THIS ONE’S FOR SUZY
CALL TO SEND BATKOVIC OUT AS A WINNER
MICAELA Cocks says the Townsville Fire are determined to give Suzy Batkovic the farewell she deserves as the WNBL legend plays her final game at Townsville Stadium on Saturday night.
Batkovic has been an icon of Australian women’s basketball across her 345 games in the WNBL, winning five championships, including three titles in Townsville, and a record six MVP awards.
Her farewell season has not gone to script as she has been sidelined for the past six weeks with a neck injury, but Batkovic will play through the pain one last time when the Fire host the Sydney Flames.
MICAELA Cocks says the Townsville Fire are determined to give Suzy Batkovic the farewell she deserves as the WNBL legend plays her final game at Townsville Stadium on Saturday night.
Batkovic has been an icon of Australian women’s basketball across her 345 games in the WNBL, winning five championships, including three titles in Townsville, and a record six MVP awards.
Her farewell season has not gone to script as she has been sidelined for six weeks with a neck injury, but Batkovic will play through the pain one last time when the Fire host the Sydney Flames.
Cocks has taken on the captaincy while Batkovic has been out of action, but she said she was excited to let their star centre lead the team again as the Fire look to send her out a winner.
“I think it’s more just celebrating her career. She’s the ‘GOAT’ (greatest of all time) of the WNBL,” Cocks said.
“It didn’t go that well with her retirement year and being injured, but we want to see her out on the court and just be thankful for getting to play with her and all the years that she’s given to basketball.
“The goal is to win every game and we definitely want to win the last game of the season.”
Batkovic’s injury has compounded a disappointing championship defence for the Fire as they missed the finals for the first time since 2010.
I THINK IT’S MORE JUST CELEBRATING HER CAREER. SHE’S THE ‘GOAT’ (GREATEST OF ALL TIME) OF THE WNBL MICAELA COCKS
The Fire have only won consecutive games once this season heading into their clash with Sydney, but Cocks said they were now confident after pushing first-placed Canberra all the way in an 80-68 loss before beating Dandenong 81-68 on their home floor last weekend.
“It’s always a really good feeling to win and we want to finish the season off as strong as we can,” Cocks said.
“Our second half against Canberra was really good and they’ve shown the league how good a team they are so I think it helped give us confidence going into the game that we won.”
The Fire had a strong scor- ing spread against the Rangers with four players in double figures led by Darcee Garbin with 20 points while Zitina Aokuso (15 points, 11 rebounds) had a double-double.
Aokuso has had to play with a stress fracture in her foot with Batkovic also injured and Fire coach Claudia Brassard said the 20-year-old had been a shining light in a tough season.
“When you don’t train all week and you come out and get a double-double it’s brilliant,” Brassard said.
“With Suzy going down, I think that’s probably one of the highlights of the season for us is the way Zee’s played week-in, week-out.”