Livestreaming: North-West Grads v DiamondBacks hockey prelim finals match preview
North-West Graduates will go into today’s women’s Premier League preliminary final clash against DiamondBacks as warm favourites. SEE THE MATCH PREVIEW + HOW TO WATCH >>
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NORTH-West Graduates will go into today’s women’s Premier League Preliminary Final clash against DiamondBacks as warm favourites, after falling to just their second loss of the season n last weekend’s semi-final.
Graduates held a strong territorial advantage for much of the match but fell 2-0 to OHA and will look to Grace Calvert and Ash Arthur to fire to get another crack at the Ships in the big dance.
The Minor Premiers do have an imposing head-to-head record against DiamondBacks, winning all three contests this season to the tune of 2-1, 2-0 and 3-0 score lines.
Graduates forward Josie Crowden has flourished since returning to the club this season and also presents as a danger, having scored four goals in her past three matches.
She says Graduates’ settled line up, which include returnee Merinda McMahon, must minimise the impact of DiamondBacks stars Emily Donovan and Philly Bridley to avoid going out in straight sets.
“They’re such important players for DiamondBacks, but I think we’ve done a really good job of minimising their influence on the games we’ve played against them so far,” Crowden said.
“Nothing changes for us this week. We didn’t execute our game plan last week, but we didn’t feel we were too far off.”
“We’ve focused on a few key things at training this week and are really positive that we can improve on that performance.”
DiamondBacks forward Donovan is among the favourites to claim the women’s Premier League best and fairest award at tonight’s count but first has a big job to drive her side to victory.
“North-West are a strong team and will definitely come out fighting hard, however as a group we have nothing to lose and are ready,” Donovan said.
“I feel like our girls have really stepped up over the last few weeks and this is a great opportunity for us as a team.”
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