Charissa Barham.
It's not the ritualistic trash talking that netball fans are served at the start of each season, if you ask Charissa Barham.
The All In Elusive coach doesn't mince words when asked whether they have the mettle to do the job in the Super 6 premier netball competition this year.
"I think we are going to this year. Actually, I don't think, I know we are," says Barham whose All In side face the daunting task of breaking the more than a decade-long stranglehold of Otane Thirsty Whale, bringing back memories of the defunct Physique 2000's purple patch under the Falcon Dynasty.
Barham says her troops are not there yet with player Candis Timms (nee Cardie) expecting a baby this week and another player due in a few weeks.
"There's a lot of pregnancies around my team," says the coach who only registered this week as a back-up player in case injuries leave them depleted into the campaign.
Fundamentally she expects All In to focus on their percentages.
"I have smart, fit girls with a mixture of youth and experience so I can't complain."
Barham is bold enough to take it on the chin that should her players fall shy of delivering the goods it'll basically be her fault.
"It'll be all my fault because it'll mean they're not getting what I'm saying," says the Hawke's Bay representative level coach who has worked alongside Otane counterpart Annemarie Kupa-Petera at the nationals last September.
Among her arsenal is the injection of goalkeep Barb Thompson, a Napier club senior two grade merchant.
"She has never been coached. She's so fast she doesn't even know her speed sometimes," says Barham whose game plan is to simply "shut down the big shoot" of the favourites.
No doubt, alongside family planning for some is "succession planning" for all.
For someone who used to feed youth talent to Otane as former Napier Girls' High School coach two years ago, Barham has inside knowledge on what makes the young tick.
"Talent is spread out a lot more this year so with my emerging talent selector role I know the youth more," she says, suspecting there's a dearth in experienced talent.
"There's not enough experience around, to be fair. There are a few around but not what I'd consider to be that much experience."
The scouting prowess has taught Barham never to underestimate youth coming through, especially through Kupa-Petera's stable.
The other catch-22 situation, she reckons, will be the different styles of game the six teams will bring in the mix of unknown quantities.
"We've got speed," is all she reluctantly parts with when asked what puts All In outside the square, as it were.
The new 30-second rule, Barham feels, will eliminate the gamemanship in eating up two minutes on the pretence of injury breaks.
That has been prevalent up to the ANZ Championship level where she reckons in the Mainland Tactix v Northern Mystics match recently the two-minute rule came under intense speculation and scrutiny when Mystics skipper Maria Tutaia challenged timekeepers after her side's agonising one-goal loss.
"It'll also stop coaches from talking to their players," she says, revealing the 30-second rule will ensure teams will think twice before pulling out the injury card because they'll have to mend the walking wounded or send them to the sick bay for two minutes.
"Dare I say it, it's really like a rolling sub but it's not."
All In will take the court this season with co-captains in Char Wilkins and Rhandall Tualafata.
"I'll only step up if we're down to six players," says the personal instructor.