But he's confident, this year things will be different.

For all their dominance of Illawarra Rugby, Avondale have struggled to triumph on the biggest day of the season, with the Wombats winning just three of the eight grand finals they've played in throughout the past 11 years.

Aiono acknowledges his team has had their issues on the competition's biggest stage, but he said they have learnt from past experiences.

"I've addressed the boys about that," Aiono said. "I wasn't too worried about what we do during the season, it's coming to the back end where we put too much pressure on ourselves.

"But we've got good, old heads in the squad, we've spoken about it and there's a good feeling in the squad at the moment."

The most recent of Avondale's grand final defeats came just a year ago, when Bowral turned a 43-11 major semi-final loss into a 34-18 victory at WIN Stadium.

Read more: Shamrocks riding the wave in pursuit of Illawarra Rugby Union premiership

The Wombats were below their best on that occasion, but Aiono said his team has spent no time dwelling on the performance. Instead, they have focused on what they need to do on Saturday to overcome Shamrocks.

"The boys are not thinking back to last year. We've bought into this year for the boys, we don't want to think about past games, the focus is on this one.

"We've just got to play how we played all year. Stick to our defensive and attacking structures, play the full 80 minutes. Shamrocks are fit and fast, we've got to play our game and be ourselves."

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