coming and going," Runge said. "But I just know a lot of us are pretty keen to finish a pretty weird year off and do it for Richo.

"He's been really good to us. He's come in and done a really good job and we want to go as far as we can for him because he's obviously not going to be there next year. We're all backing him to the hilt because he's such a great guy on and off the field.

"Next year, I'm a big believer in that if you play well, it will sort itself out. The offers will come."

Runge said he used his experience as the back-up keeper for Dandenong last year to get the starting spot at Magic.

"It's obviously part of being a young keeper, you've got to bide your time and I think I learned a lot in Melbourne when I was the No.2 there for the year," he said.

"I think I matured a lot off the field but also on it in terms of being patient. Watto was doing well but then Richo made the call to throw me in, and the first game against Adamstown was the first first-grade game I'd played since I was at Weston when I was 18.

"I've just been building confidence every week and it's good to have guys like Jonny Griff, Luke Chill and Ryan Ensor playing in front of you. It makes my job a lot easier."

Runge said he came to Broadmeadow because of his friendship with Ruben Zadkovich, who was head coach at Magic before stepping aside this year.

"It was pretty hectic at the start, just with the whole saga when Olympic happened, but I was pretty lucky that I've always been close to Rubes," he said.

"There were a couple of times where I was close to going there over the years but I thought it would be best to try and get game time instead of maybe playing second fiddle to Bitzy [Paul Bitz], who was obviously playing well.

"But when it all happened at Olympic, I didn't even know Bitzy had retired, but I gave Rubes a ring to let him know what was going on and a week or two later I was at Magic, so I was pretty happy with that because they are such a great club."

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