A late inclusion on the team sheet in jumper No. 21, Pellow grabbed a second-half hat-trick in his side's 24-16 win over Thirroul, but it was the third four-pointer that stole the show.

With five minutes left and his side clinging to an 18-16 lead, Pellow reeled in a spiral bomb on his own 10-metre line and raced into the clear, burning the Butchers cover to go the length and score match-winner under the posts.

It was a stunning performance given his season looked over after when he hobbled from the park with a hamstring injury in the Devils penultimate-round loss to the Butchers a month ago.

Throw in a bad bout of flu that saw him drop four kilos and miss his side's minor semi-final win over Helensburgh a fortnight ago and getting on the park at all was remarkable.

It was one of several big plays down the stretch from the Devils with five-eighth Zac Greene - who was none from three off the tee to that point - nailing a clutch sideline conversion of Michael Appleby's try to grab his side's first lead with 13 minutes left.

It came after the Butchers led 10-0 early on the back of tries to Michael Morris and Tom Simpson, and 14-8 on the back of Jack Noble's try 10 minutes into the second stanza.

Pellow delivered the late coup de grace, but coach Pete McLeod was full of praise for his entire 17 for absorbing an early onslaught from the minor premiers.

"Tony was outstanding when he got opportunities, he always is," McLeod said

"It was impressive what he did at the back end but there were eight or nine forwards who worked their arse off there and 17 blokes who were just ready to stand next to each other. That's why they got home.

"That was as tough a game of footy as you'll see. We started behind the 8-ball being down by 10 after 10 minutes but they believe in themselves and they believe in each other.

"You go down 10-0 in a do-or-die game, a lot of teams turn it up but these guys won't. If you're going to beat them you've got fight hard for 80 minutes.

"You might get us at the death but that's the only way you'll get them, they fight really hard for each other. It was just through hard work and effort and every bit of success they get they deserve."

Lock Wade Stanford was a late withdrawal with flu, while skipper Mitch Porter also hobbled off late in the game but McLeod is hopeful of having both on deck for the decider.

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If it proves the case, it will be the first time he's had his full complement of players on deck since round one

"You can only hope they'll all be there but what I can tell you is there'll be 17 blokes that will fight to death for each other next Sunday afternoon and Collies will have to be good to beat us," he said.

It was a tough pill to swallow for the Butchers, who go out in straight sets after finishing minor premiers.

"We gave ourselves plenty of opportunities to win it but we probably didn't capitalise enough in the first half when we were really on top," coach Jarrod Costello said.

"Our last tackle finishes probably let us down a little bit and I thought we could have gone in [to halftime] a bit further ahead but I'm really proud of the effort.

"We had a really disruptive week losing four blokes, we lost the first one Monday morning and the last one on Friday night, but all the guys who played were outstanding.

"We had nine local juniors in that 17 so I'm extremely proud of the way they played, we just weren't good enough to finish it off tonight."

It was also an ant-climactic end for skipper Joel Johnson and stalwart Joel Ruskin who confirmed in the lead-up that this season would be there last.

They could be just two of a number to depart, with next season shaping as a changing of the guard for the Butchers, with Costello planning to stay on.

"I'd like to go again, Johnno and I started something a few years ago that we're still building to," Costello said.

"Johnno and Rusko have both announced they're finishing up, hopefully we can hang onto the rest and get it done next season.

Johnno's been the best No. 9 in the comp, and probably country rugby league, by a country mile for five or six years. There's no garbage in his game he just plays really tough footy.

"Rusko's the same, he's as tough as any front-rower in the comp, there's no carry on with hos he carries himself. They're really good players and even better blokes and I wish those guys all the best."