Brolgas dominate Heelers squad
QUEENSLAND Country Heelers fly half Josh Fletcher believes their strong Townsville connections will be crucial when the new-look team takes the field in Adelaide this weekend.
Nine players from the Townsville Brolgas have been selected in the 24-man Heelers squad with seven coming from reigning TDRU champions Teachers West, including Fletcher.
Harry Willocks was the sole Brolgas player to make the TOWNSVILLE Fire stars Abby Bishop and Darcee Garbin will suit up for the Australian Opals when their FIBA Women’s Asia Cup campaign tips off in Bengaluru, India, today.
Bishop and Garbin made the 12-player squad for the tournament following a week-long training camp at the AIS in Canberra along with two warm-up matches against China.
The Opals capped off the training camp in style with a 98-63 victory over China last Thursday before flying to India for their first Asia Cup game against the Philippines today.
Australia is in group B for the Asia Cup, alongside seventh-ranked China, the Philunder-19 Heelers squad for their tour of New Zealand next month.
The senior Heelers will go into camp tomorrow before contesting the Southern States Carnival in Adelaide with their first game on Friday evening.
It’s a short preparation with only a handful of players backing up from last season and Fletcher felt their biggest challenge would be building their combinations.
Fletcher is representing the Heelers for the third time this year and he’s always played alongside Teachers teammate ippines, and New Zealand, which includes Fire veteran Micaela Cocks.
The Asia Cup will be a chance for the team to prepare for their Olympic campaign, with the qualifying stages starting in November.
The Opals are eager to go one better than the 2017 Asia Cup where they lost to Japan 73-74 in the final, and head coach Sandy Brondello felt they had enjoyed a strong preparation against China.
“It’s just a valuable experience for us going into the Asia Cup because every team is different,” she said.
“Japan will be a little bit different too, so it’s about us being able to adapt on the fly.
“We have high expectations for ourselves.”
Bishop, Garbin and Cocks will link back up with the Fire for pre-season training following their Asia Cup duties.
The Fire have had a disrupted preparation for the upcoming WNBL season after losing star centre Zitina Aokuso to a serious knee injury last week, but coach Shannon Seebohm believed the Opals duo’s international experience would only benefit the rest of the team.
“It’s fantastic for us to have girls of that calibre in our squad,” Seebohm said.
“Obviously it’s going to disrupt our preparation a little bit, but I hope they go away and have a great time with the Opals.
“That’s going to help us when they get back here and hopefully pass on some of the things they’ve learnt to some of the other girls in our group.” Tom Vinson in the halves, but he said he was just as excited about the new line-up.
“I think the biggest challenge is the quick preparation and trying to find combinations and gel with the boys,” Fletcher said.
“Usually we only get two or three training sessions before the first game so just trying to make it all work as quick as possible is pretty tough.
“It’s a little bit lucky for me this year that we’ve got so many Townsville boys in. It makes it a bit easier for me playing fly half, just the familiarity with a boys.
“The best thing is that new people get an opportunity that probably could’ve been there before, but they’ve got their chance now, which is exciting.”
Townsville is the best represented region in the Heelers squad, which includes 15 debutants, and coach Rob Johnston was confident the team would come together quickly.
“We have lots of new faces this year, it’s a new-look team,” Johnston said.
“They all performed well during the Country Chamlot of the other pionships and given the short nature of our program we have to look at combinations and the Teachers Wests boys build up the bulk of the Townsville side.”
Queensland Country Heelers:
Lewayne Barrett (Teachers West), Josh Fletcher (Teachers West), Brandon Luto (JCU), Angus Small (Teachers West), Martin Brennan (Teachers West), Cameron Griffin (Burdekin), Daniel Chorley (Teachers West), Curtis Rayment (Teachers West), Josh Lamb (Teachers West)