Souths and West Leagues Balance have fought some fierce battles over the past four seasons and Saturday will be no different in round five of Newcastle championship netball.
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Souths collected a threepeat of championship titles from 2014 until 2016 before West joined the competition and beat the Lions in three straight grand finals to repeat the feat between 2017 and 2019.
And while finals netball remains a long way off, the showdown between the two unbeaten rivals today will propel the victor into the competition's outright lead.
Both sides have 10 points with Souths in first position on percentages.
West coach Tracey Baggs told the Newcastle Herald she was still waiting to learn what, if any, restrictions would be placed on her NSW Premier League players but expected to have most available for the top-of-the-table clash.
"They lift always to beat us and as do we," Baggs said.
Souths coach Tracey van Dal said wing defence Lucy Tonkin was out with a broken toe and experienced centre Narelle Eather remained in doubt with an Achilles strain.
"At this stage I'm going to be down a few troops," van Dal said. "There's a couple of other niggles between the team as well that we need to wait until game day to see if they will be taking the court, and premier league unavailability.
"We're finding ourselves in these same similar situations each week where we're bringing up about four players from our opens team, which is a great opportunity for those girls, so this will be another test.
"We're expecting them to be at full strength on Saturday. For the club it's a great opportunity for some new girls to get exposure to what traditionally has been a top team in the top competition. I'm looking forward to seeing the growth in my new players and to see what they can bring."
Souths recovered from a slow start to beat Kotara South 43-41 in a thrilling encounter last round while West were 43-24 winners over Junction Stella.
In what is expected to prove another arm wrestle on Saturday, third-placed University of Newcastle play fourth-placed Nova Thunder. Both sides have eight points after two wins and one defeat.
University of Newcastle coach Traci Baber was still light on for circle defenders going into the important clash as Veronica Smith and Keeley Mullins are both sidelined with ankle injuries.
"They've got Georgia [McVey] at one end and then the height of Brooke [Fennings] at the other and then you've got Katie [Robinson] in the middle, so they're strong all over," Baber said. "We'll have to shoot well, defend well and play well.
"We've played a lot better in the past two weeks and last week's win took us from fifth to third and if we can beat Nova this weekend we could go to second, depending on other results."
Inner Glow meet Junction and BNC Whanau play Kotara South in the other matches. All games are at 3.48pm.
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