Last time West Leagues Balance 1 and Souths Lions met in the league, the defending champions came out on top, 49-35, and delivered Trude Yen’s outfit their first defeat of the season.

This time around, Yen is looking to potentially return the favour, a feat the Lions achieved in Round 8 last season.

“Wests are an extraordinary team,” Yen said of her team’s Round 9 opponents. “They’ve been well put together, they’re well honed, and they’re a force to be reckoned with, which is great for Newcastle netball – it gives us an extra boost to push us to those upper limits.

“We’d love to get the win over them on the weekend, we go out to win every week. That’ll be all that’s in our heads come Saturday afternoon. We did it last year [stopped the eventual champions’ undefeated streak], and it’s always good to know they’re a beatable team.”

The two weeks off for the league, while welcome as a mid-season break, now brings its own challenges as the Open Championship squads look to get back into the mental rhythm of the competition, Yen also explained.

“It’s never an ideal situation after everyone has had a bit of a break, mentally it’s not ideal,” she said. “Physically everyone is still fit, and they’ve been doing fitness and everything but it’s that mental drive to get them back on court.”

“That said, both teams won’t be ‘scatty’, and we won’t see a low run of goals. It’s just a memory thing, the girls will just snap back into it again.”

Yen revealed the Souths squad would be running an extended training regime in the week leading up to the major clash, to “make sure they understand what they’re up against on the weekend”.

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Yen also confirmed Souths would line-up with nearly their full cohort, with just Natalie Hilder ruled out.

Also in the first-up time slot at National Park, Wests’ sister team will play Forsythes Business Advisors, as the now-third placed team continues their upwards trend in the standings.

Later in the afternoon, BNC Whanau will face Nova Thunder as both squads look to break away from the pack of teams forming in the mid-table, while Souths Pride will play Maryville Tavern Alize.