It all comes down to this - the last round of the regular season where hosting rights for the ANZ Premiership Grand Final will be determined and the third spot in the Finals Series will also be cemented.

The AVIS Magic need victory in the Deep South if they are to extend their season and they will also be reliant on the Stars to pull off a major upset in Auckland on Sunday. 

On form, the Magic should have little trouble dispatching the Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel but there are a couple of key factors which could cause the form books to be rewritten.

The game is being played in the fortress that is ILT Stadium and it will also be the swansong for coach Reinga Bloxham who has announced that this season will be her last in charge of the Steel. 

The Magic have had the better of the Steel each time they have met – winning by nine in Round 5 and seven in Round 10. They outplayed the Tactix last week led by the performance of captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio who shot at range with 95 per cent accuracy.

Ameliaranne says the team would need to play with the same “heart” they did against the Tactix and do as much as they could to control their future. She feels the Magic did a great job at controlling the tempo in the win over the Tactix and they will be looking for a similar approach in their build up to the last round. 

“We did really well at staying really composed – we felt really calm the majority of the time. This is a big one for us - obviously we want to play with heaps of heart and being in control of our future as much as possible and seeing how it plays out.”