Nova player-coach Katie Robinson expects Thunder's shooting end to benefit from Newcastle's strong showing on the state stage over the long weekend as they eye their first win over another top-four team in championship netball on Saturday.
The round-10 clash pits third-placed Thunder, who have 20 points, against fourth-placed West Leagues Balance (19). West have played one less game than Nova and were comfortable 58-39 winners when the two sides met in round three.
Thunder's Caity Lobston and Abbie Gray combined in the shooting circle for Newcastle at the NSW titles in Liverpool last weekend. Newcastle dropped just one match from 18 on the way to finishing runners-up to Manly Warringah in the open championship division.
"Caity and Abbie spent all weekend playing together, so that will be really good for them," Robinson said.
"I'm thinking that that weekend of our shooters playing together will have strengthened them up for us."
West had shot out to an 18-7 lead by quarter-time when the two sides last met and were ahead by 16 at the main break.
"We reflected on last round's game against this group and we got wiped in the first quarter," Robinson said.
"If we can have a strong first quarter then we'll be able to have a bit more confidence to hang in the game for longer this time around.
"For us, we'll be aiming to speed up the ball and to be less predictable.
"I think we need to knock off one of these big ones, so West, Souths or Uni are on our radar this time around."
Nova have a full complement of players while West coach Tracey Baggs hoped to have most, saying shooter Maddie Taylor and defender Natarlia Bridges were likely to be the only ones in doubt.
"Before we played any games, I said they were one to watch because consistently they have the same players and they don't have players who play in Sydney, so they train, which makes a big difference," Baggs said.
"We didn't train this week because we had a lot of girls who had been at state and the rest are [NSW] premier league.
"They've also got the likes of Caity Lobston in there. She's like a game winner. And the last game they had a new defensive end, two defenders I hadn't seen before. Both were quite tall and very good, so I'm not really sure what to expect."
Inner Glow (18) play BNC (8). University of Newcastle (22) take on Kotara South (12) and Souths (26) meet Junction (12).
In Super Netball, Sam Poolman's Giants play Thunderbirds at Ken Rosewall Arena on Sunday. The NSW Swifts host the Firebirds at the same venue on Saturday.
