One week on, Central Manawa will be working on a repeat performance when they meet Mainland in the Synergy Hair Netball League (NNL) Grand Final in Wellington on Saturday.
The pair crossed paths in the last match of the regular season last weekend, Manawa getting the necessary win over the previously unbeaten Mainland to secure their spot in the finale and a re-match with the southerners.
Having played each other so recently, plenty of information will have been gathered meaning brushing up on certain areas and probably some tweaks to the tactics employed.
"For us, our start wasn't the best," Manawa midcourter Erana Ngarimu said. "They got a big lead on us and we don't want to give them any opportunity for that to happen again. We need to make sure we go out really strong and start with the intensity we had in the second half last week."
Mainland got away to a flyer to lead by six at the first break before a strong response through the middle quarters helped Manawa forge a four-goal lead heading down the home straight. A late surge of super shots helped Mainland close the gaps, Manawa managing to keep them at arm's-length for an exciting 58-56 win.
"Our circle defence had a really good crack at disrupting their flow and that build of pressure led to us getting ball, so they'll definitely come out with some new tricks on that front and we just need to keep working on our own structures to make them better and better," Ngarimu said.
Mainland goal shoot Te Ata Hassan was a threat throughout with her ability from range when nailing eight from eight double-pointers.
"We'll be adapting to shut that down because she got quite a few two-pointers in the last quarter which we don't want to happen again," Ngarimu said.
"They ended up closing the gap really fast. The two-pointers make for a different game and it's just about adapting and how we can make that work in our own favour."
Manawa had a double bye before last week's match, the two-week break being put to good use and not proving a distraction.
"It was certainly strange having a break from the high-intensity games we'd been playing but during that time we just wanted to make sure we were still growing, still building so that when we came back, it was full force from us," Ngarimu said.
"As the season's gone on, there's things that we've been building on, team connections, where we want to feed to each other, how our defence structures work and from each game we've just been getting better and better. And when we hit the final, we just want to keep growing from there."
Getting to the Grand Final completed a perfect day for Ngarimu, 20, who was also named in the Pulse's day-game squad, going on to make her ANZ Premiership debut while securing the last intercept of the match during an impressive win.
"It was so exciting," she said. "I was so grateful for the opportunity. Everyone at the Pulse has been so supportive of me, I was lucky enough to go with them for some pre-season matches and it's all helped me grow my own game, so it's been awesome."
A product of St Mary's College, in Wellington, Ngarimu is in the third year of her Bachelor degree majoring in Marine Biology and Environmental Science at Victoria University.
The most successful team since the inception of the NNL in 2016, Manawa will be appearing in their eighth final while pocketing five titles. The Southern Blast, Northern Marvels and Northern Comets have claimed one title apiece.
Manawa and Mainland have met in two previous Grand Finals, 2017 and 2022, with Manawa winning on both occasions.