Raiders stars Cam Rigby and Mick Hill were part of the Braves 2007 south conference championship team and they remain in regular contact with their former team-mates.

However, the regular text messages or phone calls between Rigby and the likes of Braves coach Ben Harvey and players Warren Randall, Kevin Probert and Pat Jennings won’t be forthcoming until after Saturday night’s decider.

‘‘I had a great time playing with the Braves and I still love catching up with guys,’’ Rigby said.

‘‘I grew up 150 metres from Harvs (Ben Harvey), so I’ve known him since I was a kid. Ben’s dad, Brian, is my personal sponsor here at Knox, so I still have that link.

‘‘We’ll go hard at it for 40 minutes on Saturday night and it’s always good fun to run around against some good mates.’’

Success is no stranger to Rigby or the Raiders.

The Raiders have won three of the past four championships and Saturday night is Rigby’s sixth-conseuctive appearance in a SEABL conference championship game.

In 2004 he won the conference title with Dand-

enong, lost the 2005 grand final with Mildura, had 2006 off, played in Bendigo’s 2007 and 2008 grand final teams, before winning last year with Knox.

Continued – Page 38

Continued – Page 38

This year’s championship quest looked down and out in last Saturday’s preliminary final clash with Kilsyth when the Cobras led the Raiders by 18 points.

The never-say-die attitude of the Raiders came to the fore and they stormed home to win by one point on the back of 41 points from import C.J. Massingale.

‘’We haven’t put together a four-quarter performance yet, which is frustrating for the group,’’ Rigby said.

‘’We’ve got a few veteran heads and we just keep chipping away and putting ourselves into positions where we can have a shot at it at the end.

‘’I think last week out of the 40 minutes we were in front for 38 seconds.