Interesting, Burton heading West. Penaluna done at Boomers makes sense to head back West.
Cant believe she gets Opals call up. What other Bigs are left? Waves and Lightning seem look like they haven't signed anyone.

So the boomers have there starting 5 already?
Cole, Madgen, kunek, Thompson, penaluna.

If they can retain Moore..
Moore, Edmondson, garbin, burton, Tomlinson.
With some of the other players from last year and Maybe add the likes of bunton and Langford and gain a few players coming out of college like Barr, seekamp or sheedy etc. got the makings of great squad.

No doubt Joyce wants lavey to be playing regular minutes.

Hope they play before the mens. Used to learn alot watching the old Michelle Timms led teams in the 90s.

Ladies and gents, get ready to welcome back the Perth Lynx!

The name will be resurrected (no doubt because it's synonymous with so many good things!) and the team will be led by the marquee signings of Opals Tessa Lavey and Natalie Burton.

I'm Brendan Joyce style excited!

Nat Burton was desperate to come home and she didnt exactly perform well at Melbourne Boomers. She is so far off performing as a true 5 man. Hopefully playing with Louella will make her more hungry and passionate about basketball.

Lavey has been released from contract (1 year to go) Bendigo and is coming to West Coast. No use her staying at Bendigo she just warms the bench. She needs to play big minutes. She will be a huge addition to the West Coast team.

Perth Lynx has been confirmed as the new name.

Lynx..
Cmon! they already have the Minnesota Lynx.
perth Panthers or something would have been much better...

The black and green would have matched perfectly with the Panther theme.

Lavey can't score..
Burton can't score...
Where are they gonna get there points?

It's got the makings of an ordinary team if Burton and Lavey are meant to be there big signings. Different name, different colours, same wooden spoon.

And an emptier than normal stadium looking at the membership prices: https://memberdesq.imgstg.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=custom_data_image_listing&CategoryID=26678&itemLayout=1&headerselector=3&OrgID=24924

Woweee!

:O OMG those prices are insane for a WNBL team. Especially for a cellar dweller.

Andy Stewart is the new coach isn't he?

Those prices are fine, 20 bucks a game for silver, not going to break the bank is it..

A WNBL ticket is normally $10-$15 to sit anywhere. It's a considerable price increase if you paid that to sit behind the bench and now pay $20 to sit up the back of the WABC.

It also appears that parking will now have to be paid for at the WABC. With the ticket prices going up too, it just got a lot more expensive to go to a game.

There is still a plethora of free agents still available, it's just whether they sign the right ones.

Lavey was 40th in the WNBL in assists per game last season. She might have someone beaten in that category but it's still not a number I'd be bragging about if I was her. But maybe it is her 2.1ppg at 28% that has the Lynx excited.

Are the ladies going to be prepared to do the hours Marvin will be expecting?

I think it will all come down to the dollars offered. It's a big commitment to want players to work full time for 46 weeks of the year when the season runs for, what, 18 weeks plus finals? It's a different approach which will either be a success or failure, depending on the salaries. It's one thing to be an NBL player and pull those extra hours of community service, because the salary is on par with a full time wage (and then some). Offering a part time wage for full time work would see it backfire. Time will tell, I guess.

Big words from Marvin but I'll believe it when I see it. Everything so far still reeks of a budget team. Well everything except the membership prices.
How does he expect to get more paying fans along to games? People aren't going to suddenly flock to the WNBL just because they are now part of the wildcats family. He had better put a playoff contender level team on the court.

So, Nat Burton and Sami Whitcomb signed

"We will scout out the best you can buy"
- Bendat

Brittney Griner? Maya Moore? Both? :D

Be interesting to see how Whitcomb goes in the WNBL. Easily the best women's american import in any state league at the moment.

Even if it's true, that's not saying much

both handy players and would be welcomed back I'm sure but both are Qld girls right? so maybe looking at Heal's new team as preferred destination.

