Bairnsdale’s 15 and under netballers will battle Sale for Gippsland League glory tomorrow when the two teams clash at Traralgon.
The girls from City Oval are yet to win a 15 and under title and will be eager to create history against a rival they have battled on the big stage before.
The 2018 grand final rematch follows a similar path to the 2019 finals series for the Redlegs who defeated Maffra by seven in the qualifying final but were outdone by the Magpies by 27 goals in the semi final at Maffra.
In the preliminary final Bairnsdale came out firing, defeating Maffra by nine goals and booking itself a grand final berth.
In the 2018 grand final, Sale cruised to a 12-goal victory over Bairnsdale and has again stamped itself as the league’s best team, going through the home and away season without losing a game in 18 rounds.
Bairnsdale finished in third with a record of 14-4 and is yet to defeat Sale, losing by 23 goals in round one and eight in round 10.
Despite not tasting success against the Magpies Redlegs’ coach, Annora Virgo, says her side is confident it can take home the chocolates.
“It’s my first grand final coaching the juniors and it’s very exciting for myself and the girls,” she said.
“They have come runner-up to Sale before so hopefully this is the year to break that and make a bit of history.
“We’ve got a lot of support and we are evenly matched on the court so hopefully we can bring the intensity we brought against Maffra last week with the win that we had.”
During the course of the season Virgo says Sale’s ability to score when going into the attacking third is something her side must be wary of.
“Sale is going quite well and we haven’t had a great start in all our games against them,” she said.
“Hopefully we can change that and we need to come strong minded on the weekend to bring it home.
“We are evenly matched and we have to believe in ourselves really and know we can do it.
“They’ve got a really good attacking end and their goal attack, centre and wing attack work really well together and we just need to break that with our defensive pressure and that’s what we brought last weekend.
“We stepped up our defensive pressure but it will be different this weekend.”
The Redlegs will be boosted by the inclusion of Olivia East, who is yet to face the Magpies.
“We haven’t had our full team play against Sale this season,” she said.
“Olivia East has been out on holidays so she’ll face them for the first time. She plays goal shooter and she is definitely a game changer for us.
“We’ve also got really good defensive pressure as a whole and an athletic mid court with Abbey Bills and Anna Mooney.
“In our attacking end we are accurate with our shooters, Stella Fitzsimon and Olivia, and our partnership in defence is good with Ruby Timms and Brielle Malady.
“If everyone comes ready to play I can’t see why we can’t give them a run for their money.”
The word redemption has been floating around the City Oval courts through the course of the week and Virgo says the girls are “pumped”.
“It’s all we have been talking about,” she said.
“We’ve got a lot of support from the club and everyone around town.
“I’ve been telling the girls that it’s going to come down to the first two quarters because I think that fatigue hits the young ones in the third and fourth.
“It’s going to be who is mentally the strongest to the end.
“The girls have to come out hard and full of confidence and believe that we can win as much as them.
“We won’t be leaving anything behind.”
