Neptunes, Saints push rivalry sky- high
NEPTUNES and Saints will take their burgeoning rivalry up a notch tonight in the Townsville City Netball Premier League grand final.
The clash at the Townsville Basketball Stadium will be a rematch of last year’s decider, when Neptunes clinched a last- gasp 46- 45 win to seal their first premiership.
It was a huge moment for the club and Neptunes captain Brady Smith said they were keen to prove it was no fluke with another grand- final victory.
“It would just mean a lot to the club. We try to develop from within the club and even just being in finals proves that we’re doing that,” Smith said. “We’ve had a bit of a bumpy run in.
“Our games leading up to finals, we didn’t have a full team, but everyone’s come back on board for finals so we’re pretty confident.
“We’ve kept a lot of the core group as well so it gives us that experience to not panic in those stressful situations.”
Saints just edged out Neptunes to finish the regular season as minor premiers, but they’ve had to take the long road to the grand final after Neptunes won their major semi- final clash 43- 36.
Saints also fell behind by six goals early in their preliminary final win over Burdekin, but clicked into gear to score a 39- 31 win.
Saints captain Alarna Glazier believes patience will be their key to grand final redemption.
“We’ve got a pretty good chance, but it’s whether we show up on the night and want to play,” she said. “We’re hungry for the win.
“We have pretty good defenders who turn the ball over for us, so we’ve got to bring it through the midcourt and hopefully score on their turnovers.
“If we come out and we go hard from the start and stick to our game plan we’ll come away with the win.”
Tonight’s grand final starts at 7.30pm, which follows the men’s decider between TCNAI men and North Queensland Cassowaries at 6pm.