North Warrnambool Eagles embracing South challenge in Saturday Hampden league blockbuster

The great Hampden league rivals do battle in the highly-anticipated AFL Victoria Country Club game on the weekend and for the experienced Eagle, it's a challenge the players are relishing.

"It's obviously a challenge, we'd love to knock South off, but we're excited," she told The Standard.

"We've had some outs - my first game back in three weeks was last week, I missed the Hamilton match and then got the flu and pneumonia so missed Portland, as did Rachael Ryan and Jordyn Billings but we're super excited to have a full strength side in against South."

The boom recruit - who returned to the Eagles this season after eight years away - said confidence was high ahead of the clash.

"We were excited to play Terang and we knew we needed to win that game to get some confidence back in the girls, put some confidence back in ourselves and we had a great game," she said.

"We got some juniors on the court, kids like Emily Saffin came on at three-quarter-time and it was like she's been playing senior netball forever."

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Vardy said the key to Saturday would lie with the side's ability to stay consistent across four quarters and not drop intensity.

"We have to shut down their attacking end, it's something we're the strongest at, our defensive line is really competitive," she said.

"We need to maintain possession of the ball, it's something we need to work on because our defensive end is really strong.

"If we keep possession and score off that, it'll be close - it'll be a close start, South will try and kick away and we have to stay composed and stick with them for four quarters."

It's a massive occasion for both clubs with the AFL Victoria Work Safe match, with a big build up beginning on Tuesday night with Sport and Life Training (SALT) coming to the club to talking to the players.

The Eagles will also tap into the knowledge of Australian netball legend and former national coach Norma Plummer as part of the week.

"It's huge for us, we had a mental health workshop (on Tuesday night) as part of the week and we had all the girls out there and it was a powerful night," she said.

"A lot of the girls opened up about things outside of netball and people's' personal struggles and listening to what a club can do for each other to support.

"Coming back to North, they're a strong, connected club, and we have Norma Plummer at training on Thursday night and also sitting on our bench Saturday so the girls are super excited about that, as am I and her knowledge is huge for us."

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