Season pause won’t stop Fire from roaring on
TOWNSVILLE Fire coach Shannon Seebohm is confident the WNBL’S early-season break won’t dampen the 3-0 inferno his team have sparked.
The Fire are in piping-hot form, scorching the Canberra Capitals, Adelaide Lightning and Southside Flyers to open their 2022-23 account with a bang.
Townsville are averaging 91.33 points-per-game – more than any other WNBL side this season.
Lauren Nicholson (22) and Tianna Hawkins (20.7) are second and third respectively in average points per game, while point guard Steph Reid leads the league in average assists with a whopping 8.3 per game.
Seebohm said it was frustrating for the team to pause after just three games, but he was impressed with what he had seen so far.
“We had a lot of momentum going and then yeah, no games for a couple of weeks. I think they probably feel like they’re back in pre-season,” Seebohm said.
“I like what we’ve done in the first three games, I think defensively we’ve been really good and have done exactly what I would have hoped we could have done.
“Offensively, same thing. I just think we can be a little bit more consistent with our execution at their end.”
Local favourite Courtney Woods echoed her coach’s thoughts, saying she would have rather played on with the momentum they had built.
“I think any team that went threeand-oh (3-0) in the beginning of the year would want to just continue to play, but obviously we don’t have much of a choice so we’re just taking the two weeks to prepare as much as we can for Bendigo, mostly focusing on ourselves but also preparing for what will be a really good team,” Woods said.
“The three games (so far) were all super different. Different outcomes, different scoring, so a bit all over the place.
“Focusing on consistency will be big for us in the next two weeks and just kind of putting some polish over a couple of things.”
Bendigo will be the biggest challenge yet. Sitting on top of the ladder after the wins, the Spirit have enjoyed a very similar start to the season to the Fire.
In their three games, Bendigo have scored seven points less than the Fire while conceding just 10 points less.
Seebohm said the Fire would need to be sharp enough to know the right counters to use when the Spirit take certain things away in the game.
“They’re a great team. They’re tough, they’re physical, and I think any team that has Kelsey Griffin on it is going to be a tough team to play against,” Seebohm said.
“They’ll be really prepared and they’ve obviously had a chance to sit there for three weeks and look at us and figure out what we’re doing and what they need to do to counter that.
“We’ve got a team that are very focused on what our goals are this year and what we want to achieve, so I’m sure we’ll be ready to go next week.”