West Coast Fever's hopes of causing an upset against Adelaide under the Friday night lights of RAC Arena have been boosted by the return of star midcourter Alice Teague-Neeld.
Teague-Neeld has not played the past three games because of a back injury, but will return to the 10-player squad as Fever coach Dan Ryan gets his entire contracted list on the court for the first time this season.
Injuries to Teague-Neeld, Olivia Wilkinson, Ruth Aryang, and Zoe Cransberg throughout the season have forced last year's grand finalists to rely heavily on the depth of their squad, which they've done successfully, sitting two wins clear in third with a 6-2 record.
Ryan said while the Australian midcourter will be available, she will be on limited minutes.
"We'll just make sure we're managing her as best we can and look for the opportunities for her, but she's available for a good 40-minute block," he told The West Australian.
"It gives us some depth, flexibility, and different styles to use throughout the game now, which is going to be a great weapon for us.
"Alice is a cool, calm, collected type of player under pressure, and she's going to add great depth to our midcourt now."
Ryan also confirmed captain Jess Anstiss would start in wing defence, despite not playing at all in the second half of their come-from-behind win against Sunshine Coast Lightning on Sunday.
Down by five goals at half-time, Anstiss was replaced by young defender Aryang for the final 30 minutes as Fever claimed a vital 58-54 win.
"It has nothing to do with form, it's around maximising the depth and versatility in our squad. It's critically important for us in the second half of the season that we now start to restock depth, and each player is quite unique in what they offer and what they bring," Ryan said.
"We want to make sure that every position on the court has multiple options for us, and we have great confidence to turn to any of our players to shift and adjust the game plan or counteract the opposition's strengths.
"Irrespective of who you are or what you're doing, we want to make sure that we've got depth in all those areas of the court to turn to."
The two teams have not met since round two when the Thunderbirds claimed a strong 66-53 victory on their home court.
Ryan said Fever were a different team now compared to the one that struggled to stop Adelaide bookends Shamera Sterling-Humphrey and Elmere van der Berg.
"It's been a long time since that round two clash, and we've been through a lot as a team since that moment in time," he said.
"We had a little bit of a reflection back on some of the strengths and gaps in our performance in that game, and noting we competed well for parts, and there were parts where we really fell off the cliff as well.
"We're a very different team now, we have a clear idea as to how we want to play this game and where we want to target our opposition as well, and noting that it's going to take every single position on court, because Thunderbirds are a high-quality team with depth everywhere."
