Kristen Veal says Canberra Capitals still on track to rebound in WNBL

Veal is entering the second season of her two-year contract as Capitals coach and is seemingly already tasked with the impossible as Canberra chase a playoff return.

Tahlia Tupaea and Chloe Tugliach will both miss the entire season while a knee injury will keep Bec Pizzey sidelined for the first two months.

Claudea Waihape-Andrews has signed with Canberra as a development player while Callie Bourne is waiting in the wings as a training partner.

Even an outsider can quickly start to understand why Jade Melbourne is happy to adopt the underdog tag this season.

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"There'll be times during the season where we maybe attach to that because it serves us a purpose," Veal said.

"Our job this year is just to connect to play really good basketball and be better than we were last year. I think we're well on track to do that.

"The focus has really been on us. We've turned out attention to Adelaide this week, and I'll drip feed that in. For us, this early and in the pre-season with the changes we've been through, if we spend too much time focusing on the rest of the league, we weren't going to do ourselves a service in preparation.

"We continue to stay on in trying to get better in our group, our structure and what we do."

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