Valley won its 10th straight game with a 43-40 nail-biter against Kurow as the Citizens Shield regular season wrapped up on Saturday.
Excelsior cemented second place on the table with a 33-15 win over Maheno, and Old Boys booked their ticket to the playoffs by beating Athletic Marist 36-15.
It means Valley will play Excelsior in one quarterfinal — the loser gets a life — and Old Boys will play Kurow in the other.
Wet conditions and handling errors meant both Athies and Old Boys were held scoreless in the opening quarter.
Athies finally opened the scoring after persistent pressure in the Old Boys 22m when Kase Rawson burrowed his way over.
Epineri Logavatu scored their second a few minutes later after he scooped up a messy lineout throw and crashed over to extend the lead to 10 at the break.
Old Boys needed to start the second 40 strongly and they did.
After a well-organised lineout drive was brought down illegally, they were rewarded with a penalty try.
Tom Lee tied the game up not long after with a penalty.
A little bit of luck was involved in Old Boys’ next try.
After an Athies pass hit the deck, an Old Boys player toed it ahead. It appeared to be covered, but as the Athies defender slid down to pick up the ball, his foot got in the way and kicked the ball towards his own line.
Junior Fakatoufifita was right there waiting and scooped the ball up to dot down.
The dominant patch for Old Boys continued when Sione Finau came in off his wing and crashed over as a one-off runner from the ruck.
Athies needed to hit back fast and did. After some strong carries from their forwards, they were able to spin it wide and put Malakai Tabau in a gap. He had enough pace to dot down in the corner, making it a nine-point game with 10 minutes to go.
Any hopes of an Athies comeback were squashed as Old Boys ran in two late tries.
Tevita Vonotabua finished off a slick backline manoeuvre. Then penalties from Athies gave away easy field position for Old Boys. After a few phases in the opposition 22m, Siaosi Malimali was left unmarked on the blindside and strode his way over.
Just over the hill, Excelsior produced a big second-half effort to beat Maheno.
Nursing a seven-point lead at the break, Blues shifted into second gear and ran in 21 straight points.
Maheno scored two late consolation tries to end its season.
At Weston, Valley was able to complete a perfect regular season, but only just.
Kurow came perilously close to being the first team to beat Valley this year in a high-scoring thriller.
The Red Devils led the whole way until a Rory Bartle try in the 82nd minute broke the hearts of the defending champion.
