They will now face Central in the league decider this coming Saturday at the Lyneham Hockey Centre.

The victory puts the side only one step away from taking out the competition in their debut season, an achievement not even coach Steve Downey thought possible at the start of the year.

But there is now a firm belief that the side can go all the way.

Goulburn’s main weapon, not including the plethora of hockey talent including he likes of Australian Kookaburra Glenn Turner, has always been their fitness.

Downey says their fitness focused pre-season has been the key to their success this season.

“We worked on our fitness for a whole 10 weeks before we even picked up a stick,” Downey told the Post.

“And now it’s really paying off. We have got all the run and we’re running out teams late in games.”

But fitness isn’t everything. After Goulburn had gone down, at one stage 5-1, in their game against Central the week before, Downey made sure his troops came out of the blocks firing against Old Canberrans.

Even with Old Canberrans snatching a goal in the opening minutes, Goulburn was able to put a flurry of three goals in the opposition net before half-time thanks to Dean Evans, Glenn Turner and Aaron Kershaw.

Come the second-half, Old Canberrans as expected fought back and narrowed the margin to 3-2 early in the half after persistent attacking pressure.

But like Downey had spoken of, the Goulburn run proved the tipping point. Old Canberrans gassed and Goulburn ran out the half strong, shooting to a 4-2 lead through Aaron Kershaw off a penalty corner.

It could very well have been 5-2 but a goal in the last second of the game from Glenn Turner was deemed post siren.

“I thought we controlled the game from the start to finish,” Downey said.

“We knew we couldn’t afford another slow start and I talked to the boys about wanting to lead from the front. It’s something you can talk about but the hard part is making it happen so I’m glad to see it executed.”

It will be another late afternoon match against Central, with the grand-final kicking off at the Lyneham Hockey Centre at 3.45pm this Saturday.