Inner Glow coach Dwight Graham wants to see a sharper start when they attempt to keep alive their top-four hopes with victory over third-placed Nova in Newcastle championship netball at National Park on Saturday.
When they met in round four, Nova won 38-34 after shooting out to an early lead and holding off a fast-finishing Inner Glow.
As they go into round 11 this weekend, Nova are third with 20 points and Inner Glow fifth on 18. West Leagues Balance are fourth with 19 but have a game in hand against BNC Whanau (8).
"We absolutely have to win this one and probably have to win another game that we aren't expected to win," Graham said.
"Last time we made an awful start. We were down 11 after the first quarter and sometimes that start break is the winning break.
"Since we played them last time, we've worked a lot on our attack to try to get the transitions through the court a lot better and I think that will be key for us."
Graham was hopeful of having goal attack Aela Streatfield, who plays for Central Coast Heart 23s in NSW Premier League, at his disposal and expected goal shooter Hannah Purcell to prove pivotal.
"She's been playing really well," Graham said. "If she holds well and shoots well, that will really help us. Beyond that, it's the whole of the midcourt and them all just clicking together."
Nova player-coach Katie Robinson expects her side to be at full strength and was wary of an Inner Glow team who "never, ever give up".
"We definitely need this one," Robinson said. "I think this is the point in the season where we've decided that we no longer want to just be top four. We want to actually be at the top.
"So it starts from now for us to not just just win games, to actually win games and to play like we're a team that deserves to be in the finals. This will be the time to see if that's something we can do."
BNC play University of Newcastle (22), unbeaten Souths (26) take on Kotara South (12) and West go up against Junction Stella (12). All games are at 2.30pm.
