Kate Jenner and the Hockeyroos enter their back-to-back FIH Pro League matches against Great Britain in Sydney this weekend with a string of positive recent results over the reigning Olympic champions, and it's a record they are eager to extend.
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The Hockeyroos have won five of the past six meetings with Great Britain, that solitary loss coming at the last Olympics as GB went on to win the gold medal.
After the Hockeyroos earned three points against Belgium to open their FIH Pro League campaign last weekend, head coach Paul Gaudoin has included Greta Hayes and defender Sophie Taylor to the team to face a Great Britain side who has spent the past week in Australia acclimatising to the warm and humid conditions they can expect at Sydney Olympic Park.
"Great Britain are a very good team and I rate them very highly. We had two wins over them last year in the Pro League but they were very tight games," Gaudoin said.
Adding intrigue to the encounters is that Great Britain are coached by former Kookaburra Mark Hagar, who Gaudoin played alongside for the national team.
"I played with Mark in my early days for the Kookaburras and he coached me at one stage as well," Gaudoin said.
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"I have a lot of respect for him in what he has done in his coaching career to date and he knows the way Australian teams like to play so it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow."
"We are a work in progress at the moment and there are some things we are trying to add to our game. We need flexibility in how we play leading up to Tokyo so we'll be looking to take that to another level this weekend."
Of added significance ahead of Satrday's game, defensive duo Edwina Bone and Karri McMahon are in line to celebrate major individual milestones.
Bone is preparing to play her 200th match, while for McMahon, who has had to endure a number of injury setbacks since making her debut in 2012, is set to run out for the Hockeyroos for the 150th time.
This weekend's matches are the final time the Hockeyroos will play on the east coast before Tokyo 2020.
They face GB at 6.30pm on Saturday night and at 5.30pm on Sunday.
