The Good Oil Tactix don’t want the clock to beat them in their push for a maiden ANZ Premiership finals berth having rewritten the form book in recent weeks.
Time continues to count down in the revamped league with just three rounds remaining to determine the top two ranked sides which will go straight through to the title decider.
The unbeaten Pulse are on target to fill up one of those spots but the log-jam in the race for the second place remains a guessing game with the Tactix just one point shy sitting in third spot.
Tactix coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek said the goal firmly remained a place in the final and she felt they were “hitting our straps” in the second half of the Premiership.
“I’m excited to see where we can go next,” she said.
Disappointment with the draw against the Magic a week earlier fuelled the Tactix’ hunger to deliver something that the coach had been confident was coming.
“We’ve been making little improvements along the way in areas but it hadn’t come together at the same time,” she said.
It did in Round 6 and the goal now is to continue that upward trajectory.
“We just want to keep lifting our standards each week,” Delaney-Hoshek said. “Even though we had a great weekend it wasn’t perfect.”
Combinations all over the court have begun to consolidate, the most obvious the return of the red-and-black defensive wall in captain Jane Watson and Temalisi Fakahokotau – the duo leading the league for deflections. They also take up two of the top three spots for intercepts.
The last quarter against the Magic hurt for the defence line in particular and Delaney-Hoshek said there had been some honest conversations after the draw.
“We’ve got a really honest group and one of the things we thought we were missing was we weren’t making each other accountable on the court,” she said. “We’ve really lifted in that area.”
Time together was also making a difference with the frontline – which includes Te Paea Selby-Rickit in her first season with the Tactix and Erikana Pedersen who is returning from injury – an area to benefit from the minutes on court.
The connections have been solid which means the confidence to let the ball go or knowing when to show patience on attack has been another area of improvement.
“You can only sort of learn that through the heat of the battle, you can’t force it,” Delaney-Hoshek said. “We’ve had to be patient really.”
Shooter Ellie Bird is another to be finding her feet within the new forward line producing her best return last week as she continues to climb the ladder in both accuracy and volume.
Add the hustle in the middle from Kimiora Poi and Charlotte Elley and it is a Tactix unit poised to make a strong push for the August 23 final.
First up however, they are out to make amends for the loss suffered to the Stars in the second round when, hit by illness, they struggled in a six-goal defeat.
Battling adversary is not lost on the Tactix in a turbulent season and Delaney-Hoshek has seen her charges come together like no other team she has been involved with.
“I’m not going to say it’s been easy, it’s been quite difficult, but one of the coolest things about it is the players have really stepped up and taken responsibility,” she said.
“I can’t say enough how proud I am of what the girls have done this year.”
