ALBURY-WODONGA Bandits coach Brad Chalmers has dared North West Tasmania to break their unbeaten home streak.
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The Bandits have won their last seven matches at Lauren Jackson Sports Centre in a streak that stretches back to round 14 last year.
We're looking to hunt them down, we're prepared and ready to go.
- Brad Chalmers
The Tall Timbers Thunder coach Phil Thomas said he was reasonably confident of a successful road double earlier in the week, but Chalmers wasn't ready to make anything easier for their Apple Isle rivals.
“We'll treat them with a bit of respect, they'll be thinking they can come up here and get a win,” he said.
“But we're looking to hunt them down, we're prepared and ready to go.
“They played finals last season and will be looking to make them again, so I think it'll be an interesting contest.
“They've got some good imports mixed in with some good local talent.
“That said, I think we match up on them pretty well.”
The Bandits are coming off the back of a 48-point thrashing of the Melbourne Tigers last weekend.
An impressive defensive effort held the Tigers to just seven points in the opening quarter and eight in the last, with Chalmers hoping to see a repeat performance against this week's opponents.
“I was pleased with a lot of aspects from last week's match,” he said.
“It's a bit hard to gauge the confidence of the group, to do it so easily last week was good but it can have some drawbacks at the same time.
“We found a bit of a rhythm last week regardless, so we needs to make sure that remains this weekend.”
Chalmers was also hoping to see continued output from his bench players.
Competition for a spot in the starting five has been fierce between Jack Duck, Ben Kearins, Darcy Harding and Sawyer Dearborn.
The coach said that while the whole bench was coming with the right attitude, he needed output on the stats sheet as well.
“The fact is that those guys have to perform to get out on the court,” he said.
“The perception is that we have all these talented players on the bench, but they have to produce.
“They understand that, hopefully we can continue to give everyone a chance, but I don't want to be handing out minutes.”
Competition for the starting point guard spot between Duck and Kearins is particularly interesting.
“Ben is finding his feet, SEABL is a big step up compared to what he's done in the past,” Chalmers said.
“I want him to be a bit more aggressive defensively.
“He'll grow into it, he's not quite there yet but he's relishing the challenge.”
