Excitement is building for the Ballarat Football Netball League A grade grand final between North Ballarat City and East Point.
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Both teams, as you’d expect, enter Saturday’s match in red-hot form.
North’s last game was 12 days ago, beating East Point by 16 goals to advance straight to the decider while the Kangaroos are full of confidence having produced their best performance of the season last week to knock-off minor premier Sunbury by 16 goals. The teams have met three times this season with East Point winning the first encounter and North Ballarat City taking the second of the home and away season – just three and five goals separating the two – North took a 2-1 ledger with the aforementioned result in the semi-final.
North has been a powerhouse of the netball competition, making the grand final the past four seasons, claiming two premierships. However, the two losses have come from the two most recent, 2016 against East Point.
As for the Kangaroos, that 2016 flag was its last, having been knocked out in last year’s semi-final.
At Wednesday’s grand final press conference, North coach Annie McCartin said her side would enter the match fully fit and as fresh as you could hope for.
"I think a lot don't like to have the week off, but my mature players - they love it - and the young ones have had a lot on and it's really nice to have that break and freshen up mentality,” McCartin said.
"We're quite happy with how we're going into the grand final.”
Sally McLean Medal winner Stacey McCartin added she felt the two side’s matched up evenly and was confident the mix of experience in the side would ensure a strong grand final performance.
"It's always a tough game, I feel like we match up really well,” she said.
"I feel like we've got some good momentum. I think we've got a good spread of youth and experienced players out there. The more experienced players can speak to our younger players to give them an understanding of what the atmosphere is going to be like.”
In the East Point camp, co-coach Jo Bayles said she could not be more pleased with how her side will enter Saturday. Full of confidence and all aboard the momentum train, East Point is hungry for its second flag in three years.
“The win last weekend was exceptional,” Bayles said.
“To see the girls put everything together on the court...they’ve got some concrete evidence in themselves to build on their confidence. That win certainly has gone a long way for them to understand what they’re capable of...my preference is to keep playing and keep everyone on the momentum train.”
Team of the year goal keeper Bethany Smith said the group learnt some valuable lessons from the semi-final loss to North and has the belief they can turn it around on the big stage.
“Losing to North in that first final, we learnt a lot of things from it and then getting that big win, we knew we could it, so there’s a lot of confidence there,” she said.