West Coast Fever coach Dan Ryan says hosting the minor semifinal will be crucial to their premiership hopes as they prepare to take on the winless Giants in Sydney on Sunday.

Fever have lost four of their past six games to now be in danger of slipping to fourth by the end of the regular season, which would have them on the road for the entire finals series.

Should the Fever be overtaken by the Melbourne Mavericks on the ladder by the end of round 14, it means they would not play at home again this year, with clashes against the Giants at Ken Rosewall Arena and reigning premiers Melbourne Mavericks at John Cain Arena to round out the home-and-away season.

They would then be forced to travel again to Melbourne to play a cut-throat final against the Mavericks, while Adelaide or the Vixens will host the preliminary final.

The grand final is already locked in to be played at John Cain Arena.

A win against the last-placed Giants would seal a seventh-consecutive finals berth for Fever, but Ryan said they needed third spot to give them the best chance at a second premiership.

“It’s key. The travel component for us is always a complex part of our season,” he told The West Australian.

“It certainly hit us pretty hard in the middle part of the season, and we felt the wrath of it, so to speak.

“Playing two away games heading into finals, we certainly want to get back at home for a minor semifinal and see what we can do there because it’s all those little things you need going in your favour to try to get across the line. Third is what we want, and third is what we’ll be fighting for.”

Ryan lamented his team’s inability to do the basics in their recent losses, including the shock three-goal defeat to the Melbourne Mavericks, which was their fourth consecutive defeat at home.

“It’s really disappointing and probably unacceptable for us in terms of the standard we hold ourselves to,” he said.

“To be coughing up not only the amount of ball that we are but when we’re making these types of turnovers is something that needs to shift if we want to stand a chance at competing and playing at our best.

“Everyone is accountable to that and everyone is owning that and everyone’s on board around those shifts that we know that we must make to get to where we want to go to and the time is now to do that. And that is the challenge that we put ahead of ourselves.”

Ryan said they had trained strongly on the fundamentals to ensure they could finish the good work on the court.

“It’s been a pretty hard training week in terms of being really specific around our ability to execute in critical moments and have greater consistency with our skill, our connection, and our overall performance within a quarter and across 60 minutes,” he said.

“It’s pretty basic stuff for us, but we’re putting ourselves in solid positions, but just our inability to consistently execute to standard has been the biggest challenge point and something we’ve honed in on this week.”