Nailbiter on cards
ONE team is chasing a third straight premiership while the other is looking to make history in their first decider.
But both Saints and Neptunes can agree that tonight’s Townsville City Netball premier league grand final at Townsville Stadium will be a nailbiter.
Saints and Neptunes are the last two teams standing after an epic finals series which saw them both advance to the decider with thrilling one- goal victories.
Neptunes know it won’t be easy to take down the powerhouse Saints outfit, but after knocking off minor premiers Burdekin to make their first grand final, captain Brady Smith said there was a strong sense of belief within the playing group.
“It’s just that confidence to know that we can push it all the way through,” she said.
“We probably want to capitalise a little bit more than what we did ( against Burdekin) to win by a slightly bigger margin, but we’re always prepared for a close game with the comp this season.
“We’re all a little bit nervous, but mostly excited. I don’t think there’ll be much in it.”
Saints are no strangers to the big stage, having won the past two titles, but they’ve had to take the hard road to this year’s grand final after finishing third on the ladder.
In fact, they almost let their shot at a “threepeat” slip away in the preliminary final as Burdekin fought back from 10 goals down in the third quarter.
Saints captain Carly Bryant admitted that wasn’t the ideal preparation for a grand final, but she was confident they wouldn’t have another fourth- quarter lapse against Neptunes.
“We know that if it comes down to it we can still get over the line when we need to,” she said.
“We’ve worked on a few things at training and we’ll put that into the game.”
Bryant is chasing a sixth premiership with Saints to- night alongside fellow club stalwart Alana Glazier.
Saints have had plenty of personnel changes during their title reign, but Bryant was confident they still had the squad to compete with Neptunes.
“We’re pretty confident, but we’ve got a pretty different team from last year and the year before. We’re very different in the attacking end, but we should still be able to do it,” she said.
“It’s a bit of an unknown ( tonight) because we’ve played each other three times this season, but neither team’s had their full squad available. It’ll be interesting to see how we go.”