Basketball: Tamworth Thunderbolts women to take on Lismore Storm

Ahead of the season, coach Dave McCubbin said the side had the talent to make a run for finals.

And despite a 23-point loss to Coffs Harbour in their opening game, followed by a six-point loss to the Lismore Storm the following week, McCubbin still believes that to be the case.

The key to success in this weekend's home game against the Storm, he said, lies in their fitness.

"We ran out of fitness in the last game, that's really what killed us," McCubbin said.

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"A lot of the girls haven't played for three years. Some of them played last year, but I've got a lot of players in the squad that haven't played for three years ... so fitness has been a main focus for us."

This Saturday's game against Lismore will be the Tamworth women's first home fixture of the season.

In front of what he hopes will be a sizeable and raucous crowd, McCubbin expects the Thunderbolts to raise their playing level.

"[Playing at home] should lift them," he said.

"We're hoping to get a decent-sized crowd for the women's and the men's games. Having the full 12 on the bench will be massive."

As most teams in the women's competition have only played once so far this season, McCubbin knows that the ladder position at this stage is still largely irrelevant.

And after a razor-thin loss to Lismore in their second game, the coach believes a fitter Tamworth side with a full bench will be much better-placed to secure their first win of the season.

"They're a fairly young team, so they're still finding their feet in this competition," McCubbin said.

"In this game, I think we can expect much the same from them. The same players and the same way of doing things ... but in their corner's one of the really good coaches I respect a fair bit. Hopefully she's got them razzled up and we can have a really good game."

While there remains a long way to go this season, and the Thunderbolts women are still working to bring all facets of their game together, the most important thing as far as McCubbin is concerned is their improvement.

And in their first games of the year, he has been very happy with the development he has seen.

"We've seen a lot of progression," McCubbin said.

"There's been a lot of improvisation when it comes to different players on the court and different combinations ... there's a few players that haven't played together before, which makes it a little bit hard. But we're getting there."

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