A SEASON of good work thus far will be put to the test this weekend when the Bathurst Goldminers women’s Youth League side faces a tough double-header with prize of a home semi-final being the major incentive for victory.

Coming off a rare loss last week to the Bankstown Bruins, the ’Miners will welcome back a host of stars for their double-showdown with the Illawarra Hawks tomorrow and the Maitland Mustangs on Sunday, both at the Bathurst Indoor Sports Centre.

Though Bathurst are in fifth at the moment, they have games in hand and can almost cement a top-three finish with a pair of wins over the two days.

The Hawks are currently in front of Bathurst but have lost one more game. They also have only two matches to play in the regular season while Bathurst have three.

With a superior percentage, the ’Miners are poised to leapfrog their Wollongong-based rivals.

Meanwhile Maitland sit in sixth spot and are locked in a desperate fight with Manly-Warringah for the last finals berth.

Only percentage separates the two, and the Mustangs will be throwing everything at Bathurst come Sunday afternoon.

Caretaker coach Jo Cafe, who will be in charge tomorrow while regular coach Paul Masters resumes against Maitland on Sunday, is confident her side can get the job done.

“Haylee Lepaio and Sarah and Rachel Murray both return this week which gives us back three starting players and in turn gives us so much more depth on the bench,” Cafe said.

“We played Illawarra earlier in the year and they handed us our biggest defeat, but the girls were without a coach at that stage and they all agreed that they didn’t play very well, so they will be determined to reverse that.

“They are expecting to come up with a win.”

Both Masters and Cafe were not in attendance when the Hawks beat the ’Miners 79-61 in round nine, but from all reports the Illawarra side boast some tall timber.

With Lepaio and Sarah Murray returning though Cafe is confident her side can combat the height problem.

Maitland on the other hand are more of an unknown quantity full-stop, as the ’Miners have not met them at any stage this season.

“We will just be trying to stick to our plan of pushing the ball forward as quickly as we can to get some easy transition baskets,” she said.

“All of our last three games are danger games but we are very desperate to get that home court advantage – myself and Paul Masters are both coaching in the Western League finals on the opening weekend of the Youth League play-offs.

“An away game would make things very difficult.”

Tip-off against Illawarra is at 6pm tomorrow while the clash with Maitland gets underway at 1pm on Sunday.