How do you stop Warners Bay's lethal attack?
You cannot focus on just one player, or several others will hurt you.
The answer is key to how Newcastle Olympic can claim the inaugural NPLW Northern NSW championship. NNSW Football's top-flight women's competition transitioned to National Premiers Leagues (NPL) status this year.
Olympic beat Warners Bay 3-2 in the 2020 Herald Women's Premier League grand final but coach Paul DeVitis knows they face a tougher task at No.2 Sportsground on Sunday.
"We've gone over all three games we've played this year and looked at the goals we conceded and tried to get an understanding of the patterns of those goals, how they came about," DeVitis said.
"They've got a lot of strengths and it's one of those situations where we're not too focused on one player because you can't do that when there's a whole team of really good players.
"So we've talked about how we can work as a team collectively to close down gaps and make sure they don't have time on the ball."
Olympic have conceded 10 goals to the Panthers in three outings but scored seven goals against them in a boost of confidence.
Goalkeeper Natalie Wiseman trained this week after missing Olympic's past three games with a thumb injury but DeVitis is likely to stick with the same starting side that beat Broadmeadow 3-1 in the preliminary final last weekend.
Olympic are also playing in the reserve grade and under 17s NPLW grand finals this weekend.
All of the lower grade championship matches are being contested at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility on Saturday from 9am.
