Hard road ahead for Fire stars
Condensed competition challenge for WNBL teams
TOWNSVILLE will host 12 double headers in the upcoming WNBL season, with the condensed competition format to tantalise fans but push players to their limits.
With the entire tournament taking place in North Queensland, Australia’s eight sides will be forced to juggle their skill enhancement with extensive rehabilitation in order to match the demands needed for the condensed tournament.
Each team will play 14 matches in six weeks, with the finals series to commence on December 16.
The WNBL’S official unveiling of the draw has the Fire’s campaign beginning in Mackay against Perth as the second fixture on November 11. Their clash will follow the season’s launch in the Sugar City, when Adelaide takes on Canberra — the defending champions — at 5pm.
A pair of testing tasks will face the Fire in the early stages, when they challenge Southside once and Bendigo twice in a four-day span starting from November 19 in Townsville.
The same will happen in Cairns when they take on Adelaide, Southside and Sydney University from November 26. The Fire will play eight fixtures out of Townsville Stadium.
Prior to the draw’s reveal, coach Shannon Seebohm said training would be in short supply once proceedings got underway given the strain
players would be under to be at their best each game.
“The challenge I’m going to have is balancing players’ minutes and rest and making sure girls are fresh to play and back up two days later,” he said.
“I’m a bit worried about it, but I think they (the players) will love it. I think all the players want to play, so the fact there’s some many games in a short space of time for them is
going to be exciting. “But I think the challenge is going to be, can they be a professional off the floor and do all the recovery they need to do, and balance that out with getting shots up and being as sharp as we can?”
Basketball Australia head of women in basketball Lauren Jackson AO said a feast of elite basketball would be on court, with each team’s ability to manage player welfare an
added element to the competition’s intrigue.
“It’s a challenging fixture that will test the depth of each team’s roster as they rotate through Mackay, Townsville and Cairns,” Jackson said.
“As a league, we all can’t wait to converge on North Queensland to contest the 41st season of the WNBL.”