Sport
12 September, 2024
Grand final experience stands Laharum in good stead for 2024 decider
Laharum takes on Rupanyup at Stawell's North Park.
The Laharum Demons will take on the Rupanyup Panthers in the HDFNL A grade netball grand final at Stawell's North Park on Saturday, September 14.
"We're feeling good," said Laharum's A grade netball coach, Rebecca McIntyre.
The Demons will take to the court as the favoured side, not only has Laharum come through the year unbeaten, but the team has plenty of big game experience.
The 2024 decider will be Laharum's fifth in as many years.
"We have been in the grand final for the last five years," said McIntyre.
"We're used to this process, we're used to the hype and all the excitement."
Having won their last 17 games, McIntyre is not looking to change up their preparations for the decider.
"For us, how we're preparing is just completely normal," she said.
"This is just another week and obviously we're just going through the processes as we normally would.
"We're preparing ourselves for what we know is going to be an amazing and very hard fought four quarter game."
While Rupanyup tested Laharum in the two side's only meeting during the HDFNL regular season, McIntyre knows the pressure of a grand final means little can be taken from that clash.
"Nothing can really count from the season so for us. Finals is a different story, grand finals especially," she said.
"I've been around the block a little bit to understand that it's [about] whoever deals with the pressure the best on the day, whoever can just stick to their procedures."
While Laharum prepares for the grand final, she's keeping her focus on her own side.
"I don't really tend to worry too much about other teams, that's just how I coach," McIntyre said.
"I focus on us and what we can do to improve because we can't control what is gonna happen on the day with the other teams with umpires ... we can only control, ourselves, our team and who we're gonna play on.
"I focus on what we can do, what we've worked on all year, what our strengths are, where we want to try and make sure that we can hopefully get an edge."