Star defender Sharni Layton summed up the challenge of playing against Giants shooter Kristina Brice when the pair were set to clash last season.

Brice was still plying her trade with the Adelaide Thunderbirds, while Australian Diamond Layton was in her last year at the NSW Swifts ahead of her highly publicised move to the Magpies for the inaugural Super Netball competition, which kicks into finals mode this weekend.

"Last year when I was playing against her she was just like, 'I've got no idea how to play against you'," Brice said.

"She was having to go over to [coach] Rob [Wright] during the game and was like 'What should I do now? What I'm doing's not working, the ball's just going over my head'."

The pair will clash again at Olympic Park Sports Centre on Saturday night in a third-versus-fourth elimination final, the winner to play either Melbourne or Sunshine Coast next weekend.

Brice's second-half injection last weekend almost hauled the Giants to victory over Sunshine Coast, before Caitlin Bassett's seven straight goals late in the game swung the pendulum in the Lightning's favour.

The Mount Druitt product has been used as a substitute all season for the Giants, nicely complementing Jo Harten and Susan Pettitt, yet coach Julie Fitzgerald hasn't ruled out pulling the ultimate shock on Saturday and starting Brice in the opening quarter.

"Julie's just so unpredictable with what she does. She wants to make it so the other team can't really prepare too much for how they're going to play against us each week," Brice said.

"With the unpredictability with our goal circle it works in four different combinations because you can play Jo and Pratts [Pettitt] out either way. It could be an option.

"It's going to be a pretty physical game obviously. It's one and one with Collingwood this season, it just really depends on the day how things are going.

"Finals is a different game and it puts everyone in a different head space. I prefer it when it's a little bit more physical in the circle, I feel as though I shoot better when it's in that sort of environment.

"They're like 'Maybe we've gotten on top of her' and I turn around and sink a goal and it's like, 'Well I'm going to keep doing what I want to do, you guys try something else'."

Fitzgerald may also stick with the reconfigured attacking goal circle she has used during the first half in the past three weeks, with Pettitt starting at goal shooter and Harten roaming further up court in the goal attack bib.

Fitzgerald is bracing for the Magpies' best, even though the high-powered club has struggled to bring it consistently all season, so may well keep Brice up her sleeve for a second-half onslaught.

"They'll be thinking they've got into the finals, that's all they needed to do and from here on in they'll be able to turn it on with all of the experience that they've got," Fitzgerald said.

"Historically, we've been better in the second half of all our matches than the first.

"We've got to take that into account as well. It's not simply the impact of Krissy. Our defence, everything has historically been better in the second half than the first, so I have to take all of these things into consideration.

"We were really excited when we signed this team because we knew that we had real versatility and we've been able to use that where we've needed to."