Having dropped one game all season to claim the minor premiership, Wollongong are hot favourites to defend their crown, but still face an imposing threat from long-time foes Perth in the major semi-final.

"Throughout the season all we want to do is finish top two so you get a chance to go straight through to the grand final if you win," Paralympian Brett Stibners said.

"Now it's all about winning that first game against Perth and our focus is on what we can do and what we can control."

The winner moves straight into Sunday's decider, while the loser must then beat either Kilsyth or Queensland Spinning Bullets, the only team to take a game off the Hawks all season, in Saturday's preliminary final.

Hawks teammate Luke Pople was wary of stopping the presence of Michael Auprince, who has tasted success with Wollongong in the past, and Shaun Norris.

The Hawks won three straight sudden-death finals last year to win the title.

"We know we've beaten them but we also know that we want the day off on Saturday. We don't want to do it like we did last year which was the hard way." Pople said.

"They've got the biggest player and the best player in the world, so we need to stop them and when we do we have three other guys we have to guard as well.

. They're going to be tough, they're going to be pushing and they're going to have some players back from the women's league so they're going to be really strong and they're going to push us."

NATIONAL WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL LEAGUE

Friday at Carina, Queensland

Major semi-final: WOLLONGONG v PERTH (8pm)

Saturday (3.30pm): Preliminary final

Sunday (2pm): Grand final.

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