Of course. Graham especially since she had a good season for the waves. It should be a given that they try to sign her again. Lots of the better players are already re-signed around the league so the Lynx need to get their asses into great and explore all remaining possibilities.

"Easily the best women's american import in any state league at the moment"

fly around the country to watch all of the 'State League' games to come to this conclusion did you?

She got tonnes of opportunity there. The spot was hers for the taking when Kristi retired yet her minutes still dropped and dropped as the season went on. She averaged more points & assists per game 5 years ago than she did this season. 6 seasons in the league and she is good for a fraction over 10 minutes per game. Doesn't sound like a player that's really going places. Except for the Opals of course if a certain Opals coach is to be believed. What a joke.

I agree kitty kat, a system that requires a smart PG clearly isn't the right one for Lavey.

maybe lavey will be a backup pg?
Still so many signings to come.

I'm probably Sandra Sully here but the Burton news is official-

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sport/a/27178970/burton-on-cloud-nine-over-cats-takeover/

Suprised to read that she is 26. I thought with her inclusion to the Opals as a raw product that she was 19-22 or so. She is around the same age as Bishop and O'Hea.

Would be great to see them put a tough squad together.

If they are as serious about top quality imports as that newspaper article the other day made it sound then they really could put a playoff contending squad together. That would be unknown territory for the team in Perth. Just maybe they would actually get more than players' family and friends attending games.
On the other hand if these players like Burton, Tomlinson, Lavey & Whitcomb are going to be the top level of talent in the team and the imports aren't a clear level above them then the team is in for another season of fighting for the wooden spoon.

Darcee Garbin is rumoured to be headed to Qld next year, Townsville was the word.

That sucks for west coast. Maybe seq also?

The word is Andy Stewart didnt want her. Crazy!

Especially seeing as Andy went to a lot of games and would have (hopefully) seen how talented (and under utilised) she is. I too think I will go with the approach of assuming it was Darcee that wanted out, the flip side of the story just seems mind boggling.

Garbin will benefit immensely from being in a program that includes the Lucas as coach and Bat Girl and Cayla on the court.

All of the Lucas bashers out there need to remember that in this environment it is a National League and his job is to win, not give players court time just to help their development. Most of the development for players isnt necessarily seen on the playing court but on the training court.

I think it is a great move for her to take her game to the next level

#071 - Great coaches can do both i.e. develop winning programs & develop young players with good playing habits. It's clear Townsville are going the Dandenong route & trying to buy another championship. Trust me there are not going to be enough shots to keep everyone happy in Townsville next season! Flanny will be a huge hole as she was prepared to sacrifice her game to get other players involved. With 2 american's who are going to be looking for their shots with Suzy & Cayla looking to get up 15 to 20 shots each I can easily the Fire going down in flames. Hopefully all that heat will go on to Lucas & he can suffer the same fate as Mark Wright! Lucas may be a championship coach but he is far from being a great coach.

Probably should put all that into its own Lucas or Townsville thread or a general WNBL thread. It's an interesting discussion point IMO. He is regarded as a top coach but most of the success seems to come via ready made players. Much like Graf.

How many championships come via non ready made players?

That list looks like a bunch of people (bar Thompson and Cumming, and the Frolings) who aren't quite good enough to play WNBL. Nothing to do with the coach.

Lucas. Great coach. Great club man. Top bloke. Proven record over many years. Results speak for themselves. Tremendous success.
Sounds like a really jealous person with a personal agenda here. Very sad. Hope you seek help for your obvious issue and can move on some time soon.

Fear not! The team is on a major recruiting drive atm:

http://www.seek.com.au/job/28561330?pos=2&type=standard

Wouldn't be entirely surprising seeing as though the Waves squad has been told 'if you don't hear from us we don't want you at trials'

That Seek ad is legit. There are also a couple of front office positions being advertised.

It's uncanny how one extra top tier player can allow those role players to look a lot better just playing their roles rather than attempting to do everything. The Waves were very competitive last season when they had a full team. Unfortunately Smith & Tomlinson missing so many games through injury meant that a full strength side didn't hit the court too often. But what I'm saying is that sure there were some average players but there were also some capable ones and I wouldn't be too quick to just dump the lot of them.

