Winning back-to-back Premierships is a very hard feat to achieve in any sport, but that won't deter the defending champion ERNA Hawks in Wednesday night's 2020 Origin Energy Premier League Opens Grand Final at Netball Central.
In what will be a fitting finale to the 2020 Opens competition, the Hawks - who overcame Grand Final heartache in 2018 only to bounce back and claim the title a year later - will look to become the first franchise (in either Opens or U23/20s divisions) to claim consecutive Premier League titles.
The Hawks denied the Central Coast Heart the same feat in last year's decider so know all about how difficult the task they face is.
Standing in their way is a North Shore United side that ended the Heart's hopes of three Grand Finals in a row last week, and that's excelled under former Swift, Giant and Australian Diamond - Bec Bulley.
ERNA finished the regular season on top of Conference A and had too much for the Manly Warringah Sapphires in last week's Semi Final.
During the regular season the Hawks and United met twice, drawing 51-all in the first encounter before the latter scored a huge 49-40 win the second round robin clash.
While the Hawks will be looking to avenge that defeat, for North Shore it will be a case of trying to replicate the formula that matched, and then defeated, the defending Premiers earlier this year.
The Grand Final takes centre stage on Show Court, with the game live streamed on BarTV Sport, while the Sapphires and Heart will battle it out on Court 1 in the third-place playoff.
Netball NSW competitions manager Claire Dale said ensuring the 2020 Premier League took place, despite the challenges of the COVID19 Pandemic, was something everyone involved should be proud of.
"The Origin Energy Premier League is a vital part of the Netball NSW pathway and, given there was so much lost to the netball community this year, we are very happy to have made this competition happen in 2020.
"The ERNA Hawks and North Shore United have been two of the best sides all year and I think we have the decider the competition deserves.
"So much work has been done across all franchises to ensure we could have a competition this year, including during the lockdown when all teams did remote sessions.
"It's a real sign of the strength of this competition and the calibre of athletes and coaches we have coming through.
"I'd like to wish both remaining teams all the best for the Grand Final and thank everyone for their above-and-beyond efforts in 2020."
