![ADVANTAGE: The George's goal defence Amy Williams will be aiming to put Royal Federal's young shooters under pressure. Picture: Jonathan Carroll. ADVANTAGE: The George's goal defence Amy Williams will be aiming to put Royal Federal's young shooters under pressure. Picture: Jonathan Carroll.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/33FVAk7YxZ786YcQSXi4WkS/7c32c1a8-1423-4510-a0a3-9720329f629b.jpg/r0_101_3855_2424_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Saturday's preliminary final is shaping as a last woman standing affair with Royal Federal and The George both down to just seven players.
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Both teams are likely to field a bare minimum numbers because of injury and unavailability of players as they battle for a spot in the grand final.
Royal Federal skipper Kim Starkey said with no numerical advantage either way, she expected the game to be close and hard-fought.
“We haven’t beaten The George before, but there is a first time for everything and with both teams down in numbers we give ourselves a good chance,” Starkey said of the final on Court 25 at 2.30pm.
“One of our girls is injured and another is unavailable because of a commitment she couldn’t get out of. They are in a similar situation with injuries.”
Starkey said reaching the preliminary final was the best result the team had achieved, but they were hopeful of going two steps further.
“We made the finals last year, but this is our best result,” she said.
“We’d love to get through to the grand final and in a game like that anything can happen.”
Starkey said despite their injuries The George would have an experience advantage over her team, especially in the shooters.
“The key for us is how our young shooters stand up to the pressure of a final,” she said.
“If they can keep their focus and shoot accurately we are a very good chance of winning.
“Our defence should be able to restrict The George, but we need to ensure we post a winning score.
“Our youngsters have done very well throughout the year and we just need to support and encourage them on the day.”
The George had one of their worst performances of the year in last week’s major semi-final against minor premiers Hills Solicitors.
Hills were able to make the most of the atrociously windy conditions to post a 31-18 win and advance to the grand final on September 17.
George skipper Amonie Lindsell said the result against Hills was disappointing, but she was confident they could rally to win this week and get another shot at the title.
“It’s disappointing to go down by 13. It wasn’t our best performance. We’ve got areas to improve if we are going to beat Royal Federal next week,” she said.
Lindsell said she had been impressed with Royal Federal in their minor semi-final win against LJ Hooker.
“It will be a tough game this week,” she said.
Preliminary finals action will be held in all 26 grades from A-grade through to the 10 years division.
The first games start at 10am.
The Maitland netball grand finals are on Saturday, September 17.