Extra Fire in her belly
“When you miss out on a team it’s always going to put a bit of extra fire in the belly to prove to yourself, but also to the coaching staff (that you deserve to be there),” she said.
“It’s great that the league is so strong this year and most of those Opals girls are playing in the league so it’ll be a really good challenge to show my skills and hopefully get back in the squad.”
Madgen is one of just four Fire players returning from last season as they embark on a new era without superstar captain Suzy Batkovic and championship-winning coach Claudia Brassard.
The Fire are coming off a failed title defence as they missed the finals for the first time since 2010-11, but Madgen felt things were already coming together in their second week of preseason under new coach Shannon Seebohm.
Madgen had a disrupted preseason last year with her Opals commitments and believed that extra time to prepare for the Fire’s WNBL campaign would be a huge benefit.
“I can already see at practice that we’ve got a really exciting style of play that I think will suit everyone’s style of game,” Madgen said.
“I’ll play at the two and maybe switch it up into the one and also in the three as well if we look to go a bit smaller. I’ll be able to use a variety of skills in all the different positions, which I’m really excited about.
“Shannon’s putting in a bit more stuff for everyone’s skill sets, which will be great, but I still think we’ll look to push the ball. I think in Australia now that’s the standard.
“We’re looking to push tempo and try and get easy scores in transitions.
“We have really mobile bigs so I think that will benefit us in the transition game.”
Seebohm said he had spoken with Madgen about her goals for this season and expected to see the best of the star guard in a Fire singlet.
“She seems really hungry to have a big year,” he said.
“We’re going to try and help her as much as we can to facilitate that and hopefully get her back in that Opals program.”