No- trial Flames fired up for opener

THE Townsville Flames will head into the QBL season without a trial game under their belts, but coach Mike St- Maurice is confident the team’s WNBL connection can lead them to a winning start.

The highly fancied Flames will take on Northern rivals Cairns tonight with a line- up that includes Townsville Fire stars Mia Murray and Darcee Garbin as well as development players Ainsley Walsh and Haylee Andrews and former captain Rachael McCully, who has come out of retirement.

Townsville hasn’t had the ideal preparation without a warm- up game, but St- Maurice said they’d been working hard on the training court and were ready to put that into action against Cairns.

“I think after about two months of our women beating up on each other, they’re keen to do it to someone else,” the coach said.

“We organised a group of boys who were in the state program here so we had a hitout on Monday and that was the first time that we had our starting five together.

“There’s some combinations that just work well together.

“A lot of these women have played with each before, whether it’s for the Fire or club level.

“We tested that out and it seemed to work well for us.”

Flames forward Darcee Garbin admitted she was feeling the pressure to perform as one of the team’s star signings, but the 22- year- old was confident she had a strong team behind her.

“There’s been a bit of hype around us and I think we’re definitely one of the better teams in the league,” Garbin said.

“I want to work to get better for my WNBL season as well so I’ve got certain goals that I’ve set myself in terms of numbers and my performance.

“I’m feeling a little bit of pressure to perform in this QBL season, but I think the whole team has to perform.

“I haven’t played a game in two months and some of these girls haven’t played since last year so we’ll just be excited to get up for the game.”