West Coast Fever have been installed as favourites to claim their first Super Netball premiership in their 25-year history as they prepare to resume hostilities with arch-rivals Melbourne Vixens at RAC Arena on Sunday.

Fever will battle the Vixens in a rematch of the 2020 decider, which the latter won 66-64 in Queensland, after the Melbourne side claimed a thrilling one-goal preliminary final win over the Giants at John Cain Arena on Saturday night.

It will be another chapter in the rivalry between the two sides, which began in the grand final two years ago and heated up last season when the Vixens refused to fly to Perth for their round eight clash against Fever after three players were denied entry into WA under COVID-19 rules.

The Vixens beat Fever in both their home-and-away clashes this season, but the WA side thumped the minor premiers 71-62 in the major semifinal on their home court earlier this month, booking their place in a third grand final in five seasons.

Fever are $1.45 favourites to repeat the performance with Ladbrokes, while Vixens are out to $2.75 after their devastating loss, with West Coast pushing the lead out to 20 goals in the third quarter.

Vixens coach Simone McKinnis played down the semifinal defeat, saying they’d moved on since.

“We very quickly moved on. We had to acknowledge it was poor and Fever were fantastic that game,” McKinnis told FoxNetball on Saturday.

“I think today, although there was some gaps in a couple of quarters but we’re playing against a good side … I think we’ll take a lot from that game today.”

Vixens lead the all-time head-to-head 26-6 with two draws but must overcome a parochial crowd of nearly 13,000 to win their fourth premiership.

Nearly 9000 tickets have already been sold and Netball Australia expecting a sell-out, with more tickets to be become available now Vixens have been confirmed as the second team.

Fever won’t have played a Super Netball game for 15 days when they take the court on Sunday but had a practice match on the weekend as part of their preparations.

West Coast coach Dan Ryan wasn’t concerned about the big gap between games.

“The biggest thing we can control is how hard we take each other on in a training environment and that over the past month has gone through the roof in terms of the competitiveness and how assertive and aggressive they are with each other,” Ryan told SEN.

“We know that our training environment reflects what we do on game day.

“It’s just ensuring we’re building parts of our game that still need work and being a head coach, you might have won the major semi by nine goals there’s always areas you can be better.”