Opal great Snell keen to explore coaching

BASKETBALL great Belinda Snell will retire from the WNBL at the end of the season but if things work out she will still be on the bench on game day.

The former WNBA and Opals star is hoping to stay in the game as a coach after confirming the worst kept secret in the WNBL of her retirement after almost two decades.

Snell is likely to sit out Saturday’s round three game in Townsville with a calf injury.

Also under an injury cloud for the match against the WNBL champions are Tahlia Tupaea and Alexandra Bunton.

Tupaea is recovering from a concussion and Bunton a leg injury.

Snell’s goal in retirement is to simply take a step sideways rather than away from the competition which has delivered her three title crowns and some of the great moments of her life.

“Coaching is what I’d like to do, what I’m working towards and hopefully I can get some sort of gig in NSW or Victoria,’’ said the long- serving Flames captain who has been studying coaching at Sydney Uni and at the reins of the Sydney Uni Flame’s SEABL team.

“I want to stay involved. It’s been my love, my life since I left home at 16 and went to the AIS.’’

Snell’s teammates at the AIS included Opals greats Lauren Jackson, Penny Taylor and Fire captain Suzy Batkovic, with the latter also retiring from the WNBL at the end of the season.

Snell, a multiple Olympic medallist, this season is playing shoulder- to- shoulder with and also against players she believes will make a similar mark on the game and the WNBL in the likes of Tupaea and Bunton, and young guns including Boomer Ezi Magbegor and Adelaide Lightning’s Lauren Nicholson.

“It’s just an exciting league with great athletes and such fantastic young talent coming though,’’ Snell said.