Melbourne Vixens to ease road trip pai ahead of trans-Tasman finals

MELBOURNE Vixens will spend a week in New Zealand in the lead up to the trans-Tasman finals to negate a tight fixture.

Tegan Caldwell

MELBOURNE Vixens will spend a week in New Zealand in the lead up to the trans-Tasman finals to negate a tight fixture.

The championship favourites play their final two games of the regular season against Central Pulse and Southern Steel, but a short turnaround between the games has left them little recovery time.

Coaching staff have decided to keep the Vixens in New Zealand between Monday week's game in Wellington (Pulse) and the following Saturday's clash in Invercargill (Steel) rather than risk fatigue with flights home and back again.

"There's only about four days between games so by the time we flew home, we would have only had one day at home then we would have been off again," Vixens coach Julie Hoornweg said.

The Vixens prospered in their opening three games of the season on the road, defeating defending champions Queensland Firebirds, West Coast Fever and Adelaide Thunderbirds.

Having endured a mid-season form trough, in which the team suffered three straight losses, the second-placed Vixens rediscovered their zest with victory against the Thunderbirds a fortnight ago.

Hoornweg said the players were refreshed to tackle their final three games - starting on Sunday at home against Fever - after the bye last week, but hoped momentum hadn't been lost.

"It was great to have the rest, mentally refresh ourselves," she said.

"We actually had some momentum at the end of that (Thunderbirds) game, so let's hope we can find it again because we struggled for three weeks."

ANZ Championship officials will push for all games to be broadcast live in Australia as part of negotiations for their next television broadcast deal.

The two-year deal with Channel 10 expires at the end of the season and league chiefs would like to see more live coverage in Australia. All games are live in New Zealand.

Ten shows two games live with its Sunday double-headers.