The Phantoms, who finished fourth, will take on the third-placed Cobras for a place in the preliminary final.

Team captain Tim Popple said the Phantoms would back themselves after a promising finish to the regular season.

“We had a few changes in-house and we’ve got a really positive outlook on everything now,” he said.

“It’s made a massive difference to the team on and off the court and obviously the results are showing that.”

Popple said a team training camp at the weekend had proved beneficial.

“We had a really good training session in Bendigo on Sunday,” he said. 

“We worked out a couple of game plans and trained to those plans, so everyone’s on the same page.”

The Phantoms have won three of their past five games, as have the Cobras. Popple said the final would be played as a best-of-five-set contest with no time limit.

In the sides’ previous two meetings in May, the Phantoms won one game three-nil and the Cobras won the other three-nil.

Popple said previous results would count for nothing.

“They didn’t have their full side and we didn’t have our full side,” he said. 

Popple said the team – in its third consecutive finals series – believed it could go all the way. 

“We’re thereabouts,” he said.

“We certainly have the ability to beat every team in the division.

“We can only control how we play – and we’ll be taking it one game at a time.”

Team: Tim Popple, Ashby Smith, Adrian Fox, Trent Branson, Liam Hermans, Dustin Freckleton, Jack Hannan, Zac Hermans, Ben Hassell; Paul Freckleton, coach, Chris Hermans, assistant.