You can understand the sense of desperation from both the Black Sticks men and women's hockey teams.
Both have come off the back of disappointing Tokyo Olympic campaigns, the Commonwealth Games another event where they failed to reach expectations, missing the final. And most recently they've been struggling for form in the prestigious Pro League competition.
The women have fallen to ninth in the world rankings, while the men are world number 13.
But if they beat Australia in this week three match Test series - forget world rankings.
They'll gain automatic Olympic qualification to the Paris Games.
It's such a critical moment, says Black Sticks Goalkeeper Grace O'Hanlon.
"When you play hockey, you dream about being an Olympian - but none of that happens without this moment here."
Call this the Black Sticks reckoning.
"We believe what we can achieve,” said Black Sticks men's co-captain Sam Lane.
"I honestly wouldn’t put it past us if we pulled an upset."
The Black Sticks are throwing everything at the Oceania Cup. Both sides have called in more than 1300 caps to bolster their teams.
Those include veterans like Hugo Inglis, who is back for the first time since last year's Commonwealth Games, and Samantha Child, who makes her return after having twins just seven months ago.
"I honestly didn't think I'd be back for this," said Child.
"I didn't know what the year was looking like, I thought it was a bit later in the year and then I heard it was in August and I thought - 'right strap your boots on you've got a bit of work to do.
"If you look on the facts on paper, Australia is ranked a lot higher than us and so naturally most of the teams in world hockey would expect Australia to win, but I think internally we are confident that we can win," said Child.
"Not having that expectation is almost a good thing it gives you that extra motivation and drive, but you need that internal believe that you have the capability and these girls certainly have that."
The Black Sticks want to do anything to avoid the uncertainty of a last-ditch play-off tournament next year. While the women have a good track record of beating the Aussies for the Olympic spot, the men don't. They've never won the Oceania Cup since its inception in 1999.
"We've been through the ringer with many of these Olympic qualifications," said Inglis.
"This is my 4th one. Sport's a wonderful thing, anything can happen - it's 11 guys against 11 guys on Thursday night and we're ready to rip into it."
All games will be available to watch live and on demand for free on TVNZ+.
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