KEY POINTS:
FINAL
Auckland-Waitakere v Southland
Rotorua, 4.30pm today.
Auckland-Waitakere will defend their provincial title against surprise finalists Southland today, after the southerners scraped past Netball North in a tense semifinal showdown in Rotorua.
Southland, who have never made a National Championship final, narrowly edged North 55-54 with Southern Steel shooter Julianna Naoupu nailing the crucial shot with 30 seconds remaining on the clock.
Reigning champions Auckland-Waitakere did it comparatively easily, sealing their place in the final for the third straight year with a 50-42 win over Otago.
Auckland were without inspirational midcourter Jenny-May Coffin for their semifinal after she hurt her knee in Thursday's final pool play match against Waikato.
Coffin was walking around on it gingerly yesterday, but said there was still a chance she would play today.
"It's a possibility, it just depends how I pull up tomorrow. I've got another 12 hours so we'll see how it goes," she said.
If Coffin doesn't take the court in today's final, then it is likely she has played her last game of top-level netball, with the former Silver Fern withdrawing from the Southern Steel team for next season's transtasman league.
Coffin was named in the Steel's preliminary line-up but yesterday announced her retirement from the game to take up a new role with TVNZ - a decision the veteran midcourter described as "bitter-sweet".
"Being given an opportunity at work that you just can't pass up is wonderful, but on the flipside of that I've had to let go of playing under Robyn Broughton and playing with a cool bunch of girls."
For Coffin, who said injuring her knee was a case of old age catching up with her, the injury perhaps served as a timely reminder she was doing the right thing.
She said she was grateful to at least get the opportunity to play in the ANZ Championship this year and experience the extremely competitive transtasman league.
"If coaching is something that I want to do, then at least I've got a chance to know what it's like to play in the competition.
"Also I think being coached by someone like Robyn, you can't get a better experience than that. She's the best domestic coach in the country."
Auckland-Waitakere will be desperate to give Coffin a fairytale end to her career today, but they can expect to meet a stern challenge from the young Southland side.
They are the only team to have beaten Auckland in round-robin play and have built up some strong momentum over the past couple of days.
Coach Natalie Avellino, who is also playing for Southland, said the biggest challenge would be calming her side down and focusing on the job ahead after the thrill of beating the experienced North line-up.
"We're on a roll and we just need to continue to do the things we're doing well," she said.
"We want to enjoy the final experience because a lot of these girls may never get the opportunity at ANZ Championship level."
In other matches today, North will meet Otago in a play-off for third and fourth, while Waikato face a fight for their survival in division one today after finishing at the bottom of the top flight with a 43-39 loss to Western.
The Waikato side will face Canterbury, the winners of division two, in a promotion-relegation match.
