If Perth Heat want to reach a third straight ABL Championship Series then they have to knock off the Adelaide Giants on the road in this weekend's semi-final battle and manager Andy Kyle sees no reason they can't do it.
It is the third straight post-season match up between the Heat and Giants with the two clubs having met in the last two ABL Championship Series with both of them ending up in deciding Game 3's with the Claxton Shield on the line.
Both those Game 3 contests have been in Adelaide and unfortunately for the Heat, both have ended in heartbreak with the Giants prevailing to be the back-to-back ABL champions.
Only one of the teams will be in the Championship Series for 2025 as they gear up for a mouth watering semi-final series at Dicolor Australia Stadium starting on Friday night with Game 1.
The winner of the best-of-three series will face either the Sydney Blue Sox or Canberra Cavalry in next weekend's Championship Series.
If Sydney wins, then either Adelaide or Perth will be giving up home field advantage, but a Canberra win and either the Heat or Giants will have Games 2 and 3 at home.
The rivalry between the Heat and Giants speaks for itself especially with what's happened the past two years and even so far in 2024/25, the two series between the two have been fascinating.
First up in Adelaide back in Week 3 and after the Giants won Game 1, the Heat swept the rest of the series with two wins on the Saturday and another on Sunday while outscoring the home team 25-8 in those three matches.
The return affair at Empire Ballpark took place in Week 7 and the two teams split the four games with Perth winning Games 1 and 4 by outscoring Adelaide 12-7, but the Giants managed to claim the double-header on Saturday.
So across the eight games so far this season the Heat have won five of them while outscoring Adelaide 42 runs to 32 so they do take on the Giants on the road with a degree of confidence this weekend.
There's that natural revenge motivating factor too given what's happened the last two years but above everything else, wanting to win to get another crack at the Championship Series is all the motivation that is needed.
Heat manager Andy Kyle is relieved firstly that his team was able to lock away a post-season berth by winning five of eight games on the road to Sydney and Canberra over the past two weeks.
Now while it's far from ideal to be having a third straight weekend away from Perth, he's glad that his team only has to go to Adelaide and not to the eastern seaboard, and he's confident in the Heat getting the job done.
"It's been that kind of season where we've had a bit of a rollercoaster and when we've been bad, we've been pretty bad this year but our good is as good as anyone in the league we think," Kyle told the Bloop and A Blast podcast.
"We have some confidence in that and it was nice to get third and to have to only go to Adelaide this weekend. I think going back to Sydney would have been a really tough ask for the third time in-a-row.
"We've battled it out with Adelaide and it's a love-hate relationship with them, we've gone toe to toe the last few years so of course we get to play them in the first round this year. Why not."
The Heat have a settled positional line-up at this point of the season with Jhon Diaz, Carlos Colmenarez, Tim Kennelly, Alex Hall, Jess Williams, Ulrich Bojarski, Angel Mateo, Enderson Delgado, Byron Armstrong and Johnny Ascanio all in good hitting form.
The pitching staff have had some turnover late in the season with the additions of Vinnie Tarantola and Steffon Moore impactful while Jong-Hae Won, Tucker Smith, Dariel Fregio and Jake Bowey have been doing well starting.
Ji-Han Park, Warwick Saupold, Eui-Tae Seo and the returning Kieren Hall add depth in the middle while Tyler Beardsley as been brilliant finishing this season having racked up 10 saves.
Kyle sees no reason to change too much and he is backing his Heat players to get the job done.
"I don't see a lot changing, we've got what we've got now and we've added in a couple of guys down the stretch who have been big for us," Kyle said.
"But position player wise, we're kind of set and it's just a bit of match up wise and what direction we want to go with things. For us it's just execution and making sure we catch the ball, and our pitchers when they're on are doing a really good job of keeping the hitters off balance.
"I think we just have to stay away from their big guys and the middle of the line-up can do the damage so if we can keep Niko (Hulsizer), Briley Knight and Wardy (Nick Ward) off base then I think you can limit the damage. That will be a key aspect for the weekend."
ABL SEASON 2024/25 – SEMI FINALS SERIES (January 24-26)
PERTH HEAT v ADELAIDE GIANTS – at DICOLOR AUSTRALIA STADIUM
GAME 1 – Friday 4.30pm WST
GAME 2 – Saturday 12.30pm WST
GAME 3 (IF REQUIRED) – Sunday 3.00pm WST