Nedlands has booked a Pindan Premier Grade grand final berth with a 27-11 win over Cottesloe in the major semi-final at Pat O’Hara Reserve this afternoon.

The result gives Nedlands a week off while Cottesloe will go into a sudden-death showdown against the winner of tomorrow’s minor semi-final between Palmyra and Wests Scarborough.

Nedlands’ Ryan Mcloud was a clear man of the match, with the centre’s explosive power on display in the gloomy conditions.

However, he wasn’t alone as the forwards unit battled hard to construct two tries from rolling mauls against a tiring Gulls pack.

Nedlands coach Tony Ball says the physicality of his team in defence was the key to winning the game.

“We knocked them over every time they came at us and we’re rapt to be in another grand final,” he said.

“When you get camped on your own goal line and come away without giving up points, its massive for the team.”

With a week off before the grand final, Ball has no intentions of allowing his troops to put their feet up and enjoy the break.

“We’ll be training pretty hard; we have a few areas to work on and our penalty count was pretty bad today so that’s something we have to fix.”

Cottesloe boss Ian Fowler was frustrated by his team going unrewarded for an extended stint inside the Nedlands quarter.

“We spent 10 minutes in the attacking area [and] got seven penalties, I don’t know how they still had 15 blokes on the field,” he said.

The tone was set in the opening minutes when Emirates Western Force representative Patrick Dellit crossed for opener, but not before Mcloud had bulldozed over Cottesloe captain Jarrett Budworth on a crash ball, forcing the Gulls skipper to leave the field shortly after as a result.

Cottesloe responded immediately when Sean Martin piloted home two quick-fire penalty goals in the blustery conditions to give his side the lead.

The early arm-wrestle continued with a Fred Tuua penalty goal, however, Nedlands scored a second try when a perfectly executed rolling maul concluded with Krysten Lawrence dropping over the try line, to give Neddies a 15-6 lead at the break.

Nedlands’ third try came in a remarkably similar fashion, although this time Richard Naylor rose with the ball in hand and a 20-6 lead.

However, the Gulls found a way to first stall and then seize momentum.

After 15 minutes and several penalties inside the Nedlands quarter, Cottesloe appeared destined to score but were cruelly denied by a stoic defence.

When Mcloud burst through the midfield from a set piece, Nedlands were away down field again with front-foot ball opening the door for scrumhalf Michael Ruru to slide through for his side’s fourth.

Cottesloe finally took some reward for second half effort as a well-worked Nick Haining try provided the Gulls with a silver lining going forward i