Wanganui netball star Joline Henry believes her Central Pulse team have learned the lessons from Sunday's loss to the Queensland Firebirds as they take on the Canterbury Tactix on Monday.
Speaking in Masterton, where Henry and Pulse coach Robyn Broughton were passing on tips at a session for young players, Henry said the squad had taken a long, hard look at themselves ahead of Monday's clash at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua.
The Silver Fern wing defender, who has shown good form in her debut season for the Pulse after she failed to agree a deal to stay with the Northern Mystics, was far from happy with her own display against the reigning champion Firebirds.
"I look at myself and my own performance," she said.
"The first thing I did after the game was to look at the video and I was appalled at some of the silly things I did.
"It doesn't matter who you are or whether you are in the starting line-up or not, you should always be looking at yourself and always trying to improve yourself.
"The Tactix will present a different kind of challenge and I don't think we can assume we can push them back too hard - they've got five international players in their squad with Stacey Francis, Anna Galvan, Maree Bowden, Jo Harten and Anna Thompson, so they're not a slouchy team by any means.
"They've got fast, experienced middies that we are going to battle to keep up with. They are a very fit side that will never give up and their defence is coming up with lots and lots of turnover ball."
Broughton said the game against the Firebirds was very physical.
"But that's modern netball. You just have to meet it and deal with it or you're not going to compete. Our defence did an outstanding job at the weekend, but we weren't getting the goals in, so we'll work on it and we'll get there."
Added Broughton: "We have been working hard on our accuracy this week. We just need to get our attack end working with more precision, making better decisions in our option taking and putting our shooters into good places to shoot comfortably - that's where our problems were in Brisbane.
"It is also important to ensure that the whole squad is properly prepared. There's 12 players and all of them have to be ready - there's always a possibility of a change in the line-up, either through injury or because we need to switch things round.
"It showed up last week how much depth you need in a team and that game-play in competition matches is so important."
Monday's match starts at 7.40pm.