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Australia’s top goalkeepers Laura Geitz and Susan Fuhrmann will test themselves against red-hot New Zealand shooters Irene van Dyk and Cathrine Latu this weekend, in a potential Test preview.
Both Magic veteran van Dyk (33/33) and Mystics spearhead (29/29) are coming off a perfect shooting performance last week, against Tactix and Pulse respectively.
They are also the two most accurate shooters in the trans-Tasman competition.
Latu, who switched her international allegiance from Samoa to New Zealand, leads the way with a staggering 97.6 success rate, having missed just three out of 123 attempts.
Van Dyk is next best with a 92.8 per cent strike rate.
Latu will be up against Geitz in Sunday on the Gold Coast, in a rematch of last year’s grand final.
“I actually think Cathrine Latu is a sensational player, now that she’s a Silver Fern alongside Irene (van Dyk),” Geitz told AAP.
The Mystics are sitting third, but Queensland are languishing in eighth and Geitz stressed the defending champions had little margin for further defeats after losing four of their first five games.
“We’ve done a lot of soul searching in the last week and we’re not silly, we know that it’s do or die for us now,” Geitz said.
“If we do want to be in that final four, then from this week on we basically have to be winning all of our games.
“It’s a big challenge for us. We went through the season unbeaten last year, so we’ve got the belief we can do it.”
Fuhrmann will resume her rivalry with van Dyk, when the Fever play the Magic in Tauranga on Sunday.
“I love playing against her, but its going to be a challenge,” Fuhrmann said.
Unbeaten ladder leader Melbourne Vixens are looking to get off to a better start against Tactix in Christchurch on Monday, after squeezing out a one-goal victory in each of their last two games.
“We’ve evaluated a couple of things about our warm-up and whether that provides us with the momentum going in,” Vixens’ coach Julie Hoornweg said.
“And talking about team meetings before and do we have enough information, or maybe sometimes perhaps too much, and over-analyse.”
She said defenders Bianca Chatfield (back strain) and Kara Richards (foot strain) may not travel.
The second-placed Thunderbirds host the fourth-placed Steel in Adelaide on Monday.
“I think they (Steel) were under-rated by the so-called experts, at the start of the year, but I rate them quite highly,” Thunderbirds’ coach Jane Woodlands-Thompson told AAP.
“I think any goal circle with Donna Wilkins and Jodi Brown is a combination to be reckoned with, so I think their goal circle is absolutely lethal.”
Following their bye, The Swifts host the Pulse on Sunday.
“The bye came at a good time for us as we had some niggles and some coughs and colds that we’ve had some time to recover from,” Swifts’ coach Lisa Beehag said.