Don't forget, the Waves didn't get blown out of many games at all last year. Tomlinson missed a massive chunk, and Doccy missed a few here and there as well, but they stayed competitive nonetheless. Garbin's departure is a huge loss, I personally hope the Wildcats ego and wallet doesn't take over in the re-branding. It would be sad to see the role players that did their jobs solidly last season get told that they are no longer required.

Not sure how many basketball players have a cover letter and resume.

Responsibilities
Help my team score more points then the opponent.
Attend training sessions
Play defense and offense

Skills
3 point shooting - intermediate
layups - advanced
dribbling - intermediate
passing - beginner

Hope that ad is by some work experience office clerk, unreviewed by management. Otherwise it is making yourself ridiculous while trying to look professional.
All those broadly worded responsibilities and no mention of remuneration?

Tyrell, the Wildcats want to adopt their contract model onto the WNBL side of their operations. That means that players are contract full time (which includes a large portion of community work both during the season and offseason). Not sure how that will impact on their ability to recruit players from interstate (who can get the same playing money without the large commitment of 100s of hours of community work) or who would generally play in the SEABL/QBL in the offseason (which pays more than the WA SBL). Might be hard to entice new recruited when they are expected to stay in Perth all year round.

Are they going to get any players or what???

That's the $64 question right now! For all their talk about wanting to win a championship in the first season, it's been all quiet on the western front.

Waiting for the big names!!!

Lol at signing Cambage and Jackson!!

Let's see it Andy

So all the local Waves players were told not to come calling, but then they go and sign two players that arguably are no better? Guess the Wildcats mentality of players being from interstate = being better than locals has already kicked in.

What happened to the Opals players, LJ and Cambage? The no stone unturned till we put together a team that's going to win a championship? Right now, that roster is going to need some pretty huge additions to even come close to making the finals.

Mijovic doesn't seem to stay in the same place for long. The move makes sense this time around with the Lightning I'm assuming having only the budget to sign local players.

#530950

Which Waves players are better than those 2? Have you seen those 2?

Tomlinson signed
Garbin - sure but off to Fire
Smith will be 35
who else.........their other 2 good players last season were imports

If those pieces that the Lynx don't want were so good, why did they win 9 games in 3 years for the Waves?

Thats what happens when you leave signings too late, you get stuck with Tessa Lavey

Watched her play for Spirit yesterday in SEABL and coudnt contain opposition guards. Kel Wilson had to cover her arse.

Look at all the haters - Not happy with Lavey signing?
Tess has been in the firing line for almost 12 months with Joyce giving her an arm chair ride. In fairness she has delivered both camps and tours.

Move off hating Mijovic to Lavey. If I'm right Mijovic has been drafted to WNBA and is still only 20 years old. Bad signing?? Checked her off season stats and is leading both scoring and rebounding in Victorian league.

So Lynx have signed Tomlinson/Burton/Mijovic/Lavey as recognised Aussies. All who have been invited to Opals camps, been on tours and represented Australia at some point and there are still complaints.

No import announcements yet, no silly 300K Cambage Ranger announcements or weird government ACT incentive like the LJ deals. Why are people hating this so far?

Good on the Lynx and good on Wildcats owners for supporting women's basketball.

Not too mention a couple of handy SEABL players in Chilcott and Wischer.

Sami Whitcomb *is* an import. There is only one more import signing to come.

Glad to see Tessa going to Perth. Certainly wasn't what the Spirit needed. Good luck to both her and the Lynx. At least now we may all get to see her play more WNBL minutes and be brought undone by all the other guards deserving of that opals spot. Surely BJ will find another excuse though...

#533930 ^ I was at that game too and couldn't agree more. Seems to happen quite often too might I mention. Certainly feel for the other guards around that should be given more opportunity based on their talent, not their potential