The veteran has moved to the front of the field in 2020 and thinks the blue and golds need to make some minor improvements to their attacking line before launching an assault on the competition's elite.

"For me personally, I'd love to put a few more goals away, Barrett said.

"We have such a strong defensive line and it does a lot of unrewarded work. We would like to improve for the sake of them.

"The other girls up the front feel the same. We need a few more of our attacking opportunities to impact the scoreboard."

Last Saturday's game against Confederates was a heroic one for Ex-Services as they duked it out with one of the better sides in the competition with just 10 sets of hands on deck.

Thankfully for Ex-Services, it will have a full complement of players for its away assignment in round four and Barrett knows a win is vital but by the same token, isn't sure what to expect from Parkes.

"We know very little about them," she said. "They haven't had a team in a few years... a lot of their younger girls from before will be more developed. They could be a shock to us but we won't know until we play them."

They didn't shoot out of the blocks in 2020 but now, Barrett and the girls feel more confident about where they're at in the grand scheme of things.

"At the beginning of the season, we'd only had about two training runs with minimal players," she said. "Since then, we've progressed each game and worked our way into the season."

Ex-Services currently sits in fourth position on the ladder with six competition points. Parkes will be the destination for a 1.30pm kick-off.

When you're amid a winless Premier League Hockey campaign, you can't complicate your preparation too much.

That's why CYMS' Maddy Smith wants her side to focus on the fundamentals in its round four clash against Souths.

Pete Shea's girls are coming off a 4-0 loss against Bathurst St Pat's and know cheap turnovers and ill-discipline won't have them winning on Saturday.

"We've got a lot of young ones in the team and if we don't do the basics well we won't play well," Smith said.

"Things like trapping and passing well are what we need to focus on.

"We've got four players in the team over the age or 20 so we need to give them experience and encouragement." Kick-off is at 12.20pm.