On Saturday, all roads lead to Inverness's Bught Park where Inveraray and Fort William will meet in the 100th Camanachd Cup final.
The sport's grandest occasion is being held in Inverness because 2007 is the year of Highland Culture, but all has not gone smoothly.
Damage caused by the European Pipe Band Championships in July has meant Bught Park has been closed to shinty players.
Meanwhile in Inveraray, damage caused to their pitch by a rock festival means the Argyll side have been unable to prepare for the big day on their home field.
There is no recent form book because the poor summer weather has meant there has been no league meeting between the two sides, but while Fort William have been the form team this season having put Kingussie to the sword 5-0 in the semi-final, Inveraray were in the same underdog situation three years when a Ewan McMurdo goal was enough to beat Fort William and take the cup to Lochfyneside after a gap of 74 years.
The smart money remains on Fort William, however, due to their strength in the middle of the field. where Gary Innes, Chris Bamber and Niall Macphee, are three forceful players who are fast, fit and also big.
Inveraray are fast and positionally aware but while fans love the way they weave intricate knots of endless possession, the forwards often give the impression they love the art of stick-craft rather than the goals it should bring.
Having added Ballachulish native John Macdonald to their front line this season, Fort William quite simply have become a more focused side. They will also be out to convince their fans that they are a team fit to take over the mantle of Kingussie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article