Skipper all fired to right defeat
THE Townsville Fire have resolved to come out firing against Dandenong this afternoon as they look to bounce back from their first loss of the WNBL season.
The Fire have trailed at halftime in every game so far this season, which didn’t stop them in wins over Melbourne and Canberra, but a horror 17- 5 first quarter against Sydney on Thursday night proved a bridge too far.
Townsville again lifted to win the next three quarters in the 66- 63 defeat, but captain Suzy Batkovic said the competition was too close to let teams get the jump on them.
“Every team is so talented that if you don’t turn up to play or you get a bad start or you have a bad run through a quarter, it’s going to be extremely difficult to win,” Batkovic said.
“We just can’t chase from behind, it’s just not the way to string that many wins doing that. It’s pretty impossible.
“We’ve had our third game now and it is a little bit of a concern. We’ve got to find ways to get a better start and get the ball in the hoop.
“We’re a quality team and there are so many players that you could utilise on that court at any one time. It’s just about getting that good start for us.”
The Fire will need to be switched on when they come up against a desperate Dandenong outfit on the road with last season’s grand finalists still chasing their first win.
Townsville will have time to prepare in their little first double- header of the season and Batkovic stressed that they can’t afford to dwell on what went wrong against Sydney.
“It’s such a short turnaround, you’ve got to try and compress it real quick and move forward,” she said.
“I think there are going to be a few things that definitely will be addressed on the defensive end and offensively it was like there was a lid on top of the ring, especially in that first quarter.
“There will be things ( from the loss to Sydney) that we can utilise against Dandenong and the rest will just be put to the side. It is a little bit difficult, but everyone is put in similar boats so you’ve just got to lock in on what we’re doing and make sure we’re all focused.”
Fire coach Claudia Brassard expected her players to be feeling the pressure with such a whirlwind season, but she said they just had to put those distractions out of their minds.
“There’s probably a few of them who are overthinking things. Whether or not they’re worried about making mistakes, but when you get to this level you’ve got to be able to maintain that confidence no matter what and be able to play through that,” she said.