Perth Lynx players demand more from each other after too many sloppy performances during recent WNBL games

Perth Lynx leaders called a players only this week to demand a change in the way they are playing after a sloppy three weeks left them in danger of falling out of the top two. The Lynx fought back from six points down in the final quarter to beat Canberra in round nine, snuck over the line by three points against Geelong United in round 11 and then lost to ladder leaders Bendigo Spirit in round 12. Just days later, Perth trailed by 16 points at home against Southside before lifting in the second half to win. Coach Ryan Petrik was fuming with his team’s performance against the Flyers and vice-captain Mac Clinch Hoycard said the players took it upon themselves this week to demand higher standards. “The players had meetings by ourselves and said we need to do better than this,” she said. “We held people accountable. We brought up things that happened which aren’t our identity. We said while we played three games in seven days and were a little bit tired, we need to be able to work through that because finals are coming up, and finals become hectic with the schedule. It was about hashing things out, holding people accountable and finding out what we can do better. “Last year we got really good at having those talks. But this year because of the hectic schedule, we haven’t had that many opportunities to have those meetings and conversations to hold people accountable. As a leadership group, we’ve said we need to hold people to account more at training so when we get into a game it will have been fixed.” Clinch Hoycard said the Lynx also completed their most in-depth video review of the season which has her confident of a strong performance against the fourth-placed Sydney Flames at the Quaycentre on Saturday. Perth beat the Flames at the Bendat Basketball Centre in November but lost the return clash in Sydney in December. Clinch Hoycard said the team understands that they cannot afford another loss for the rest of the season. “Every game from here is stressful because if we drop one, we will go down to third spot and then finals will be on the road,” she said. “If we stay in second, we’ll have home court advantage for the semis and wed’ still love to get first place. We know Sydney will be tough. They’ve got some really good players.”