Semi-finals are upon us and, after a qualifying final that lived up to its billing last Saturday night at Mooroopna, Euroa is now teetering on the edge after setting the standard for much of the home-and-away campaign, set for a meeting with Shepparton at Kings Park on Sunday.
The Magpies, now forced to rely on their double chance after a domineering run through the early portions of season 2024 was met with two doses of Cattery kryptonite, won’t be happy with their recent history against the Bears either.
The Ellie Warnock-coached outfit fell to a pair of late defeats ahead of the regular season’s final fortnight, one of which was inflicted by Shepparton on its own deck.
The high-scoring 67-57 result in the Goulburn Valley’s south-east should be fresh in both teams’ minds, but there will be little room to dwell, with the loser saying goodbye to the 2024 campaign.
What will matter more to Stacey Thompson’s Bears is what they’ve done for themselves lately - namely, overcoming a top-four outfit in Tatura during last week’s elimination final.
All three margins, in fact, were seven goals across the league’s first week of finals, but only one of these two teams came out feeling lucky.
Thompson certainly believes that what her charges achieved once, they can do again.
“Everyone’s really pumped up after the great win last weekend,” Thompson said.
“It was hard-fought with Tatura, as we knew it would be, but we’ve turned our attention to Euroa and we look forward to facing them again.
“The win against Euroa during the season was one where we felt we were more ready after nothing went right the first time we played them.
“It’ll be a tight battle for 60 minutes and we have the belief we can do it; we just need to get the job done.”
Both these sides figure to have contenders for end-of-season recognition in the form of individual awards as well.
Thompson wasn’t shy about assigning praise, but adamantly maintained that it will be the sum of their parts which carries them over the line.
“Kim Borger has been absolutely formidable for us in attack, and she does that job week in and week out,” Thompson said.
“Our whole defensive unit, girls like Hannah Crawley, Keeley O’Dwyer and Eliza Bicknell, really found their feet in the last half of the season and they’ve all stood up for us.
“Sophie Harmer played a sensational game against Tatura, and everyone has stood up at different times in the season but it’ll take everyone to get us up on the weekend.”
At the end of the day, though, with momentum in their favour, the Bears as a collective rightfully take in plenty of shared confidence.
“I think it’s definitely in us (to win),” Thompson said.
“You have to beat the team in front of you and there have been some upsets through the season, so we have to play our best and let the rest take care of itself.”
In the league’s other semi, either defending premiers Echuca or minor premiers Mooroopna will punch an automatic ticket to the 2024 decider when they meet on the Wilf Cox courts Saturday.
The loser, meanwhile, will do well to keep an eye on events down south in awaiting the Magpies-Bears winner at the preliminary final stage next weekend.
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