After a tough start to the season Stroud/Clarence Town managed to pull together, according to their coach Blake Birch.

"It was a pretty slow start to the year with both teams not being able to field their own team. We weren't quite sure what sort of numbers we were going to get," Birch said.

"To get the minor premiership is a bit of an achievement."

When the teams decided to join forces for the season due to the shared issue of low numbers most of the younger players were able to adapt however, there were some issues with older players according to Birch.

However, after some team-building exercises the teams ended up bonding pretty well and coming together to form a formidable team.

"We had a few beers together and spoke through what we thought was going to happen. Once the players and coaches were on board it was just the board members that we needed to get over the line," Birch said.

Despite this, Stroud/Clarence Town faced a few challenges along the way to becoming minor premiers, according to Birch.

Wet weather restricted the amount of games that the team could play throughout the year, meaning that Stroud/Clarence Town had to make every game count. They were not alone in this as it was something that every team went through.

"We didn't have many home games throughout the year. We had a lot of forfeits against us," Birch said.

"The games we did have at home we really put a big emphasis on playing well. Unfortunately we couldn't do that for Stroud's Old Boys day and that really burnt us."

As the semi-finals rapidly approach, Birch is just trying to get his team to maintain match fitness after not playing over the past nine weeks due to forfeits and wet weather.

"We've been working a lot on our fitness, training three times a week," he said.

"Nothing compares to match fitness but we're doing our best to make sure we put ourselves in a good spot."

Birch is also drilling Stroud/Clarence Town with ball control.

If they win, Birch is looking forward to a joint town celebration.

"It's getting to the stage now where we've got a few older blokes that probably won't pull on the boots next year so it would be quite a big celebration," he said.

"As the season concludes, Birch is just proud of the camaraderie that has formed between the two clubs and sees it as a reminder not to hate the team you're up against.

"A lot of the players are really proud of how close we've gotten as a group," Birch said.

Times and dates for the semi-finals are yet to be determined.