PRELIMINARY FINAL
East Gosford v Kincumber
For the second season in a row, East Gosford and Kincumber will meet in the Preliminary Final as the Rams look to book their third consecutive Grand Final appearance, while the Roos will be chasing history, eager to secure their place on the big stage.
East Gosford put together one of their best and most complete performances last Sunday and were extremely unlucky not to defeat the undefeated League Champions.
The Rams started the game strong and found the opening goal through an incredible long-range effort from Emma Hurley. Killarney pulled one back and the game remained 1-1 until injury time where East Gosford went ahead 2-1 thanks to a rocket free kick from Kim Meyer.
But it wasn’t to be for John Jiggins’ side who conceded at the death and then lost a penalty shootout to the Terriers. But despite a disappointing result after coming so close, Jiggins suggests it will provide his squad with the belief that they can achieve their goals of a Grand Final win.
“Going toe to toe with Killarney and going within 35 seconds of beating them for the first time this season has given us tremendous confidence going forward. In my opinion, we were the better team in large patches of the game and just lost concentration in the latter stages of the game.”
East Gosford will now be forced to do things the hard way to make their third consecutive Grand Final, which they are used to in recent years, having played in the last two Preliminary Finals.
Although the squad has been here before, so was John Jiggins last year, but in the dugout opposite East Gosford as the Kincumber head coach. Fast-forward 12 months, and Jiggins will be leading out the Rams this time round in this do-or-die fixture.
Jiggins touched on what it means coming up against his former club, “It is always hard coming up against a team you have previously coached. I am very fond of those girls, but I am at the Rams now, so my job is to get the result for them!”
Jiggins spoke more about the opposition, noting this side has plenty of quality around the pitch. “Kincumber will be a hard team to beat.”
“They are well structured and play with a lot of confidence. They are more than worthy opponents who thoroughly deserve to be in the position they are!”
All three fixtures between these sides in 2025 have been extremely close. East Gosford walked away 1-0 winner in their initial meeting, but since then, we have seen two draws between the two clubs who are very evenly matched.
With so much on the line, Jiggins stated that their keys to success remain the same heading into Saturday, and he is looking forward to seeing the two teams go head-to-head.
“I have said it on numerous occasions that we need to be clinical in front of goals and not allow the occasion to get to us.”
“We need to believe in our processes and play above what we have been doing in the last few weeks. We are a quality side playing another quality side so it will be a spectacular game.”
It’s déjà vu for Kincumber who are coming off a rematch of last year’s Minor Semi-Final and are now heading into a rematch of last year’s Preliminary Final.
Last week saw a clinical 2-0 victory for the Roos over the E-Gals, a result that kept their season alive.
Tamara Forster was first on the scoresheet for the Roos with an incredible long-range strike before Jasmine Beacroft doubled their lead before half-time with a thunderous free kick.
It was a very complete and mature Finals performance from Tamer Mansour’s side who have yet another year of Finals experience under their belts and they look to go one step further and cement a spot in the club’s first WPL Grand Final.
Mansour took over the reins of head coach this season as Jiggins made the move to East Gosford. Securing Finals last year set the standard for this squad, and the introduction of Mansour has seen Kincumber achieve this goal as they are determined to prove themselves on the biggest stage once again.
Last year when these two sides met in the Preliminary Final, Kincumber were second best on that day as East Gosford were 3-1 winners as the Roos only managed to score a late consolation goal through Nina Boije Af Gennas.
Having the majority of the same squad as last season, this fixture will serve as redemption for these Kincumber players who will be determined not to fall short of the big stage once again.
With East Gosford now in their firing line, Mansour knows beating this opposition will be no easy feat. “Our three games with East Gosford were very close games and could have gone either way.”
“East Gosford has two of the highest top goal scorers this season in Dominello and Hogan. They can score from half chances, they are disciplined and have the experience.”
As for what he can control, Mansour’s message to his player this weekend will be a simple one. “We will go out there and play our style of football and have fun doing it! I have faith that the young girls will play their heart out as they did all season.”
“We must be disciplined and play the full 90 minutes, we have to have the mentality to keep going and fight to match their experience.”
Preliminary Final –
