Coach Liam Gibson expects Cardiff to be buoyed by the performances of their Plate and 17s teams as they challenge Killarney Vale for a place in the Black Diamond Cup Women's grand final.
The Hawks and Bombers go head to head in the preliminary final at Feighan Oval on Saturday (12pm).
Cardiff are coming off a 5.6 (36) to 3.1 (19) loss at the hands of undefeated minor premiers Newcastle City in the qualifying final last weekend while the Bombers downed Terrigal Avoca 6.13 (49) to 3.4 (22) in the elimination final.
The winner of Saturday's battle will earn the right to play City in the September 17 grand final.
"Things are looking good for the weekend," Gibson said. "We're all pretty upbeat. Obviously the loss was disappointing for everyone but we really like playing Killarney Vale and we've done well against them all year, so there's a lot of confidence in the group there.
"Everyone is buzzing a little bit because our under 17s won their grand final last weekend, so that was fantastic and the vibes are really good.
"The 17s weren't expected to win. City were undefeated all year in the under 17s so they did really well to get on top in the end. We're sort of riding their high a little bit at the moment after our loss, and the high of our reserve-grade side."
Their reserve-grade Plate side are already through to the championship showdown after beating City 2.9 (21) to 1.1 (7) in last weekend's qualifying final. It will be the first time a senior Hawks team has featured in a women's grand final.
"If we manage to get a win this week and get both of our women's side into the grand final, that would be phenomenal for our club," Gibson said.
"We've never even won a final before so our reserve-grade winning the [Plate qualifying] final last week was the first time we'd ever won a final. To get two sides in grand final day would tear the house down."
But Gibson said they would not get ahead of themselves and were focused on making a stronger start after playing catch-up in the qualifying final when City shot out to a commanding 28-point lead by quarter-time.
"Our start is what really let us down last week because I think we outscored them after quarter-time," he said.
"So, if we didn't give them so many in the first quarter, that would've been different. [City] caught us off guard last week but we responded really well and we really stepped up to the standard of finals footy.
"We're really looking to embrace that this weekend and have another chance to play finals footy again where the intensity is higher, everything is faster, there's more pressure."
Cardiff have won all three exchanges with Killarney Vale this year. The Hawks finished second and the Bombers third.
City play Lake Macquarie in the Women's Plate preliminary final at Tulkaba Oval on Saturday (11.30am).
