Narrabri has been arguably the form team of the competition and topped the western conference.

Its also got home advantage for its semi-final clash.

“We’ve got a big hurdle in Narrabri,” Armidale chairman of selectors Doug Moore said.

“They’ve earnt the right to be number one.”

“They haven’t been beaten this year.”

Dumaresq too had been travelling well until a last round stumble against Tamworth.

It cost the Colts a home semi.

They have named a young side for their Narrabri sojourn although all have played at some stage of the season.

“We’ve had plenty of depth with all these kids this year,” Moore said.

“It looks like we’ve got a pretty good side.”

It’s not a full strength side with Luke Brown, Luke Webster, Stami Donovan and Andrew Skinner all unavailable, but Moore is confident in the players coming in for them and that they can do the job.

“I think we’ve shown this year what these kids are capable of,” Moore said.

“It’s a matter of putting a bit of consistency together.”

One of the things he likes the look of is opening batsmen Aaron Whackett and Michael Dawson.

They are both young, inexperienced and have got a lot to learn, but they’ve done some good things and the early indications are of a promising future.

“If we can get a good start with them that will set a platform,” Moore said.

They’ve got some handly batsmen to follow them in.

“Hugh Reeves has been in good form with club and rep, along with Matt Wykniet,” Moore said.

He is confident in their batting and their fielding and felt they were probably pretty well matched with Narrabri there.

“It’ll come down to who has the best discipline with the bowling,” he said.

That’s an area where the Colts need to pick up their game.

“We can bowl a lot better than we did against Tamworth,” Moore said.

It was a disappointing effort, but something that has carried through from club level.