ahm NPL Finals Preview: The Field Is Set

The regular season is done, the ladder is locked, and three days at The Jar Maidstone will decide who lifts the trophy. Here's everything on the line.

Six In, Three Fighting For Two

Conference position did the sorting. The Outback (QLD), Heat (NSW) and Adders (VIC) finished top of their respective conferences, with the Opals (QLD), Tide (VIC) and Stingers (NSW) filling out the top six behind them. All six go straight through to finals proper.

That leaves the Roos, Dinkers and Reef — the three conference third-place finishers — to fight it out in a standalone playoff on Friday. Two of the three walk away with a finals berth. One goes home.

It is, on paper, the most even contest of the weekend. No side has separated itself, and the margins across the regular season back that up.

The Dinkers arrive on the back of one of the more remarkable finishes of Round 7. Down 3-1 against the Stingers with the match all but gone, Brian Tran's side won the final set to turn it into a 3-2 loss — a defeat that still carried a bonus point, and the bonus point that got them into this playoff in the first place. It is a strange way to arrive at a knockout weekend, but the Dinkers are here because they refused to let a lost match stay lost.
The Roos come in with something to prove after their own Round 7 heartbreak, blowing 8-2 and 8-1 leads against the Tide to miss a direct finals spot. Captain Sahil Dang will want a very different ending this time, and Ethan Chung — the league's most improved player this season — gives them a genuine point of difference.
The Reef will be without captain James Wilson, ruled out with a back injury. Oliver Gray steps into the breach, and while it is a real blow, nobody is writing off a side with this much talent still in the group.

Whoever finishes in the top two of this playoff earns the 7th and 8th seeds — and with it, a date against the Tide and Stingers respectively in Saturday's Elimination Finals.

The Big One: Opals vs Outback

There is history here, and not the good kind — not for the Opals, anyway.

The Outback edged this exact fixture 3-2 to close out the regular season, and now Qualifying Final 1 puts them right back in the same building. Harrison Brown and Katy Hart lead an Outback side that finished the season on top of the combined ladder, and Harry in particular has been unplayable — three round MVPs on the bounce heading into finals.

The subplot that makes this must-watch: Aaron Johnson was dropped by the Opals during the mid-season reshuffle, only for Harry to bring him straight into the Outback fold. AJ now faces the team — and the captain — that let him go, in a final that decides who keeps their season alive. Expect Nick Mal to make his presence felt all match, and expect very little love lost between either side's line-up.

The Opals are not to be dismissed lightly. Their championship pedigree is real, and Josh Barber has gone from a name people overlooked in Division 2 to one of the most dangerous players in the competition. If the Opals are any chance, it starts with him.

Heat vs Adders Is Its Own Kind Of Fight

Qualifying Final 2 pits the Heat, still chasing their first NPL Championship after two seasons of falling short, against an Adders side that has not lost since the mid-season reshuffle.

Selina Turulja is one half of the tightest MVP race the league has produced all year, and the Heat's path through finals runs directly through Lavers and Fogl-Kulich finding their best form at the right time. The Adders bring their own storyline in the Kats — Valos and her partner, reunited under Matt Kouznetsov after a heartbreaking near-miss with the Roos last season, and now given a genuine shot at redemption on the biggest stage.

An unbeaten record since the reshuffle means plenty in the regular season. Whether it means anything against a team of the Heat's calibre is the entire question of this final.

The MVP Race Nobody Wants To Call

Nicola Schoeman finishes the regular season with five round MVPs to Selina Turulja's four — the tightest individual race in the league, and one that may not resolve itself until the very last match of the weekend. Both have been the standout performer for their respective sides all season.

If the brackets cooperate, a Schoeman-Turulja head-to-head in the back end of finals would be the individual duel of the year.

Harry's Shot At History

If the Outback go all the way, Harrison Brown becomes the first player in NPL history to win three titles — twice as Outback captain, once with the Caterpillars.

It is the single biggest individual storyline of the weekend, and it sits on top of an Outback side already favoured to be there at the end.

The Schedule

Finals run Friday 28 August through Sunday 30 August at The Jar Maidstone.

Friday — the 3rd Place Playoff between the Roos, Dinkers and Reef decides who joins the finals field.
Saturday — Elimination Finals (5th v 8th, 6th v 7th) and Qualifying Finals (1st v 4th, 2nd v 3rd), followed by the Semi Finals.
Sunday — Preliminary Finals, the Bronze playoff, and the Grand Final at 2:00pm.

Three days. Nine teams still standing. One trophy.