WITH the grand final on the line, the Central Pulse will hope to claim victory against the Northern Stars. The Pulse won 13 out of a possible 15 games highlighting their class and skill right across the court while the Northern Stars will hope to honour retiring heroes in their last hoorah. Both sides ooze experience and strength with their ball movement and strong defensive pressure a feature of both sides.

The Central Pulse will look to dynamic shooting duo Aliyah Dunn and Ameliaranne Ekenasio to dominate in the goal circle with the pair going from strength to strength as the season continued. Dunn is renowned for her strong holds, silky footwork and accuracy to post while Ekenasio uses her lovely high shot and impeccable timing to tear open opposition defensive units. Ekenasio’s work rate is immense working hard to bring the ball down the court and feed into Dunn. She pairs well with speedy midcourter Whitney Souness who utilises her agility to create space and feed the ball into the goalers.

It will be a tantalising match up in the goal circle with the Stars defenders renowned for their tenacity and hunt for the ball. Storm Purvis, Leana de Bruin and Kayla Cullen have proven to be instrumental in defence winning the ball back for their side numerous amounts of time credit to their hands over pressure, quick footwork and ability to get around the body of their opponent cleanly. If they can confuse the space and push Dunn up high in the circle the Pulse will have to work extra hard to get the ball into a better position.

The midcourt battle will be exciting to watch with Claire Kersten flying under the radar for the Pulse with her dynamic movement and pin point precision passes into the circle a key feature of her game. While Maddy Gordon’s ability to rotate through the midcourt and impact the play is also important in helping to provide versatility for the Pulse in attack and defence. The experience of Temepara Bailey will be telling through the midcourt with the Stars looking to her to provide that steady head and composure with ball in hand.

The Northern Stars have plenty of fire power in the goal circle with Maia Wilson a key cog in attack. She offers a great target under the post while her versatility to hold and move in the circle makes her hard to stop. They have options in goal attack with Ellen Halpenny providing plenty of experience and level headedness through the attack end, while youngster Charlee Hodges has showed her worth hitting the scoreboard and finding space well to feed the ball into Wilson. Defensively though, the Central Pulse have plenty of artillery with the likes of Karin Burger able to shift between a circle defender and wing defence credit to her netball nous and skill. Meanwhile the combination of Katrina Rore and Sulu Fitzpatrick has proven to be formidable, limiting the attacking ability of their opposition with their smothering style of defence. The Pulse’s defensive trio is renowned for their ability to hunt the ball, read the play and get timely tips across the court to influence the play and spur their side into attack.