Pirates are undaunted by the challenge ahead of them after scraping into the finals by the barest of margins.
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The premiers went into the final round needing two things to happen.
Firstly they needed to beat Barraba with a bonus point. They then needed either Gunnedah or Moree to lose, the latter with one bonus point at the most.
Conrad Starr was in ominous form as they took care of the first, the skipper crossing for five tries to lead them to a resounding 57-15 victory.
The second was a bit more precarious.
It came down to virtually three points in the end with Moree falling to Narrabri by 11.
There were some nervous moments with the Bulls at a few stages during the game looking on track to take two points away from the game, which would have put them level with Pirates on points but ahead on wins.
Being kept abreast of what was happening in the other games, the overriding emotion for Pirates coach Mat Kelly afterwards was "relief".
"We're by no means ready for the season to be over and we're ready for Gunnedah now," he said.
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On Saturday they shot out of the blocks, Wes Rooney crossing just six minutes in.
Starr then crossed three times before half-time as they jumped out to a 33-nil lead at the break.
"We did pull up stumps there," Kelly said.
"They (Barraba) came back at us straight after half-time."
But they were able to click back into gear again scoring three tries in the last 15 minutes.
Kelly was most impressed with their commitment.
"We knew what we were up against and we knew what we had to do," he said.
Their support play was also very good, although there were still times where they fell off the pace a bit.
Another encouraging sign on the eve of the finals was the performance of half-back Richie O'Halloran and five-eighth Sam Collins.
Kelly rated them along with Starr as his sides best.
"The eight, nine and 10 is critical for any team and it's nice to see ours combining well," he said.
Finishing fourth means they won't have a home final and won't have the luxury of a second chance as they have in recent years.
But that isn't bothering the three-times defending champions.
"We've done it the hard way before - when we beat Walcha (in 2012)," Kelly recalled.
"A lot of the boys played in that with me."
