Brassard shoots at benchmark target
THE Townsville Fire are used to being the WNBL’s hunted, but coach Claudia Brassard believes Melbourne are the new benchmark ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster season opener.
Bookmakers have Melbourne ($ 4) as slight favourites over the Fire ($ 4.50) to win the 2017- 18 championship, but this season remains a bit of an unknown with a condensed schedule and some world- class players returning to the league.
The Boomers have led the way in recruitment after bringing in the likes of Lou ella Tom linson, Jenna O’ He a, and Opals star Liz Cam b age while the Fire will welcome back dual championship winner Cayla George ( above) after stints in Europe and the WNBA.
Townsville have been a powerhouse over the past six seasons, playing in four grand finals for two victories, but Brassard expected the Boomers to be a much greater threat when they face off in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon.
“They’re a totally different team and they’re prob- ably the favourites going in to the competition just by who they’ve signed,” Brassard said.
“Everyone’s expecting big things from them so I would expect them to be popping the ball inside to Lizzy and opening up shots for Jenna O’Hea on the outside.
“We haven’t seen Jenna in the league for a few years so it’ll be interesting to see how they go.
“I think they’ve had about five pre- season games so certainly a lot of warm- up matches to get them ready. Right now, they’re probably the benchmark.”
Cambage is arguably the highest- profile signing this season, with an emphasis on size across the league, but George was adamant the 203cm Boomers centre won’t bully the Fire.
“Liz Cambage is a big focal point, but we’ve got Suzy Batkovic so watch out Melbourne,” George said.
“It doesn’t really matter how well she ( Cambage) plays. We’ve just got to control what we can control and hopefully we get the outcome we need.
“It’s a tougher, stronger, quicker league. There’s less room for mistakes because there’s not a lot of time and we have a shorter recovery between games and more travel.
“I’m impressed with the whole squad at the moment. We’re hungry just to get out there and actually play and start the season off right.”
The Fire will boast a for- midable frontcourt this season as George reunites with five- time WNBL MVP Batkovic while Darcee Garbin and rookie Zitina Aokuso will also be pushing for minutes off the bench.
Managing so many quality bigs could be tricky, but Brassard was confident that depth would be a positive for the Fire with eight doubleheaders in just 13 rounds.
“The league is huge all around and I think we’ve probably got the best bigs in the whole world all playing in Australia all at once so we’re very fortunate,” Brassard said.
“We need big bodies to bang up against those bigger bodies so I think having that depth to share some minutes is a good headache.”