North Melbourne star Emma King says the confidence her team has gained from finals victories over established power clubs could be crucial in the Kangaroos' quest for a maiden AFLW premiership. North face the Brisbane Lions at a sold-out Ikon Park on Sunday in the club's first flag decider - women's or men's - since 1999. They have not beaten the Lions in four previous attempts and threw away an 18-point halftime lead in their most recent encounter, in round four. But a thrashing of reigning premiers Melbourne and a gritty triumph over three-time champions Adelaide during the finals have given North a boost in their bid to clear the last remaining hurdle. "We've built a lot of confidence over the last couple of weeks beating Melbourne and Adelaide ... massive confidence," King said. "To beat Melbourne in the first round and then to back that up against Adelaide was really exciting, to know that when our system and pressure holds up we can really beat those top teams. "We've got one more to go ... so we can bring that confidence into our last big feat on the weekend." Brisbane have reached a fifth grand final from a possible seven, forcing their way into another decider with narrow finals wins over Adelaide and Geelong. "They play hard with a lot of pressure and they're a very contested side," King said. "We need to make sure that we minimise their impact inside the contest, beat them in work rate around the ground and get the game on our terms as much as possible." A small number of extra grand final tickets released on Friday were quickly snapped up by fans, guaranteeing a sell-out crowd of about 13,000 will be on hand. The demand for tickets led to calls this week for a venue switch to the 53,343-capacity Marvel Stadium. But the AFL-owned venue was ruled out by the league, which said recent events had left the Docklands turf in an unsuitable condition. "It's a spectator sport, so absolutely we would have (preferred the grand final at a bigger venue)," King said. "But we've got confidence at Ikon Park and last week there was 5000 there and we thought that was quite loud. "To have almost triple that will be loud enough and some of the girls haven't even played in front of a crowd that big. "Hopefully everyone's got the blue and white on this weekend and they're cheering for the right side." Outgoing AFLW boss Nicole Livingstone defended the league's decision to hold the grand final at Ikon Park. "We think 13,000 is going to be a ripping crowd for AFLW on the weekend and we look forward to seeing that grand final take place," Livingstone said. "Venues and those kinds of things will be up to the AFL to determine in the future ... but this sell-out crowd is going to be epic." The AFL will set up a live site for fans, with big screens outside the venue. Australian Associated Press
