Southern arrived with a game plan and kept a lid on their nervous as the feeling was all the pressure was on the Koalas to win.

The Koalas were undefeated all comp and lost the previous weekend against Manly, sending Manly straight to the grand final.

We knew it would be a tough physical match as Koalas were a top quality team.

The Koalas came out hard and fast from the beginning testing our keeper, Chloe Pellow in the first couple of minutes, however Chloe tackled the shot with ease.

It was Southern’s turn to respond when Emily Jenkinson ran the ball up the side line giving the ball to Nicole Constable who crossed the ball over only to be saved by the Koalas keeper.

Our girls had to adjust their game as the pitch was like a dessert with the ball bouncing all over the place.

Taren King, Jo Costanzo, and Lauren Gilbert held Southern’s midfield well distributing the ball to our forwards, Emily Jenkinson, Dani Wise and Nicole Constable who applied pressure by squeezing the Koalas defence.

Costanzo and King were putting in nice balls to our left hand side connecting with Wise.

While Bec Collier, Caitlyn Pattie, Kate Sinclair and Maddy Cornell were strong in defence by shutting down the forceful play from the Koalas strikers.

They had their work cut out for them as the Koalas are known for their physical strength.

Then in the 12th minute of the first half Koalas slipped by making a poor back pass, the ball went across goals to Wise who was out wide and got a foot on it and shot just going wide of the post.

The Koalas lost their composure and Southern struck in the 14th minute when Constable headed the ball down from a corner to Costanzo who bicycled kicked and the ball sailed over the keepers head putting Southern as the first to score in the game.

Koalas were rattled and Vonnie Robb got a ball over to Jenna Owen who put a great first touch to the ball narrowly missing the target. Score at half time was Southern 1 Koalas Nil.