BENDIGO Spirit coach Simon Pritchard believes his side’s chances of a WNBL win against Canberra Capitals on Thursday night lies in improved form from his pair of imports.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The third-year coach said both Rachel Banham and Betnijah Laney would need to step up against a Capitals team equally desperate for a late season win, and against Sydney Uni Flames on Saturday night, especially with injuries and illness taking its toll on the side.
“The impact of injury and sickness has just shown our lack of depth – we are not carrying the extra players that you should carry in a WNBL program,” he said.
“You need to have depth through to your sixth, seventh and eight players of WNBL standard and that could play on another team and play major minutes.
“With Kelsey out, Gabe (Richards) sick and Ollie (Heather Oliver) out – three of our first eight – that is going to test any team’s depth.
“From our perspective, I think we need to get more out of our imports.
“Rachel we need to get more out of in terms of finishing around the ring and scoring – we need our 15 or 20 points out of her.
“We haven’t go that the last two games, but we need it this weekend.
“She has good match-ups this weekend, so she just needs to find the bottom of that net.”
With guard Oliver missing last Saturday night’s heavy loss against Townsville Fire with a calf injury and Richards struck down by a bug on Sunday, Pritchard revealed he did not have enough fit bodies to run scrimmages at practice on Monday night.
“Given the Canberra game is a very important game to us, the decision was made to leave Ollie out against Townsville,” he said.
“She was rested again at training last night (Monday) and will only do light work with the main group (on Tuesday night).
“This is a winnable game, but Canberra is a very talented team. With the talent in their team, they have really under achieved in my view.
“They have the best of the young Australian talent in their team, so when that talent plays to their ability, they will be really difficult.”
The Capitals will enter the clash on a high after downing Dandenong Rangers 81-78 on Saturday night in Melbourne.
Bendigo’s most recent win came against Canberra on November 25.
