Tigers have the ability to surprise

In their maiden finals appearance in the Albany Netball Association A1 competition, Railways will face defending premiers Magpies 1 in Saturday’s spicy elimination first semifinal.

Magpies appeared in danger of missing the top four early in the 2019 season but rallied to jump back into fourth place at the completion of the final round of the regular season.

The reigning premiers will tackle a side they have beaten twice already this season, but the Tigers are something of an unknown quantity in their first season, having knocked off top side Royals Saints 1 twice.

The Tigers lost by seven goals in round 5 and then went down by 21 goals to Magpies in round 12 but coach Connie Green said her side had been working hard to come up with a way of beating its elimination final opponent.

“Denmark have always been a challenge for us,” Green said.

“We’ve lost to them twice and our girls have been working on that since we played them last, made changes to our own game plan and certainly stand a good chance.

“We’ve got some challenges with injuries but the girls have stepped up in the last couple of weeks.”

Green was confident key shooter Cass Cheetham will play some role on Saturday despite an ongoing knee injury.

Like the Tigers, Magpies have won three of their past five games and coach Lisa Goodliffe said they were ready for a tough finals battle.

“It could go either way, it’s been a tight competition all season,” Goodliffe said.

“Our team has done extremely well, especially after losing those couple of points which happens.

“The results have been all over the shop so you can’t take anything for granted.”

The elimination final will be played at 1pm while the second semifinal between Royals Saints and Narrikup 1 is set down for 2.30pm.

Royals Saints will be warm favourites to progress straight into the grand final having won their past five games and they have beaten Narrikup by eight goals and 13 goals in their two encounters this season.