West Coast Fever coach Dan Ryan has revealed he is striving to reintroduce a sense of "light and joy" into the team environment as they seek to overcome a mid-season downturn. The Fever have suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time since the opening two rounds of last season, leaving them desperate for a victory against the Queensland Firebirds at Nissan Arena on Sunday.
Last year's grand finalists were sitting pretty at 5-1 just a month ago, but have now lost three of their past four matches, dropping them back into the chasing pack behind premiership favourites Melbourne Vixens and Adelaide Thunderbirds. Ryan acknowledged that the combination of physical and mental fatigue, along with a tough fixture list, has taken its toll on the squad.
"It's a bit of unfamiliar territory for us to be in this position, and it's been a really challenging month for us both physically and mentally," Ryan told The West Australian. "We've focused this week on reconnecting with all of the things that make us a great team and great players, and just getting a bit more light and joy into the environment to ensure that we're heading in the right direction."
"It's a challenging period but also one we need to be really engaged with embracing and also keeping perspective that while it's a really tough period of time and a really challenging season, we're still in third, which is a great position to be in, and we're just keen to get back out there and play some great netball."
Struggles on both ends of the court
The Fever have encountered difficulties in both offence and defence over the past month, contributing to their slide down the ladder. Ryan emphasised the need for his side to return to being "the team that's in control and dictating terms" on the court, starting this weekend.
"When you're in a bit of a stage where there's a number of things that aren't going our way, or we're not performing a number of different areas of our court, it can be quite challenging as to where you start," he said. "The number one thing for us is probably just reconnecting to the things that make us great individually, great within our units, and hard to beat across our full court as a team."
"Those things can get lost when you're trying to improve areas all the time, and for us, it's just going back to playing the game on our terms and being the team that's in control and dictating terms, and to do that, we have to play to our strengths far more often. That's probably where our focus shifts more than anything else."
Firebirds still a threat
The Queensland Firebirds are languishing near the bottom of the ladder with a 3-7 record, effectively out of finals contention. However, Ryan warned that they still pose a significant threat to his powerhouse unit. "They're able to win some ball defensively through individual brilliance and also team structures. They're very good off their centre pass defence, and it's a real feature, one of the strongest in the leagues in that part of their game," he said.
"And they're attacking, and they have a great weapon with an ability to score quickly. These are all parts of their game that we need to be very mindful of, but we also think that if we're playing to our strength and if we're doing what we know we're capable of to a high standard, we are the team that's really hard to beat, and that's the team we want to be on the weekend."
