A daunting road trip to face the Brisbane Spartans looms on Saturday night for what is, once again, a must-win match.

Coach Bard Chalmers said he was buoyed by their record away from home, but added that toppling the Spartans would be no easy task.

“Brisbane have improved a lot this season with a newer good, some good signings,” he said.

“They’ve done exceptionally well at home, which is a credit to them.

“We feel pretty confident in our form of late and our relatively strong road record.

“I think we’ve got a good chance of going up there and getting a result.

“We match up on them pretty well, it’ll really come down to who shows up on the night.

“Brisbane are more or less guaranteed a finals spot as it stands, we’re fighting for our lives a little bit.

“If we aren’t hungrier than them we won’t get the win.

“There’s a lot to play for, although we’ve had our moments this season there’s no more room for error.”

The Bandits got away with a five-point win on the road against Canberra last weekend, despite dominating for the majority of the game and holding a 25-point margin at the last break.

While the 39-19 point last quarter was needlessly stressful, Chalmers said if the Bandits could replicate their strong first half they would be more than competitive. 

“We dominated last week, I felt that we should have won by a bigger margin,” he said.

“The first three quarters of proved that was the case.

“This weekend will be much the same, if we can get in and work had early we’ll be well placed.

“Ballarat and the BA Centre of Excellence both pushed the Spartans, I think we’re better prepared for this game.” 

Some adjustments on the defensive end had yielded positive results for the Bandits.

Last weekend’s performance, combined with efforts against Mt Gambier and Ballarat where they held the opposition to less than 90 points, had Chalmers feeling optimistic about the Bandits’ prospects.

“Overall I think the defence has improved,” he said.

“We've changed a few things structurally that have been working out for us in the past few weeks.”

Buoyed by a similar improvement in team defence last weekend, the Lady Bandits will look to notch their fourth win of the season against the Lady Spartans.

Once again it was captain Molly Rice who led the way against Canberra last weekend, finishing with 23 points.

This week the Lady Bandits will look to fully utilise the likes of Haylee Lepaio, who has impressed at centre for much of the season.