WHEN reminded the only two plaques on the AFL Southern Women's trophy belong to CSU, the desire within North Wagga's Sarah Harmer to change that is evident.
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"We really want it, we really do," she said before Thursday night's long-awaited grand final at Apex Park.
"We want North Wagga to have the good start to the women's program (after their maiden season last year) and make players want to come to our club. Hopefully we can push even further on Thursday but win or lose, it's such a good achievement.
It's been a long and frustrating wait for both teams, who were due to play in last year's decider before it was cancelled at the last minute due to COVID-19.
A quirk in the schedule meant they didn't meet for the first time until last week's final round, when CSU accounted for the Saints 5.5 (35) to 1.2 (8) in a battle of the unbeaten sides.
However the match was played in very wet conditions, with the more experience CSU side dominating the contested football.
Bushsows captain Georgia Bradbury expects a tighter contest on an expected dry track for the grand final.
"I definitely think it will be a different game to last week with dry weather. We know North Wagga are a very clean side who play skilled footy," Bradbury said.
"We were excited to see how we went (in last year's grand final) but unfortunately it was cancelled and we were pretty disappointed. But that gave us extra motivation for this year."
Harmer has been heavily influential in helping get the Saints' women's program up and running.
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She said the grand final was a chance to stamp themselves as a heavyweight immediately.
"Last year was a bit disappointing but we trained earlier and hard and gained lots of new players," she said.
"We wanted to make a name for North Wagga football. We've got 40-year-olds to 20-year-olds, mothers, it's a good mix.
"We wanted to see what they're like to play (last week), but it was really tough with the wet conditions. Now we know it's going to be dry it might be a more even playing field.
"We've definitely got the speed in our team, but we want to focus on our game. On the weekend we were playing more of their game, they were better at the contested footy.
"We've worked on our clearances, last week we barely got one and it wasn't going our way. Our midfield has to work super hard to stop the ball going to their end."
Both teams have won most matches comfortably this season, but Bradbury said the focus during those games was to ensure they're as ready as possible for the decider against the Saints.
"The last few weeks we've been working on solidifying our skills before we play North Wagga. It's been a motivator to sharpen things up," she said.
"I know a fair few people from our club will be down here supporting, but it would be great to get people from the community down to support women's footy."
Thursday night's match begins at 6.30pm.
FINALS SCHEDULE
Grand final: CSU v North Wagga at Apex Park (6.30pm)
Third v fourth: GGGM v East Wagga-Kooringal at Gumly Oval (6.30pm)
Fifth v sixth: Brookdale v Griffith at Lockhart Oval (7.30pm)
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