HORSHAM Hornets women’s team is looking to hand Portland Coasters their first loss of the season in the south-west conference grand final in Horsham on Saturday night.
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Hornets playing coach Sharon Fedke is confident her charges can get the job done despite falling short of the Coasters in their past two encounters.
“If we play at the level we’ve been playing lately, we have a very good chance of winning,” she said.
“You have to have a positive attitude going in, but you can’t afford to be over-confident.”
The Hornets overwhelmed higher-ranked Warrnambool in last week’s semi-final and Fedke is hoping for a repeat performance.
“We really came out of the blocks hard and got off to a good lead,” she said.
“They weren’t prepared for us.”
Fedke said a strong team effort was a highlight of the semi-final victory.
“We’ll need everyone to pull their weight again this week,” she said.
“I think we have a really balanced team.
“Chloe Bibby has been putting up good numbers, but anyone on any given night can have a good game.”
Fedke said her charges would need to neutralise Coasters standouts Brooke Morrissey and Julie Caldow.
“Julie is their oldest and most experienced player,” she said.
“She’s big and strong and she’s really good.
“Defence will be key for us – we really need to limit their scoring opportunities.
“If we can do that we’ll have a really good chance.”
The Hornets were undermanned when they travelled to Portland last month, but will have a full list to choose from on Saturday.
Fedke said she was looking forward to playing a grand final in front of a home crowd.
“Hopefully they’ll push us along a bit,” she said.
“I’m nervous, but I believe we can do it.”