Kelly Jackson (Pulse) v Grace Nweke (Mystics)
The best goal keep against the best goal shoot.
Just when you thought Jackson could not step up another level from last season, she finds another gear. She is easily the most dominant goal keep, leading the competition in intercepts (42), deflections (89) and defensive rebounds (37).
She is one of the few who nearly match Nweke in height — Jackson is 1cm shorter — and that will make Nweke’s midcourters think before letting the ball go.
Nweke, who missed part of the season through injury, sits at 87.9%, shooting 400 of her 455 attempts. You can almost guarantee that from most of those missed shots, Nweke has snaffled her own rebound and made good on her second attempt.
But that will become interesting against Jackson, who prides herself on her rebounding, and will look to put Nweke off the shot first and make sure of the crumbs.
This clash really could make or break either side.
Whitney Souness (Pulse) v Michaela Sokolich-Beatson (Mystics)
Souness has been in a league of her own this season starring for the Pulse at wing attack. She leads the competition with 406 centre pass receives — 109 ahead of the next best — and has a whopping 411 feeds. Her sharp footwork, and speed to follow, makes sure she gets across the transverse line and hits the circle edge first.
Sokolich-Beatson will need to get on top of that early, make sure she defends hard one-on-one to stop Souness and use her brilliant closing speed to come screaming through for the ball.
Souness also gives away 10cm in height to Sokolich-Beatson, who will get her arms up early to try to disrupt Souness’s flow. But when Souness is in the zone, there is no stopping her.
She has shouldered quite the workload this season with the multiple disruptions the Pulse have faced in their attacking end.
Fa’amu Ioane (Pulse) v Peta Toeava (Mystics)
You almost run out of words to describe the way Toeava plays. She is speedy, crafty and innovative.
Toeava’s connection with Nweke is well documented but her match-up against Ioane is intriguing.
Ioane is not the flashiest player, but perhaps that is what makes her so good. She hardly plays a bad game and just goes about her work laying the foundation to set things up for those around her.
That approach could be key when she comes up against Toeava — who leads the competition with 472 feeds — to shut her down early and stop her from getting the early feed away that she loves too much. Shutting that down is critical as it is what gets Nweke firing also.
These two are former team-mates as well from Ioane’s time with the Mystics (2021-2022), so they will know what makes each other tick.
