The NSW Swifts expect to face Adelaide Thunderbirds defence ace and Super Netball's greatest disruptor Shamera Sterling in Saturday's grand final, despite the Jamaican suffering an injury scare on Tuesday.
Sterling, who leads the league in intercepts and deflections appeared to roll an ankle in training and cried out in pain whilst needing assistance to leave the court.
Thunderbirds coach Tania Obst downplayed the incident, saying it was a stinger and their medical team was comfortable Sterling would be right to play and resume training on Thursday.
Swifts goal attack Helen Housby said she had seen vision of an injured Sterling but wasn't reading anything into it.
"We all have little ankle stingers and things at training and I think things can get hyped up beyond what they actually mean," Housby said on Wednesday.
"I've got absolutely no doubt she'll be playing on the weekend."
Swifts coach Briony Akle also expected the athletic defender to suit up for the season decider in Melbourne.
"She's a tough cookie, she's a world class competitor so I certainly think she'll be fine, she'll be back on that court," Akle said.
Adelaide scored three and two-goal wins over NSW in their round 14 and major semi-final clashes respectively over successive weekends.
"That's one turnover, that's a treasured possession, for us it's just getting those little basics right," Akle added.
"Our gameplan doesn't change that much, it's just executing that little bit longer and having that mindset around the execution in those close moments."
English star Housby said avenging those losses wasn't a big motivator.
"I'd say more the excitement and the will to win the premiership is what drives me more than anything," Housby said.
"I'm not going into the game filled with disappointment or revenge, it's more doing what we know we can do and sticking to our own gameplan, we want to make this all about us."
Outside of the narrow losses to the Thunderbirds, the minor premiers have won several other nailbiters this season with last week's 65-64 preliminary final success over the West Coast Fever their fourth one-goal victory of the campaign.
"We just seem to find a way to finish off in that last quarter and whether we're behind or ahead we find a lot of different ways to win which I think is really exciting for us as a group," Housby added.
"I think in the past when we've lost games, it's probably been our lapse in judgement and lapse in concentration and not working that extra pass to goal that has cost us.
"Hopefully in this grand final we can find that extra little bit of smarts in our game and get us over the line."
Playing away shouldn't be an issue for the Swifts, who haven't lost a game outside NSW since round one and won the 2019 and 2021 grand finals in Queensland.
