SINCE Bathurst City burst onto the women's Premier League Hockey scene in 2007, they have been one the most consistently best performed clubs and have never missed a finals campaign.
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Now, 12 years on, if City manages to scrape into yet another finals series the current crop of players will owe goalkeeper Maddy Tattersall a pat on the back.
While the mission for Bathurst City to claim fourth spot in this Saturday's final round by not only beating Confederates, but doing so by a three-goal margin, is hard, it could have been more imposing if not for Tattersall.
Despite a barrage of shots fired in on her goal in last Saturday's penultimate round by Lithgow Panthers, Tattersall was only beaten twice to save City's for and against record from being dealt a fatal blow.
One of those came from a penalty stroke.
It was a performance that City coach Lisa Quinn praised. It demonstrated why Tattersall was selected in the NSW Country side to play at this week's national titles - an opportunity she had to turn down due to work commitments.
"Maddy is always a great player for us and always saves us and today was no exception. She did it again today, she was outstanding," Quinn said after the 2-1 result.
"If she was away with Country, it definitely could have been a different game. Not only is she great at stopping that ball, but she's got great leadership back there in directing the play.
"It's unfortunate for Maddy that she had to withdraw from the Country team, but that's our gain I guess."
Tattersall's talent as a shot blocker was on show early against the Panthers. The game was less than two minutes old when she made a double block to deny Chelsea Marshall.
From that play came a Panthers penalty corner and Tattersall saved that too.
In fact it took Panthers seven attempts from the set play to finally get past Tattersall, who also produced a diving stick save on the near post as she worked to keep City in the match.
It was a straight shot from Clare Bosman into the bottom left corner that found the mark to open Panthers' account, the Lithgow talent then adding a second from a penalty stroke.
But those two moments did not detract from a brilliant performance.
In the final 17 minutes of the game she twice blocked close range attempts from Amanda Saladine, was quick off her line and slid out to deny Ashley Luka and also turned away an on target attempt from Mackenzie Stewart.
City and Confederates do battle from 3.15pm on Saturday.
