South West Slammers women’s coach Jason Chalk confident team’s worst days are behind them after brutal start

Despite suffering another dispiriting pair of losses at the weekend, South West Slammers coach Jason Chalk believes his team can now be competitive after enduring a brutal slate of early fixtures. The Slammers were hammered 132-47 by the defending-champion Cockburn Cougars at Wally Hagan Stadium on Friday night, with the 85-point defeat figuring as one of the greatest losing margins in club history. Coming into the season having won only one of their last 74 games, the team’s winless start to their campaign has featured several tough assignments, playing the Cougars and competition favourites Joondalup Wolves twice inside their first eight games. Their other contests have also included a Rockingham Flames team featuring two Opals, as well as making the longest road trip in the competition to take on Goldfields Giants in Kalgoorlie. With his team anchored at the foot of the ladder, Chalk said maintaining a positive outlook had at times been difficult, but he now believed his team’s fortunes would turn quickly, starting against Perth Redbacks on Saturday night. “If you took the Giants out of who we played so far, the combined teams we’ve played have had five losses,” he said. “We come into a patch now with the next five games where teams are just above us or around our mark. “We expect to get a couple of wins over the next couple of weeks, we’re not shying away from that.” Chalk said he was disappointed with his team’s effort level in the Cockburn defeat but was proud of how they responded in the second game of their double-header, a 91-58 home loss to Perry Lakes Hawks on Saturday night. “To me, the margin didn’t reflect how in the game we actually were,” he said. “We put Bree (Chalk) in the point guard position on Saturday night and she did it really well . . . Javene Fitch played a really good game on the Saturday after I challenged her on Friday. “We’re young and we know where we sit . . . we’re just trying to make small inroads for future years and keep these girls together.” While emphasising he was not making excuses for the team’s performance, Chalk said he had been in contact with the league about how his team — which goes into every game younger and with less size than the opposition — had been treated by referees so far this season. “We’ve sent some footage through and sought some clarification on a few little things,” he said. “If there’s a 50-50 call, we generally feel it’s going to go against us. “We know where we stand in terms of the league, so we need to do a better job with the physical side of the game.” The Slammers will head to Belmont Oasis Leisure Centre on Saturday to take on the eighth-placed Redbacks, with the game getting under way at 5pm. Shane Goff’s men’s side will look to snap a seven-game losing streak in the men’s contest against the 11th-placed Redbacks, which tips off at 7pm.