Fire stars ‘feeling good’
WITH two wins on the trot for the first time this WNBL season, a new-found sense of positivity and confidence have engulfed the Townsville Fire.
A 33-point victory over the third-placed UC Capitals last Friday was followed up with a seven-point win over the Sydney Uni Flames 48 hours later.
Coach Shannon Seebohm said the results had impacted greatly on the locker room.
“There’s definitely a different energy that comes with picking up two wins,” Seebohm said.
“The girls are feeling revitalised, practice (on Tuesday) was at a good level with lots of laughing and smiling.”
The Fire produced their two best offensive performances of the season in the fixtures, something Seebohm said they had striven for.
“We’ve had a style of play we want to be able to go with and for whatever reason it hasn’t been happening until now,” he said.
“We’ve had two games in a row where there’s been at least five players get double figures, that just hasn’t happened this year for us.
“It shows we’ve something offensively found and we’re starting to click. But we’ve got a challenge coming up with Adelaide who have been a bogey team for us.
“But I feel like with the confidence we’ve got and the style we’re playing with now, hopefully we can go and give them a much better run than we have in the past.”
Tess Madgen has played a central role in the Fire’s resurgence over the past two games, including hitting a season-high 26 points against the UC Capitals.
Madgen said it was great to see smiles across the face of her teammates after a tough season to date.
“It’s awesome,” Madgen said. “I think because we had a good practice on Thursday night before we played on Friday everyone was upbeat and it made a massive difference.
“It’s great to win so everyone is feeling pretty good about themselves.”
The 29-year-old has turned her attention to returning to her native Adelaide this Friday for a game against the fourthplaced Lightning.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing my family down there,” she said.
“Last season we beat them in Adelaide and then they came up here and pumped us by 40, so hopefully going on last year we can look to do that to them.
“All the girls really want to go in there and make a big statement and cause an upset.”
Following their game against Adelaide, the Fire will head west to tackle Perth Lynx on Sunday.
IT SHOWS WE’VE FOUND SOMETHING OFFENSIVELY AND WE’RE STARTING TO CLICK.
SHANNON SEEBOHM