West Coast Fever coach Dan Ryan has revealed last year's heartbreaking one-goal preliminary final loss to the Melbourne Vixens has been the driving force behind his team's record-breaking 2025 campaign.
The Fever and Vixens are the fiercest of rivals, and will face off for Super Netball title glory in Saturday's grand final at Rod Laver Arena.
West Coast are on a league-record 13-match winning run, with their 77-45 demolition of the NSW Swifts in the major semi-final their best performance of the season.
That display earned the Fever a week off.
The Vixens will also enter the decider brimming with confidence after coming from 10 goals down in the last quarter to beat the Swifts 66-65 last week.
The Fever and Vixens boast arguably Super Netball's fiercest rivalry.
The Vixens beat West Coast 66-64 in the 2020 grand final, before the Fever returned the favour in the 2022 decider with a crushing 70-59 triumph.
But the pain of losing last year's preliminary final 73-72 to the Vixens still burns strong for the Fever, and they'll get the chance for revenge on Saturday night.
"If we look at the prelim final last year, that's really been the driving force behind this year's campaign - addressing the gaps that we needed to close across the course of the season," Ryan said.
"It's a grand final, so it does bring out the best teams.
"Whilst we've won by 10 and 11 respectively (this season) we have to anticipate a goal for goal battle that goes right down to the wire."
The Fever (12-2) finished on top of the ladder, while the Vixens (8-6) only just scraped into fourth.
But under Super Netball's controversial policy of selling the grand final hosting rights before each season, Melbourne will have home-court advantage given the match is being played at Rod Laver Arena.
Not that you'll catch the Fever crying foul about it.
"I think it poses an even greater challenge that we're all really excited by, to beat the Vixens on their home court," Ryan said.
"Every time we've had an away game in the home-and-away season, we've acknowledged that if we're going to win the competition, we have to do it away from home.
"I've got great confidence in our group that we can stay really tight in that Fever bubble and stay really locked in and laser-focused about what we need to do together."
The Fever, led by superstar goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard, will enter the decider as hot favourites - a mantle Ryan is embracing.
