IT’S been a long time between drinks but after five weeks of waiting the Bathurst Goldminers women’s State League side get back onto the court when they take on a triple header of division one fixtures both tomorrow and Sunday at Minto and Goulburn.

Following their 100-38 season opening victory over the Goulburn Bears, the Goldminers  once again went more than a  month with no match time, something they’re all too familiar with after a similar situation in last year’s Youth League.

The Bathurst side will face the Port Macquarie Dolphins and Coffs Harbour Suns on Saturday before travelling to Goulburn to play the Bears.

It’s going to be a challenge for coach Jo Cafe to get her side prepared for the sudden barrage of matches – hers just one of two teams in the competition with only a single game to their name.

Furthermore, the team will be without Laycee Covington across both days and Chelsea Noon for Sunday’s game.

While it will be a heavy load for the ’Miners it could have been worse according to Cafe.

“It is frustrating, but the alternative is worse. At least this helps us avoid travelling to both Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour,” she said.

“The girls are all really keen to play again. They’ve all worked really hard. The other good thing is that we’ve had girls that have been both sick and injured, so this break has given them a chance to recover.”

The Dolphins, who have already had three games to their name this season with two of them being wins, are an unknown quantity to Cafe.

The same can be said of the Coffs side who go into the season as defending champions.

“The last time we played Coffs was two years ago. They’ve lost some of their older, experienced players but have travelled well in this comp and have won the last two,” Cafe said.

“Coffs are a similar team to us. They’re more focused on their speed and shooting as opposed to getting the big players inside. 

“Port have two big, solid girls who have both played college basketball and they’ll be relying on those two girls to carry the team. 

“We’ll have to just push the ball and try to make the fatigue set in.”

The final of the matches on the following morning comes against the Bears who Cafe says are bound to be better this time around.

“It will be interesting to see how they perform. Looking at their games they’ve been playing better. They’re a young team and I can tell they’ve made some improvements,” she said.

“Our two Saturday games are at 2 and 6pm and then we have to travel to play the next day at 11am, so it’s going to be a quick turnaround for us.

“We don’t get games consistently until the second half of the season. It’s still better than the last time we were in State League where we had a big break before the finals, so this time we’ll get a nice run into it.”

BATHURST GOLDMINERS: Teagan Burke, Alysha Booth, Hannah Cafe, Bronte Emanual, Riley Smith, Chelsea Noon, Mary-Anne Porter, Rachel Murray, Meredith Jones, Olivia Patterson