That was Cootamundra coach Luke Webb’s game plan against the Goulburn Swans that saw his side prevail 84-61 at the Gungahlin Enclosed Oval on Saturday.

They now head straight to the Canberra Division Three grand-final in two weeks time.

For the Swans, their road to the final becomes a lot harder. They will now face the Yass Roos this coming Saturday in a preliminary final.

But it could have easily have gone the other way.

The two sides had gone tic-for-tac all afternoon, with no real lead for either side until the Blues put on a three goal onslaught early in the final term.

Just like Webb’s game plan, the Blues pressured ball carriers and got numbers to the contests.

“Goulburn is such a skilful side,” Webb said.

“If there’s no pressure on their kicks, they’ll kick target after target, and that’s too hard to just keep chasing tail all day, you have to pressure their kickers and just follow up.”

His counterpart, Swans coach Steve Armstrong was aware the game went down to the wire.

After dominating the third quarter it looked as if the Swans could have continued to run over the top of the Blues. They were only a point down going into the final term.

“The score at the end of the game doesn’t reflect the game and how tight it was. It was a hard, tight contest all the way through,” Armstrong said after the match.

“We were definitely in it but we just didn’t convert when we needed too.”

After the Blues skipped away early in the last, a glimmer of a late Goulburn come-back looked a possibility after Heath Russell kicked a goal halfway through the last quarter to narrow the margin to three goals.

But lost opportunities and failure to convert saw the door slam shut.

“I thought we didn’t work as well as a team then what we did last week. And that comes down to their pressure too,” Armstrong said.

“We just have to be that little bit better under those pressure situations, which is what finals footy is all about.”

The Swans face the Roos this weekend for a chance for a Cootamundra replay in the grand-final.

After the Swans decisively beat the Roos two weeks ago in the first week of the finals, tensions will be high as both sides for all or nothing.

“We worked hard all year to get that double chance. So basically we’ll all walk off as a group with our heads up knowing full well that in two weeks time we’ll be here again,” Armstrong said.