The Canberra Capitals are taking confidence in a "fairly favourable" WNBL fixture as Paul Goriss' side prepare to launch their title defence in Mackay.
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The 2020 WNBL draw was published on Wednesday morning, with Canberra to tip-off their bid for a historic three-peat against the Adelaide Lightning on November 11.
The Capitals will play their first four matches in Mackay, before flying north to Cairns in round two for another four matches.
They'll then round out the compressed season with six matches in Townsville, where they hope to contest the four-game finals series.
Townsville Stadium will host 28 of the 56 regular season matches, but the play-offs venue is yet to be confirmed.
Canberra could play 17 matches in 39 days on road to a WNBL hat-trick, with Goriss saying the first two weeks will be crucial to how they manage the short season.
"I think managing the first two weeks is going to be super important for how we set ourselves up," Goriss said.
"It's such a quick season - it's not a marathon over three months, it's a quick sprint. So we've got to make sure we're really ready to go from game one and that we don't get too far behind in any of those first two weeks.
"It'll really set up December for us, when we have some time to be able to have recovery."
The most grueling week for the Capitals will come in round three, when they'll play four matches in just six days and across two cities.
They'll start the jam-packed round with a grand-final rematch against the Southside Flyers, who boast Liz Cambage, in Cairns on November 23.
"We've spoken about how nobody needs to be a hero and be able to play through niggling injuries, or injuries that will put people at risk of further injury or being out for the rest of the season," Goriss said.
"It's managing workload, it's managing how much minutes we play.
"I'm confident we have good depth within our playing group. We're going to have to go into that depth in that stretch, definitely those four games in six days.
"It's something we're trying to prepare for and doing as much conditioning as we can before the season. But also having confidence in the group, that we'll do 12 deep and be able to have all those players."
The Capitals' players and support staff will depart for Mackay next week. They'll ramp up their preparations in north Queensland and meet the Perth Lynx for a practice match on November 9.
Before then, Canberra will play two scrimmages against the Sydney Flames locally.
CANBERRA CAPITALS WNBL 2020 FIXTURES
Round one:
- Adelaide Lightning v Canberra Capitals at Mackay, Wednesday November 11, 6pm.
- Canberra Capitals v Townsville Fire at Mackay, Sunday November 15, 8pm.
Round two:
- Canberra Capitals v Bendigo Spirit at Mackay, Monday November 16, 6pm.
- Melbourne Boomers v Canberra Capitals at Mackay, Wednesday November 18 6pm.
- Sydney Flames v Canberra Capitals at Cairns, Saturday November 21, 9.30pm
Round three:
- Southside Flyers v Canberra Capitals at Cairns, Monday November 23, 6pm.
- Canberra Capitals v Sydney Flames at Cairns, Wednesday November 25, 6pm
- Canberra Capitals v Perth Lynx at Cairns, Thursday November 26, 7pm
- Bendigo Spirit v Canberra Capitals at Townsville, Saturday November 28 at 7.30pm
Round four:
- Canberra Capitals v Melbourne Boomers at Townsville, Tuesday December 1, 5pm
- Canberra Capitals v Adelaide Lightning at Townsville, Friday December 4, 6pm
- Townsville Fire v Canberra Capitals at Townsville, Sunday December 6, 6pm.
Round five:
- Perth Lynx v Canberra Capitals at Townsville, Thursday December 10, 7pm.
- Canberra Capitals v Southside Flyers at Townsville, Saturday December 12 5pm.
*All times AEDT
Lucie Bertoldo
Lucie Bertoldo is a sports reporter for the Canberra Times.
Lucie Bertoldo is a sports reporter for the Canberra Times.
