Newcastle City captain Meaghan MacDonald admits to being as nervous lining up for her sixth Black Diamond Cup Women's grand final as she was in the first.
The experienced 33-year-old forward has played for the Blues since the women's competition began in 2015, missing only one premiership decider when the club had two evenly graded teams and hers missed out.
The Blues have been virtually unstoppable on the way to securing the minor premiership this year with an undefeated season and will be the highly fancied favourites for victory against Killarney Vale at Adelaide Street Oval on Saturday in a repeat of the last grand final, held two years ago.
But MacDonald, who broke her collarbone in the first quarter of the 2020 title decider but played out the game won by City 6.6 (42) to 3.7 (25), is taking nothing for granted against a Bombers side who look to be peaking at the right time.
"I'm excited but I always get nervous playing," MacDonald said. "People on the outside looking in, they'll think it's kind of a guaranteed win because we've been so dominant for so long.
"But for us, seeing that Killarney Vale were able to beat Cardiff in the preliminary final, which took everyone by surprise, we're not going into this weekend as anything being guaranteed at all.
"When you look at their list, they've got some very talented players, so there's no reason why they couldn't come out and beat us."
City, who are eyeing their sixth women's flag this weekend, took the direct route to the grand final with a 5.6 (36) to 3.1 (19) win over second-placed Cardiff in the qualifying final two weeks ago.
Third-placed Killarney Vale were comfortable winners over fourth-placed Terrigal-Avoca in the elimination final before securing a two-point victory over the Hawks in a hard-fought preliminary final last weekend.
It was their first win over the Hawks this year and the confidence-boosting performance Bombers coach Micheal Smith believes his side needed heading into their second grand final and a tough clash with the competition's heavyweights.
"City have been a dominant force since the inception of the women's comp and that's been no different this year," Smith said.
"But in our group, anything is possible on the day. As long as the girls believe they can do it, we're in with a shot."
The game is at 11.40am.
Cardiff play Lake Macquarie in the Plate women's grand final at 9.20am.
