THE two best sides in the Barossa, Light & Gawler senior one netball competition, Barossa District and Kapunda, will meet on Saturday for the competition’s richest prize.
The Bulldogs are seeking a remarkable third flag in a row, while the Bombers will seek redemption for the 2017 decider – the flag that started Barossa’s current streak.
Kapunda had finished the home and away season with a perfect 16-0 record, having beaten Barossa District twice.
However, the Bulldogs got the chocolates in the second semi-final, and coach Katrina Frederick said her girls are “training as normal”.
“Our structure of the team was dependant on who we were playing,” she said.
“Obviously we’re playing Kapunda, we’ve played them three times.
“We’ll play quarter by quarter and start from there.”
Despite the Bulldogs going for a third successive flag, Frederick said that fact hasn’t been mentioned at all.
“We haven’t even discussed the three in a row, we’re taking this week as a grand final, nothing more,” she said.
“That hasn’t come into the conversations.”
Kapunda coach Sarah Johnson echoed the sentiments of her counterpart.
“The old cliché, it’s just another game with a big prize on the end of it,” she said.
“We’re a bit of a new team, not many of the players will have that memory (of 2017), maybe two or three of them.
“I don’t think it’ll be a huge motivation, just doing it for the current playing group is motivation enough.”
Following their loss to Barossa District, the Bombers identified some points of improvement.
“We found a few of those after last game,” Johnson said.
“We put those into practise last week for training, and we did them reasonably well against Gawler Central.”
The Bombers defeated the Tigers on Saturday in the preliminary final, but lost Tab MacKenzie through injury.
“She’ll be given to the last minute (to prove her fitness),” Johnson said.
Last time these sides met in a grand final it went to overtime, let’s hope it happens again.
Prediction: Kapunda by one goal