After a promising start to the campaign, four consecutive losses have halted the momentum of the Border outfit.

Jeremy Payne said the group sat down this week to address some of the concerns they’ve been having through games. 

“A lot of it was about being better with our basics,” Payne said.

“Our team structure was a big thing we talked about with where we set our presses and fallaways.

“The boys trained hard on Thursday in the wet and they seem like they’re back on track to play well.”

Defender Matt Bardy returns to the squad in what Payne has labelled as a must-win game for the Spitfires’ top-four aspirations.

“We’ll be doing all we can to get the points,” he said.

“I think the double-header (last weekend) was a bit of an eye-opener for a lot of players.

“It’s not so much our fitness during one game, but being able to do it over the weekend.

“We’ll definitely have the legs to run out Saturday’s game, knowing we don’t have to back it up on Sunday this time.

“It’s ANU’s first season back in Capital League so I never got to play them last year (with Old Canberrans) and haven’t played them for the Spitfires.

“They’re a bit of an unknown, but from what I’ve heard from other teams, they’ve got no standouts, but they all pull together and play well as a unit.

“Our senior players have all been doing their jobs, (co-coach) Tony (Donnolley) has been playing well and Charley Wallace has been playing really well.

“Some of the younger guys that have taken the step up like Oscar Smart, Noah Erdeljac and Joe Forster are really showing something.”

The Spitfires women also take on ANU at home, but have two key omissions from the squad.

Co-captain Sam Daly is unavailable, while recruit Eunyoung Kim has parted ways with the squad.

ANU sits a win behind the Spitfires and the fixture is one that coach Jerry Sutherland wants a result from after three tight losses.

“We’ve got to start winning from now on in to show where we’re going to be,” Sutherland said.

“We only need a couple of wins to get into the top-four and we might be able to rattle some cages when we get in there.

“There’s been some simple goals we’ve conceded, but we’ve been saving the hard ones.

“If we can get a couple of early goals and get on top first, we’ll be confident.”

Chloe Jones and Riley Sutherland will be again used in attacking roles to cover the loss of Kim.

“Everyone has adapted well to the changes, which is really good, and makes it a bit easier for us,” Sutherland added.

The men’s game starts at 2pm, followed by the women’s clash at 3.30pm.