They may have just endured their first one-day loss of the season, but Rovers United Bruck are still the team to beat.

The Hawks will be looking to brush off their recent poor result by triumphing in the last round of the regular season.

RUB are set to take on fellow contenders Ovens Valley United this weekend at Myrtleford’s McNamara Reserve, and it’s shaping up to be the start of a two-match in-season mini-series.

Given the ladder is highly unlikely to change based on this weekend’s matches, the first-placed Hawks will likely face fourth-ranked Ovens Valley United next week in the first round of the finals.

A win this weekend would go a long way in inflicting psychological damage ahead of the cutthroat semis.

Hawks captain Jeremy Wilson said even though the first match with the Tigers was essentially a dead rubber, the side wouldn’t be holding back.

“It’s important, the way the ladder might fall is we might play Ovens two weeks in a row, so if we can go up there and get the job done, it gives the boys plenty of confidence heading into next week,” he said.

“On the flip side, it probably sows the seed that to the Ovens boys that if they don’t beat us, they’ve got to go back to the drawing board, it’s not a lot of time to get it right.

“Whoever wins is going to go into finals a bit more confident than they would have, I suppose.

“We haven’t overcomplicated anything this year, and now’s not the time to play with that sort of stuff.

“The line-up’s pretty well settled, we’ll get one back this week, but I can’t imagine we’ll be mucking around too much.

“It’s just a matter of getting in, posting a good score batting first, then doing what we do with the ball.”

The match against the Tigers is the perfect chance to cleanse the palate after their five-wicket loss last weekend.

“I think we had five or six blokes score between 10 and 20, and you’re just not going to win games of cricket when you do that,” Wilson said.

“In saying that, we were a bit light on numbers-wise, but the way the boys bowled, we had them 5/90 - there were a couple of chances we just didn’t grab and it allowed Magpies to finish off.

“The loss was disappointing, but it’s not the be all and end all.

“Obviously, we put the hard yards in early and gave ourselves a three-game buffer.

“A loss like that probably isn’t the worst thing coming into finals.”

The Hawks head to McNamara Reserve to take on the Tigers on Saturday from 12.30pm.