Thundersticks wary of wounded Tigers in must-win match

The Perth Thundersticks women will be looking to bounce back this weekend when they host the Tassie Tigers in a massive clash at the Perth Hockey Stadium at Curtin University.

The Thundersticks women sit in fourth place on the ladder and are fighting for a finals position heading into the clash after recording two straight losses against the Brisbane Blaze and NSW Pride.

Meanwhile, Tassie sit on the bottom of the table, with a shootout win over the Blaze in round one giving them their only points of the season.

Heading into Saturday afternoon’s clash, Thundersticks coach Phil Hulbert said he was still happy with how his side were playing despite the recent results.

“We are obviously disappointed with the last two results, but we have not been disappointed with every element of how we are playing,” Hulbert said.

“I think if a few slight things had of been different we would have got different results but that wasn’t to be, and that is sport I guess.

“We have a big match against Tassie this weekend and that is where we really need to move our focus to.

“The further you go into the tournament, the more pressure there will be, but I think the girls will relish that feeling and get the result on the weekend.”

Tassie have gone own 2-0 to Adelaide and 3-0 to Canberra in their other two matches to start the tournament.

Hulbert said he hoped the Perth crowd would get behind his side and that the Tigers were no easy beats.

“Every team in this competition is good and can win on their day,” Hulbert said.

“Whilst they are sitting not where they want to be and won’t be happy, I think they have been quite unlucky in lots of games.

“Even on the weekend I thought they were quite unlucky.

“They have been playing some good hockey and have some really strong players throughout the whole pitch and we will have to be on our game to be able to get across the line against them.”

The first-year Thundersticks coach said his side was taking it game by game and trying to get incrementally better throughout their campaign.

“Continued improvement is the focus for us, we want to get better each game,” Hulbert said.

“We also want to try play together as a team as often as we can.

“It is always hard when people come in from multiple teams and settings to get them to play together, so that is a continued focus.

“We don’t want to focus on finals yet because we are not in there at the moment, once we get there we can focus on that.”

The Thundersticks will welcome back goalkeeper Elizabeth Duguid for her first game of the year this weekend after the loss of Hockeyroo Aleisha Power.

Hulbert said having Duguid in the net was an apt replacement for Power.

“She is a very talented keeper who in my opinion is probably the fourth best in Australia, so it is exciting for her to get her opportunity,” Hulbert said.

Pushback will be at 4:30pm at Perth Hockey Stadium at Curtin University. Tickets are on sale now, with kids under 18 free with paid adult general admission tickets.