Newcastle Olympic lined up another grand final showdown against Warners Bay with a performance built on heart, desire and some individual brilliance at Magic Park on Saturday night.
Most of all, Olympic took their chances in a 3-1 win over Broadmeadow in the NPLW Northern NSW preliminary final.
For the second week in a row, Olympic survived and seemingly thrived on sudden death football.
The fourth-placed side produced a last-gasp 3-2 victory over third-placed Charlestown in the minor semi-final before also ending the season of the second-placed side.
Magic looked the more determined in the early stages, winning ball with conviction and creating more attacking opportunities without reward.
The game remained scoreless at the break but two-time competition leading scorer Jemma House broke things open in the 51st minute by scoring a goal Olympic coach Paul DeVitis said she "had no right to get".
Danielle Nicol's throw was played on by Chloe Hinde to Georgia Amess, who got in behind the Magic defence down the right and fired a shot at goal. It was swatted away by goalkeeper Alison Logue and a determined House outenthused two Magic defenders to bury the rebound at the back post.
The national league striker made it 2-0 in the 63rd with a classy chip from just inside the 18-yard box.
"The first goal, that was just hunger," DeVitis said. "She had no right to get that - the rebound. She just wanted to get there first. Second goal was just top shelf, absolute top-shelf stuff."
Hinde had cleverly flicked the ball on for House's second goal and again proved provider in the 73rd with a textbook cutback from the byline to find Amess unmarked around the penalty spot for a clinical finish.
"Chloe's been in and out the whole season with injuries and a couple of uni placements," DeVitis said.
"She played last week and did really well. Got another start and I thought she was probably best on ground."
Magic threw everything they had at Olympic and put two goalscoring opportunities over the crossbar either side of substitute Emily Loader Weston scoring from close range in the 85th minute.
"They took their chances and we didn't take ours," was the summation of Magic coach Jake Curley.
Both went into the match without key players and depth probably told the story in the end as well.
Olympic midfielder Keely Gawthrop was deployed in a more attacking role with teammate Jade McAtamney overseas and missing the remainder of the season.
Olympic were also without injured defenders Alesha Clifford (ankle) and Zoe Burnley (knee) and goalkeeper Natalie Wiseman (thumb).
Captain and midfielder Laura Hall dislocated her right thumb in a challenge early in the second half but played on after a brief period on the sidelined to be bandaged up.
Magic were missing midfielders Bella Carlisle and Nadja Squires (ankle) through suspension and injury respectively and left-back Jannali Hunter did not play after failing to pass a concussion test. A distressed left-sided strike weapon Lucy Jerram was forced from the field midway through the second half with a knee injury.
Olympic will again be riding momentum as they prepare for the Panthers with the grand final to be played at No.2 Sportsground on October 2 (5pm).
The encounter will be a repeat of the last grand final, played in 2020 and won 3-2 by Olympic. Last season was abandoned before finals due to COVID.
"Coming off two crunch wins our confidence will be high," DeVitis said post-match on Saturday night.
"I think it will be a completely different game to the last two. We beat them once and it was 3-2 last time so we know that we can score against them, which is obviously very important.
"But we also know that their attack is just amazing so trying to stop goals is going to be the big one. But our defence was great today.
"It's going to be a hard one and we're going to be sore. They had a week off so clearly they're going to be in the better position physically. But we'll ride the momentum and at the end of the day we've just got to outbattle Warners Bay."
