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Coming off a record performance, West Coast Fever will get a true measure of their ability against a Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic team that shows no signs of the traditional hangover suffered by the defending trans-Tasman netball champion.
The Magic, Melbourne Vixens and Queensland Firebirds are the only teams to have won each of their first two games.
West Coast lost by 14 to NSW Swifts in round one, but posted their highest ever score and the joint biggest competition score ever in a 80-53 home victory over the Northern Mystics in Perth last week.
They return to Challenge Stadium on Sunday to face the Magic, who with a victory will equal Queensland’s all-time competition winning streak of 15.
West Coast have lost all five of their previous fixtures against the Magic, but the formidable Kiwi outfit holds no fears for the Fever.
“We have an opportunity to really take this game up to Magic and we certainly don’t have to be scared about them,” West Coast coach Norma Plummer said.
While all four Australian teams that won the competition failed to make the finals the following season, there appears little chance the Magic will fall into the same hole.
They have started their defence with crushing 23 and 26 goal wins over the Canterbury Tactix and NSW Swifts respectively, limiting the latter to their equal lowest score.
“I think everybody had identified that if you keep doing the same thing, that you wouldn’t survive because everybody had worked out your game plan,” Plummer said.
“You have to smarten it up and change things.
“I think they have gone back to running a really tight zone. Last year they were switching it up.”
Fever will need to shut down supply to Magic’s peerless veteran shooter, Irene van Dyk, who has missed only four of 81 shots this season.
Three New Zealand teams – the Central Pulse, Tactix and Mystics – are all still waiting for their first win of the season heading into the first round this year to feature five trans-Tasman matches.
The Firebirds will put their pristine record on the line in Auckland on Sunday against the Mystics, who they have beaten six times in as many matches.
Round three starts with Southern Steel and Thunderbirds clashing in Dunedin in a fixture that has always previously been won by the home team.
Thunderbirds will need to find a way to limit Jamaican shooter Jhaniele Fowler who has bagged a whopping 109 goals in the first two rounds.
Monday’s matches pit the Swifts against Pulse in Wellington and the Vixens versus Tactix in Melbourne.