Hillgrove will be vying for redemption of sorts when they face reigning premiers Easts in a grand final re-match on Saturday.
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Although the two sides will meet, they will be vastly different teams from the ones who faced off in the deciders.
Hillgrove will be missing three key players in batsmen Matt Baillie and Josh Croft, along with Matt Schaefer.
"Crofty and Bails are at a wedding and Schaef is away for a Christmas party," Hillgrove president Dick Heagney said.
"That will hurt us in the batting stakes. We have got Kingy [Brad King] coming back and Sam Johnson coming back so we have really only got the one spot."
Ryan Swann will also come into the team.
Easts' 2018-19 skipper Todd Francis has departed and so has paceman Jackson Gwynne, who tore through Hillgrove's batting line-up for figures of 6-17 in the one-day grand final.
The teenage quick is back in Armidale for the weekend but it is unlikely he will line up.
"If we can squeeze a game that would be ideal but, at this stage, he is not playing," Easts' current captain Sam Uphill said.
After an impressive effort against Guyra last Saturday with both bat and ball, Lochie Elks is also unavailable.
Uphill welcomed the news Baillie is out with the batsman scoring 176 not out in his last stand to be locked in a battle at the top of the table with City's Kyle Taylor for the top run-scorer.
"A big loss for them not having Bails, I think he has scored his runs for the year," Uphill said.
"I reckon Dean Waters will get around both of them [Baillie and Taylor], and you can print that too because I reckon they both read the paper."