West Coast have had the wood on the Melbourne Vixens this season but star defender Fran Williams expects the battle-hardened Victorian outfit to put up a fierce challenge in the Super Netball grand final.
Ahead of the decider on Saturday at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena, on the Vixens' home patch after Netball Australia sold hosting rights, England captain Williams says the teams have formed a spicy rivalry.
They have met in the grand final twice before, with Melbourne taking the honours in 2020 and the Fever winning their first-ever Super title in 2022 in a thumping 11-point victory.
Fever have won both meetings this season en route to claiming the minor premiership and the record for the most consecutive wins, which is now up to 13.
Williams joined the Fever last season and said she quickly became aware there was no love lost between her team and the Vixens.
"There's a real rivalry and I noticed that when I arrived," the 27-year-old goal keeper said.
"I think it's because they've had so many tightly-contested finals matches in the past and you kind of inherit that rivalry when you come and join this side."
While Fever blitzed the NSW Swifts in the major semi-final to book a grand final berth, the fourth-placed Vixens edged reigning champions Adelaide by two points in the minor semi-final.
They then upset the Swifts in Sydney in a one-goal thriller on Sunday to reach their fourth grand final in six seasons.
"Playing Vixens is an exciting challenge for us and we're so up for it," said Williams.
"We obviously played them in round 14, so quite fresh playing them ... we've got some evidence on how we've been able to beat them.
"But also we know they're a quality, class side as well that bring some insane netball come finals time ... we'll be going in all guns blazing."
Williams said her team would "embrace" the sell-out occasion in enemy territory, hopeful that some of the green army would make the trip east.
"We've known from the start of the season that if we were going to win this whole thing, we were going to have to do it away so that's not feeling that new to us.
"When you go away, our Fever bubble stays really strong and we kind of lean in on each other even more."
Williams said she and Diamonds defender Sunday Aryang would be working hard to put pressure on the Vixens' Test shooting duo Sophie Garbin and Kiera Austin.
"I thought Sophie was really impressive on the weekend and Keira as well with her super shot shooting, she was pretty clutch," Williams said.
"They're very crafty with the ball so it's about winning your one on one battle first to kind of make them unsettled, and then making sure that they don't have those easy links and connections."
