Coolamon ready for Goannas in big final round

The Hoppers sit just one game behind the top-placed Goannas on the Riverina League ladder heading into the game, and coach Sarah Hillier is confident her side can get across the line.

"We've had a bit of a tough ride home I guess which is probably good in a way, it preps us for finals over the last couple of weeks, so it's probably better than the other way around," Hillier said.

"We're super excited coming into finals and this weekend will be a good test to see where we're at."

Hillier said playing top sides later in the season can be a benefit heading into finals, helping better understand what teams are looking like at the end of the season.

With good vibes across the playing group, Hillier said they understand what is at stake this weekend, but aren't getting too carried away.

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"We've had a pretty good end to the season, some pretty big wins," she said.

"We drew a couple of weeks ago with Griffith, that was obviously a very tough and very contested game so we're really excited coming into this weekend.

"Everyone knows how important this weekend is, and as the girls said it'll give us a good indication of where we're sitting going into finals and it's always nice to that hard game before finals to really test you out to see what you need to work on going forward in the finals."

Last time the clubs met Mangoplah earned themselves an 11 point win over the Hoppers at home.

"It wasn't the best of days, it was pretty miserable and raining," she said.

"We're hoping for some clearer weather, obviously in those conditions it's a slower game, people are pretty cautious on slippery courts and things like that, it's really hard to take much out of that game, just because of the weather conditions.

"But you know, we've got our little bits of pieces that we will work on this week and coming into the game."

Hillier is hopeful her side will show good patience on the court, knowing the Goannas are well experienced in high pressure situations.

"It's just patience, patience with the ball, Mangoplah are very well drilled and they've been in those high-pressure situations over many grand finals and finals in their time, so they do deal with pressure really really well," she said.

"So we just have to take a bit of a leaf out of their book and just be patient with the ball and use it when we can, and when we do get those turnovers we've got a capitalise off them.

"It's going to be a high intensity, high pressure game, so we need to believe in ourselves that we know what to do and backing each individual's performance as well."

Lucky this season to have avoided any significant injuries, Coolamon will take in their full squad to the final home and away game of the year, with Hillier hopeful there'll be no surprise outs in the coming weeks.

Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes v Coolamon at Mangoplah Sports Ground.

Griffith v Wagga Tigers at Griffith Ex-Services Club.

Leeton-Whitton v Collingullie-Glenfield Park at Leeton Showground.

Narrandera v Turvey Park at Narrandera Sportsground.

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