maybe sooner than u think - she's outstanding academic a well and AIS may not have the academic options that adelaide has

Gonna be hard to get into the Lightning roster though, with them being guard heavy already with Screen, Phillips, Mahony, Seward, Lamshed.

Depends on if Chris Lucas would be willing to give away height and move Philips to the 3 spot, and bring Mencel in that way.

Lamshed is a fill in, mahoney knee is not good, Phillips will be a serious contender for overseas. Seward is not a starter.

I have seen mencel - she is better than the above.

Honestly - we let Newley go surely we sould not let an Australian Gems player go as well - young talent running hot.

Give me form player than a name player any day.

better than the above, bar erin

right hand can not be too bad if you make the Gems

I beleive she is still trying to find that left hand. The AIS looked for it but couldn't find it.

I mean right hand. I suppose if I am going to be smartass i should get it right.

Leah is better than all the other Lightning guards bar Philips?

Puh-lease!! No dis-respect intended to Leah, but better than Screen???? You are joking, aren't you?

Better than Seward?? I doubt it. Seward is slowly returning to some great form she showed before injuring her knee. Mahony's knee will be fine after the rest she's forced to have at the moment.

Mencel is good, and I have a lot of respect for her game, but I still think she will struggle to break into the Lightning team. If she does, she will be on the bench, with limited minutes. She would be better served trying for a team such as Perth, or possibly Bulleen, where they could do with a good guard coming in to the team.

do y'all know how old leah actually is?? 16!! you are comparing her to 20 and 21 year olds. If she really puts her mind to it, by the time she is 20 she will be playing WNBA -do you really think someone as smart as her would waste her time playing WNBL when she could be earning big bucks in the corporate world????

Mencel is a talented player - Lisa Scaglia filled the Lightning bench this season - I'm sure Leah will be able to do the same at one stage. When Erin P goes to the WNBA (don't tell me she won't), I'm sure she'll get her chance.

And as you all said, she's 16. Give her time. Don't forget Erin Seward was an AIS scholarship, Mahony, Screen were all in similar Gem/ Sapphires squads and Kamala Lamshed (intermittently) has been playing WNBL for many years. She's got time on her side!

Will Angela Marino come home anytime soon?

With Scaglia at the AIS makes SA women look pretty awesome for PG/SGs now, right?

Libertine, Chris Lucas had the chance to pick up Marino and passed her by. He obviously saw things Tom missed.

Scaglia only got promoted from the squad to the team due to injuries to Seward, Mahony, Screen at the time.

As far as SA women looking good for guards, thats never been the problem. Lightning teams have always suffered in the bigs area, with only Sporn being a regular cast member in there, with role players such as Brogan, Braithwaite etc filling up the spots.

Really started to suffer from the time Carla Boyd went overseas.

Abby?

"All the world's a stage" - interesting to note. Although, I'd say the guards were stacked enough.

yes abby is on a big upward curve and may get a chance soon - stiil has to earn a few more stripes.

few others higher up in the food chain as well

Yogee,
I don't think you can really claim Brogan to be a 'role player'! Adelaide have rarely 'suffered in the bigs'

Over the years Adelaide have consistently had the best inside players in the league. Sporn, Brogan, Moffa, Boyd. I would agree that compared to the glory days we are facing lean times with other quality bigs in the league in Grima, Hamilton, Whittle etc, however, we still have Laura Summerton!!!

Leading the league in scoring... back to back 30+ games in recent rounds.

I think the difference between now and the days of Brogan and Sporn is that our interior defence is far, far weaker.

You have a well educated basketball brain, surely you agree this is more the case then lack of talented inside players?

NOt to put too much pressure, but isn't the next BIG thing (get it, 'big' ?), currently playing juniors and ABL for Eastern... ?

abby B 4 kayla

kayla can do it - but i reckon she goes AWOL often

Jay, yes I do agree, but I think part of that lack of interior defence comes from lack of quality bigs.

I guess I should qualify that from my point of view. When we had Boyd and Sporn, things were dandy, and we dominated. Boyd went OS and Sporn's knees started playing up. We just could not attract any real quality bigs to the team, with Brogan coming back to play a prt time role, and well, lets face it, she was past her best days (still played a serviceable game though). Braithwaite has been good for the team, but did suffer against a lot of the other centres. Summerton has been a shining light, and if Sporn had been able to stay for a couple more years, could have fostered yet another Boyd/Sporn like combination.

I dont want to take away from anything the current or past Lightning players have done...the fact they havent missed a play off since they entered the league is no small feat, just one more big would do them wonders I feel.

It's purely my 2 cents...but...I'm not a coach.,.and there's obviously some very good reasons for that :)