In a blunt self-assessment, Pritchard felt no one, particularly himself, could evade scrutiny after the Spirit missed the WNBL for the second straight season.

Their fate was sealed by a 25-point weekend loss to Canberra Capitals, punctuated by an ugly third quarter in which the Spirit were outscored 24-4.

It was the Spirit's sixth loss in seven games following the Christmas break.

Pritchard, who is under contract for the next two years, said when a team like the Spirit, which has been one of the most successful in the WNBL during its 10 year history, missed finals in two straight years "everything was on the table" for players and coach.

"Absolutely ... I think my performance in getting the best out of the team in the second half of the season has not been good enough," he said.

"I'm quite critical of myself and trying to figure out what triggers the girls and keeps them going.

"The only thing I know of with my group is that if we are 15 points down we are going to work hard," he said in terms of the inconsistency that has plagued recent performances.

"I don't know what I am going to get when we are zero-zero and I don't no what I am going to get when we are 10 points up.

"They're very inconsistent with their efforts and they are very inconsistent with their defence and the team needs to address that.

"We won't play finals until we get a more consistent defence - and that's on me.

"If the girls don't understand our defensive system, or are not prepared to do the work on our defensive system, at the end of the day if they choose not to do it it's on me."

Continuing to reshape an ageing list will be a priority for the Spirit going forward, according to Pritchard.

"I don't think we have enough young legs to make it to the end of the season - we don't seem to be able to make it to the end of the season," he said.

Pritchard was reluctant to use injuries as an excuse but conceded the absence of starting point guard Kerryn Harrington for all but one game in the new year had cruelled the team in much the same way those sustained by team captain Kelsey Griffin and fellow two-time championship player Gabe Richards had down the stretch last season.

"People forget she was our third leading scorer," he said.

"The major change after Christmas - and I don't want to blame it on this as there are other things as a group we can adjust - we had scoring from the point, scoring from the three and scoring from the five - Nayo (Raincock-Ekunwe), Kelsey and Kerryn.

"And they were also solidly in our defence. You take Kerryn out and we haven't been able to replace that.

"That triangle of players worked really well together, so we lost our best perimeter defender, our starting point guard and someone who scores eight points a game.

"She's that important for us .. but everyone has injuries."

The Spirit' form after Christmas mirrored last year's when the team went 3-5 after Christmas and again narrowly missing out on finals after occupying a spot in the top three for much of the season.

But it's been the margin of those losses which have concerned, including a 41 point blowout to start the new against Perth and a 20 point loss to Townsville in January.

With two more games to play this weekend against Melbourne Boomers (away on Saturday) and Perth Lynx (home on Sunday), Pritchard said it was important the team finished the season off well.

But he dismissed suggestions players were playing for their careers.

"But they need to be finishing off well to show they can play strong at the back half of the season," he said.

"That's when the finals are.

"Last year we were 12-12 and just missed finals, but it wouldn't have mattered, both Kelsey and Gabe (Richards) were never going to play the following week.

"We are not quite in that situation this year, but we have been carrying injuries - as everybody is.

"No one's 100 per-cent after Christmas."