HUNTER Hurricanes men's coach Dan Marsden will use this weekend's double header to help identify his best squad for an upcoming road trip to Western Australia.
The Hurricanes host Drummoyne at Lambton Pool on Saturday (5:30pm) and visit Sydney University on Sunday (3:15pm), before travelling across the country to meet Fremantle and UWA (February 10, 11).
Having lost their opening three matches and with a mid-season split approaching in this year's Australian Water Polo League, Marsden knows time is of the essence.
"We want to get our top 15 a run before we go to Perth because we want to pick our best possible team to go to Perth," Marsden said.
"The games in Perth will be super critical and we want to make sure we're still in the hunt."
Jackson Holdway, who hails from Canberra, is poised to debut for the Hurricanes while Sam Bloomfield replaces Jack Hawkins for game one.
Lachlan McLeod, coming off back-to-back doubles for Hunter, won't play this weekend.
The Hurricanes went down to Wests (18-9), Cronulla (15-9) and Balmain (10-7).
"We're definitely not giving up after the first round [of games]," Marsden said.
"It might have looked bad, but I don't think it was as bad as the scorelines suggested.
"We opened well each time, but hopefully we can maintain our focus across four quarters. We want to improve this weekend and then Perth probably becomes do-or-die."
The Hurricanes women's squad, also winless from three appearances, tackle Drummoyne at home on Saturday (4:15pm) and Sydney University away on Sunday (2pm).
Julia Barton has produced five of Hunter's 13 goals while Amali Jarrett (3) also found the back of the net on multiple occasions.
Abbey-Rose O'Toole, Peta Schulte, Gracie Saunders, Emma Preece and Laura Robinson have each made the scoresheet.
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