Magpies Caitlin Thwaites and Sharni Layton should expect an invitation to Kimberlee Green's birthday dinner this weekend – only if the Giants beat the Magpies beforehand in Saturday night's Super Netball blockbuster in Melbourne.
Green and Giants teammate Susan Pettitt played alongside Thwaites and Layton at the NSW Swifts last season, with all four leaving the club after last year's double-overtime grand final loss to Queensland.
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Now they reconvene before Green's 31st birthday in an unlikely reunion at Hisense Arena, wearing different colours and with Green now trying to feed the ball into Layton's goal circle and stop the supply to Thwaites up the other end.
"It's Sam Poolman's birthday on Saturday and I'm on Sunday. We're going to try and get out for dinner and have a little bit of a get-together, so we'll see if we invite them [Layton and Thwaites]. If we win we invite them, and we'll see if they turn up," Green said.
"I haven't spoken to them. Once the season starts the phones go off and off we go.
"It is going to be weird seeing Sharns on the other side because she is a little more vocal and she's playing some good netball. Sharns and I are very good friends, I'm always there to support her, but just not this week."
The Magpies are premiership favourites, but the Giants come into this game looking down on the rest of the competition following two wins from two games.
They overpowered the Swifts in round one before proving far too good for West Coast on Saturday, but Green has called on her side to continue improving before its toughest challenge to date.
"We're still probably a little bit inconsistent with our defensive pressure all the way down the court and also maybe just our linking in transition from defence to attack," Green said.
"We know that Collingwood are starting to get a little bit of confidence underneath their belt and once they do they're actually going to be very hard to beat.
"Having them being at home for their second home game, they'll be wanting to get out there in front of their fans and prove that they can get a win at home. That's going to be really powerful for them.
"We've got a lot of work to do. Small steps for us, we're still building, and the glimpses that we had on the weekend definitely show that we've got what it takes to mingle with the top of the table."
Both sides have refused to engage in pre-match banter this week, although Thwaites did send Pettitt a message before her 200th national league appearance in round one, saying: "Well done, old chook."
"They're going to be really tough, they've got a really speedy midcourt, they've got experience around the back and a very dynamic shooting end," Thwaites said. "You can't see too many holes that are going to break down. It's going to be a really tough game.
"If we can try to hold up the pace of their speed through the midcourt and capitalise on the ball that we're getting, it'll be a really tough contest. There'll be some bodies on the line, I think."
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