Fire aim for speed to challenge taller teams

Opals duo Abby Bishop (191cm) and Darcee Garbin (188cm) will still give the Fire a strong post presence this season, but they have yet to replace Aokuso, leaving them relatively undersized.

The Fire also face a huge challenge first up against a towering Flyers outfit which includes the likes of WNBA centre Mercedes Russell (198cm), Louella Tomlinson (193cm), and Sara Blicavs (189cm).

The Fire already proved they could adapt without their star bigs in a 93-87 preseason loss to the Sydney Flames and Seebohm was confident they won’t be caught short against Southside.

“When we played Sydney a few weeks ago we were as undersized as you could possibly be and I was really happy with how we did,” he said.

“We have to come with a really physical mindset and we’ve got to be willing to put our bodies on the line and push people off spots and be aggressive defensively.

“I think we’re going to be able to take away what other teams think are their strengths and then on the other end of the floor I think they’re going to have a lot of trouble matching up with us as well.”

Garbin (pictured), who has just returned from helping the Opals win bronze at the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup, believed speed would be key for the Fire as they look to run the bigger teams off their feet.

“We are a little bit smaller than most teams so I think we’re going to be playing fastpaced game, kicking the ball up the floor, and just running a lot,” she said.

“We don’t have any girls that are six-foot-five or sixfoot-six like the rest of the league does so I think that’s going to be our style of play.”

Seebohm was keeping his starting five close to his chest ahead of the opening round, but the coach was confident the Fire had all the pieces to be a championship threat this season.

“I really like some of the combinations that I’ve seen and I think we’ve got a group that are really unselfish and they’re going to play well together,” he said.

“We’ve got smarts, we’ve got talent, and we’ve got shooting.

“Now we just have to be able to come and play with the toughness and the desire that we’re going to have to have week-in, week-out to grind out wins.”