It’s a pretty straight trip up the Midland Highway.
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No chance of really getting lost heading from Hobart to Launceston even for the worst of navigators.
But for all intents and purposes on Saturday night, the Tornadoes were the ones looking like they had left the directions behind to their own Elphin court.
The painful 99-72 loss was uncharacteristic for a team that didn’t need a map to plan out a brilliant victory in Melbourne’s outer east seven nights earlier against Kilsyth that had won 10 in a row.
Coach Richard Dickel was somewhat perplexed about what went wrong for the second successive home game.
“We go from one week being able to execute really well to the next not executing at all,” Dickel said.
“I have to say that we were well prepared for the game, so I am yet to put my finger on what actually went on.
“But you have to take your hat off to them – they played a really good game and they followed their game plan and executed really well.”
The Chargers had entered the Tasmanian derby three wins behind Launceston and still fighting for a finals spot.
But they looked like a polished unit and right at home.
Charger Mikaela Ruef’s eagerly-awaited homecoming back in Launceston after two dominant seasons at the Tornadoes appeared to make Hobart feel welcome.
The Torns trailed by six points at quarter-time and the same at half-break.
Clinical shooting from the visiting Chargers blew the margin out to 18 points by the last change.
Dickel felt things were a little off for his side and had to change tactics in his risk-it-all gameday philosophy.
“It was one of the things where we didn’t do what we needed to do in the first half and we fought to get back into it,” he said.
“Sometimes when you fight to get back in, you give away some easy points.
“I think if we played with the intensity that we played in the second half in the first half, good things would have happened. When you’re down, you have to take risks.
“I’m not the type of coach that will play just for a 10-point loss – I’ll take a risk to try and win it.”
Hobart captain Kathleen Scheer was brilliant with 29 points while Alex Ciabattoni added a further 23 points.
Reuf scored just 14 points, but won the boards battle against old friend Tayla Roberts eight rebounds to three.
Roberts top-scored for the Torns with 18 and Mansfield picked up 16 in a night the hosts lowered their colours.
“I tend to take all the emotions out of those type of things and let it be and try and show people exactly the way we should play,” he said.
“We didn’t do that for long enough periods tonight and they certainly did.
“Hopefully we’ll get them in the playoffs and we’ll get a chance to put things right.”