Catherine McAuley College will chase its first School Sports Victoria Football Premier League premiership in five years when it tackles Warrnambool's Emmanuel College in Wednesday's grand final in Ballarat.
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CMC's last premiership was in 2019 with that squad headed by Western Bulldogs midfielder Harvey Gallagher and Northern Bullants VFL player Will Wallace.
Recent history is against coach Lee Coghlan and his players, with Emmanuel College defeating CMC in a grand final and semi-final in the past three years.
"In my time as coach I think this year's squad is right up with the most even spread of talent,'' Coghlan said.
"I feel as though we have a lot of depth in our list and across the board we have really good combinations of inside and outside players.
"We have players that can play small and can play tall and a midfield group that is really cohesive.
"I'm really confident we will be at least in the fight and really hopeful we can take it out."
CMC cruised through the preliminary rounds undefeated and advanced to the grand final on the back of a dominant semi-final win over Rowville Secondary College.
The 11.14 (80) to 3.6 (24) victory showed just how well the school team has come together as a group.
"Having a playing group that really buys in to wanting to get the most out of it from a team perspective is half the battle,'' Coghlan said.
"We're lucky that these boys have largely been going to school together since Year 7, so they have developed that camaraderie and the passion for playing in a team.
"They play for different clubs on a Saturday and in club footy they might be the main player in their team, but when it comes to school footy that mightn't be the case and they have a role to play.
"They might normally be centre half-forward, but in school footy they might be full-back. They could be a midfielder on a Saturday, but we might need them to play as a pressure forward. The trick is harnessing everyone's talent and getting them to play team footy.
"It's similar to inter-league footy, I guess."
CMC basically has a full squad for Wednesday's final except for classy duo Tobie Travaglia and Archer Day-Wicks, who have commitments with Victoria Country at the National Under-18 Championships this weekend.
"We have a couple of other players who have niggling injuries who are going to test themselves at club training,'' Coghlan said.
"Hopefully, they get up to play, but if they don't I'm confident we have the depth in our group to get the job done."
Wednesday's game at Mars Stadium in Ballarat starts at 12.30pm. The match will be streamed live by School Sport Victoria.
CMC squad to play Emmanuel College.
B: Henry Edwards, Ben Miller, Hugh Behrens
Hb: Gus Hay, Deakin Andrews, Jaidi Jackson-Leahy
C: Charlie King, Oliver Morris, Oscar Cail
Hf: Shannon Tardrew, Daniel Noden, Logan Kilcullen
F: Xavier Grant, Wil Pinniger, Oliver Edmiston
Foll: Isaac Meersbergen, Jack McMahon, Patrick Blake
Inter: Bailey Warfe, Kobi MacDonald, Harvey White, Declan Stevenson, Zane Connick, Charlie Duke.
