Donnell Wallam's Queensland Firebirds have little downtime and no favours on their side as they look to rebound from the weekend's 13-goal loss to Melbourne Vixens against an undefeated West Coast Fever on Friday.
After keeping within touching distance trailing by just two goals at the first break on Sunday afternoon, the Firebirds allowed a 20-12-goal second quarter to give the Vixens the upper hand throughout the remainder of the contest.
Despite a winning third-quarter for Wallam's side, the Vixens walked away 68-55 winners at a packed John Cain Arena.
After a shaky start, Wallam responded to shoot 37 from 40 attempts at goal, and hit two super shots at the end of quarters, but struggled to lift her side who at times looked one-dimensional attempting to score with limited input from GA pair Emily Moore and Tippah Dwan.
Pre-match, Wallam told Indigenous former Diamond Sharon Finan-White the Firebirds had been "pushing it to the top teams" after tight losses to last year's grand finalists Adelaide and the NSW Swifts either side of their sole win for the start of the year against the Giants in round two.
"I think we just have to take a lot of confidence away from that game against the Swifts and even Adelaide know that we can match it against last year's Grand finalists. So it's just having that self belief and then putting that out there on the court," Wallam said.
Wallam said ahead of the clash against the then 3-0 Vixens, coming up against strong outfits "takes the pressure off" as the Firebirds look to build on a disappointing 2023 campaign.
Their next opponents, the undefeated Fever, are focusing on keeping fresh after a gruelling start to their year on the road with coach Dan Ryan telling the West Australian this week "They're (the Firebirds) playing great netball and are hard to beat."
"We'll change our loading throughout the week and have a really, really light session on Tuesday and our main session on Wednesday," he said.
"One big team focused session to prepare for Firebirds and a Captain's Run on Thursday. It's a quick turnaround so we'll have to look after the bodies.
"We've had three of our first four games away from home, so it's about making sure we can refresh as best we can and understand that Firebirds are going to be a tough team to play."
Speaking after Sunday's loss, Firebirds coach Rebecca Bulley said he side would head straight to Perth from Melbourne as they look to prepare for the ladder-leaders.
They'll also have to contend with red-hot Fever defender Sunday Aryang who dominated in nullifying Swifts goal attack and England star Helen Housby in West Coast's massive 16-goal win to round out the weekend.
Even with Wallam likely avoiding Aryang as a direct opponent on Friday, the Fever defence presents a tough task as they key to scoring close to the net.
