Four teams face their last chance to qualify for the 2009 Central ABL Grand Finals this Saturday, with two standalone preliminary finals set to fill Mars and Port Adelaide.

West Adelaide’s women have been competition pacesetters all season, though results in July and August indicate that Sturt and Forestville have at least caught the Bearcats, and possibly overtaken them. Saturday’s preliminary at 6:30pm at Port Adelaide against Forestville will be their toughest challenge to date.

West were beaten in the double-chance semi final by Sturt last week in a physical encounter in which Sam Woosnam and Nikita-Lee Martin took a battering in their 40 minutes on the court. Angela Marino again led the way for Sturt from the perimeter but it was 13 points from Conor O’Brien (her highest CABL score since 2004) which proved to be the difference.

In its knockout semi-final against North, Forestville had a blistering start, scoring the first 10 points of the game and leading by as much as 17 in the first quarter. Its backcourt trio of Jess Fergus, Jess Mahoney and Dee Ranford triggered many fast breaks, often with Mia Newley and Megan Kermond on the end of them, and the Eagles’ speed and size could cause problems for the West Adelaide.

West and Forestville split their regular season matchups, with West winning by 8 in May and Forestville by 22 in July. Opinion is divided as to whether West are on a slide or whether Sturt and Forestville simply did not hit their straps until late in the season, but either way, if recent form counts for anything, Forestville would go into the game as slight favourites.

In yet another Grand Final rematch, Forestville’s men return to Mars at 7:30pm for one last chance to avenge last year’s heartbreaking buzzer-beater.

The Eagles ran all over West in the final quarter last week, but not before the Bearcats made a game of it. A scorching first quarter time-out from Forestville coach Andy Simons was required to get his team on track after a lead evaporated, and even as the margin hovered around 10 points, Forestville never looked safe until its 32-14 last quarter put the result beyond doubt. Peter Hoban top scored for Forestville and also often seems to have solid games against Norwood.

The other semi-final went down to the wire, with Sturt defeating Norwood by a point. Todd Matthews led the way for Norwood with 28 points while Andrew Webber continued to demonstrate his ability to do well in important games with 17 points and 7 assists. Jacob Holmes and Darren Ng carried the scoring load for Sturt, though three pointers from Jan Warbout and Nathan Vaughan were crucial in determining the result.

Norwood have won two of their three encounters with Forestville this season, the most crucial being the qualifying final two weeks ago in which Forestville struggled to contain Matthews as he split countless on-ball screens. If Forestville have an answer (and it is not simple, as Matthews hit 4 threes against Sturt), they are in with a shot. 350 people saw these teams play last game so if you are heading to Mars, get there early.