Now he feels they may be able to exceed that.

With a number of players from his squad unable to make regular appearances until late April, Carter knew the opening rounds of the new season would be a test for his side.

Last year they found themselves languishing at the bottom of the ladder after the same period, defeats and being stripped of points for using an unregistered player meaning they gave their premiership rivals a big head-start.

While Souths went on to qualify for the finals, it was a close call.

It is a position Carter does not want to be in again.

So far, Souths’ record reads two wins and two losses – that 50 per cent mark the coach was looking for – but they have the chance to improve on that today at the Cooke Hockey Complex when they come up against Lithgow Zig Zag.

“After April is when we will get our rep players back, so I am aiming by Easter that we are at least 50-50. We could even be four and two by then, but if we can have it at 50-50 I’ll be happy,” Carter said.

“We definitely need a win this weekend. That would make us three and two, which is still not bad when you look at the table, and we’ve already played City and Panthers.”

Panthers and City are two of the three teams in the competition who are yet to taste defeat, and while Souths lost 5-0 to the Lithgow outfit last Saturday, there were still positives for Carter to focus on.

“At Lithgow, if we didn’t hit the post and we finished off a couple more of our chances, things could have been different. We were creating those chances, but what we need to improve is our finishing,” he said.

“That is the next thing and hopefully we can finish off against Zig Zag. The two things that went wrong last week, finishing and short corners, that is all we worked on at training, so I am hoping that pays off.”

Tahlia Cranston and Steph Plunkett return to Souths’ ranks, while Sarah Watterson is absent on state under 18s duties and Mandy George and Kate Dooley are unavailable.

However, Carter has been able to alter his line-up to hopefully find the back of the net more often today. Ashleigh Corby will start as centre forward, Cranston and Amelia Burke will fill the inner roles and Ali Stanford and Emma Siejka will be on the wings.

“Zig Zag are very physical in the backs, they have always been physical in defence, so I’ve moved the forward line around a bit this weekend. Tahlia Cranston coming back permanently means I can do that,” he said.

“Nikki Braun played at centre half last week. She was up against under 18 state players and she held her own, so she deserves to start there this weekend. We have a couple out, but we are back to sort of our core group. I am definitely happy with the side we will get on the field this weekend and I am going to have five very strong subs as well.”

The match between Souths and Zig Zag will get underway at 3pm today at the Cooke Hockey Complex.