The sparks could be flying early in Saturday’s A grade netball grand final at Narrandera, with Wagga Tigers and Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes both intent on getting the jump on their rivals.
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Ironically, the two clubs have never faced off in an A grade grand final. But they have shared the last four A grade premierships, with MCUE taking home the trophy from 2013-15, and Tigers claiming victory last year.
And both know where the games are won and lost.
“We need to start well,” Tigers’ Jess Allen said.
“That hasn’t been our strong point this year. When we played Mango a few weeks ago we got to 10 or 12 goals down and then had to play catch-up so we need to be more focussed from the start rather than leaving it til the second half and have to come back.”
MCUE won their qualifying final 44-42 then went straight through to the grand final with an eight-goal win over minor premiers Collingullie-Glenfield Park.
Tigers have kept their premiership defence alive with finals wins against Turvey Park and the Demons.
“Obviously we feel a lot more pressure, having won it last year. But we’re excited because we want that feeling again,” Allen said.
“I think that’s what’s driven us the last few weeks, knowing that we can actually do it. And everyone wants that grand final glory again.”
Ella Finemore is key to their hopes, having won best on court in last year’s grand final with Tigers and in 2015 with the Goannas.
“She’s very important,” Allen said.
“She provides a really big target for us down in the attack end and it allows us to do the set-ups that we want to do and that we find easiest to work with.
“And when we’ve got her in defence as well she just adds that height that we don’t generally have when she’s not there so she’s really important to our team.”
MCUE coach Marie Campbell said Finemore will factor in their preparations.
But she’s very happy with her own weapons in attack.
“Mikaela Cole is a really strong shooter for us – very fast, accurate, great long shot – complemented quite well by Sam Creasy in goal shooter as well so we’ve sort of got that short and tall partnership going on,” Campbell said.
Campbell is in her first season as Goannas coach but has had grand final experience in Adelaide and is confident they have a good mix of youth and experience, including Mikaela’s mother, Tracy Schulz-Cole.
“I think that mix balances the team well, particularly because we’ve got a more experienced player in each third of the court so we can settle things when they might be getting a little bit intense,” Campbell said.
For their part, Tigers have had a change of coach since last year with a former MCUE coach, Julie Cornell, taking over from Meg Farmer.
Allen said it’s been a seamless transition.
“They’re very similar coaches, pretty similar with the stuff they want us to do – how we want to train, our set-ups and all that are pretty similar,” Allen said.
“It’s been good just having a different perspective from Julie, as to Meg from last year. It’s given us more to think about and more to work on.”
Tigers are also in B grade and under 17s grand finals.
- Netball grand final schedule, Saturday at Narrandera
A Grade – Mangoplah CUE v Wagga Tigers @ 2:10pm
A Reserve – Collingullie GP v Leeton Whitton @ 12:45pm
B Grade – Turvey Park v Wagga Tigers @ 11:20am
C Grade – Leeton Whitton v Collingullie GP @ 10:10am
Under 17’s – Wagga Tigers v Turvey Park @ 9:00am