Oak Flats finished dead last in the 2017-18 South Coast Cricket competition.
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They won just two matches all season.
Captain Scott McAndrew described the season as one of the toughest he's endured.
Now, just one year later, they're through to the South Coast Cricket grand final.
The Rats punched their ticket to next week's decider after overcoming a Kookas fightback on Sunday to claim a 44-run victory in their semi-final.
McAndrew said it was a credit to his side's character that they were able to bounce back from such a disappointing season last year to be within one win of a title.
"After coming last last year, to make the grand final is huge," McAndrew said. "It was a tough season last year. It was the most losses I've been through. As the losses build up, you do think it's a rough way to spend your Saturday, but we are a close group and we enjoyed each other's company.
"We've still got eight of the same players as last year and I don't think we were as bad as the results showed, we never got smashed. We've welcomed Brynley Richards back, a club junior, and added Brett Gilly and Stuart Tobin, who are three quality players and have been a massive gain for us."
While McAndrew knew the team would recover this season, he does concede he didn't expect the side would play in all three finals.
The Rats fell to Lake Illawarra in both the Twenty20 and one-day finals and McAndrew said the squad is determined to ensure they take out the two-day final when the two teams resume hostilities next weekend.
"Our self-belief and character has been tested, we were against Lake Illawarra in the two-day match and again today, but we keep passing tests and now we're hoping to go one step further."
The Rats looked set to cruise to victory after a dominant opening day in which Tobin and Gilly each scored 48 to lead the side to 217, before the bowlers tore through the Kookas batsmen in a punishing 24-over spell before stumps.
Matt Meikle was the pick of the unit, taking three, to ensure Kookas were in damage control at 6-35 at stumps.
Experienced batsmen Darren O'Connell and Craig Bramble led a rearguard action on Sunday, joining forces to give Kookas an outside chance of pulling off the victory.
It was not to be, however, with Oak Flats eventually breaking the partnership and bowling Kookas out for 173.
With his team made to work for the victory, McAndrew was pleased the Rats kept grinding away until finally they made the breakthrough and quickly finished off the job.
"They still had Darren to bat and Craig still batting," McAndrew said. "They're two guys who are always going to put a price on their wicket, they have a lot of experience and they batted really well on Sunday. They toughed it out and we really had to fight to break through.
"Once we finally broke that partnership, we knew we had it and rolled through. Full credit to them though, they fought hard and it was a really tough game."
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