West Coast Fever coach Dan Ryan isn’t worried about his Sunshine Coast Lightning counterpart Belinda Reynolds’ intimate knowledge of his side ahead of their first meeting at USC Stadium on Sunday.

Reynolds was a key part of Fever’s maiden premiership last season in her role as an assistant coach, which she held for five years before landing the top gig at the Lightning in October.

Fever have only almost the same squad since Reynolds departed, adding only defender Kim Jenner, but Ryan said her ability to counteract his gameplan was not a major concern.

“It’s one thing knowing but it’s another thing being able to stop it,” Ryan said.

“Belinda’s got the team operating quite nicely. And she’s really stamped own flavour to that group. And we’ll have as much familiarity with Belinda’s style as she will have with ours as well.

“Once you are coming off the back of a loss, a lot of your focus will shift around your own game and your own way of play. And that’s certainly how we’ve approached this week.”

Fever are coming off their first defeat of the season at the hands of the Adelaide Thundebirds in a final second heart-stopper.

Ryan said in hindsight their one-goal loss could be a positive for their premiership defence.

“There were parts where our wins leading up to that loss, we’re masking some of the areas of our game that we needed to give far more attention to,” he said.

“Sometimes when you lose, it really does sharpen your focus on some of those key areas that perhaps aren’t functioning as well as what they need to. And there’s nothing like a loss to find those answers and find those solutions.

“If you’re able to look at losing for what it can teach you and what it can offer you, then losing becomes a really valuable skill that you need to be able to navigate your way through.

“We don’t want to lose too many games, but when we do we want to make sure it’s done with purpose. And we get some good positive traction off the back of it, which I’ve seen so far throughout the training week.”

Ryan also dispelled any doubts over the fitness of defender Sunday Aryang who had her knee heavily strapped last weekend, saying it was precautionary after a heavy knock in the previous game.