I always fully respect your views Weedy on women's basketball around Australia, you're a gun. Your knowledge is fantastic.
I don't normally comment publicly often about specific junior basketballers, normally prefer to do a lot of reading and watching. But just seeing a couple of comments on here from people the past couple of hours has had me grinning. "Youthcoach", I am not quite sure what to make of your take on things. But if I see something clearly incorrect I will make a comment. I acknowledge that this is just a casual forum and people are just putting across their own opinions at times. Having said that, the following is just simply my opinion as well.
As someone who is closely involved with rep coaching within Vic girls basketball the past 5+ years we keep a close eye on interstate players both live and online across most tournaments. I was there courtside this weekend at the NJC watching many girls basketball games. It is part of the role of coaching to see as many key players in person as possible. I am old school, I always prefer live over any video clip. It is silly not to always be taking a close look at all of the girls from around the country.
I can say that many coaches in Melbourne would definitely rate Elliott as probably the best 2009 PG in Australia over the past few years. Speed, elite ball handling and ball distribution, and can definitely score heavy. The direct feedback I have heard from a couple of Melbourne-based club coaches is that she has always been one of the hardest players to defend at times. The multiple games I have seen played (over a number of years) she has shown extreme composure and high basketball IQ which is very often lacking at this young level. Once again I think she was in the top couple of scorers this weekend. Has had excellent past NJC and this current NJC tournaments and U14 Club Nationals and is always in the top scorers. I believe was injured just prior to 2023 AJC and I think may have actually missed the 2023 NJC. So mid 2023 scouting was obviously harder to gauge due to lack of basketball.
My earlier comment on the match up with Ryan was because that viewing was one of a few penciled in 2 weeks ago when the NJC draw came out. I was courtside and watched probably 90% of that game. Ryan is one of Victoria's best young prospects in recent years and I was giving credit to an interstate player who definitely won that battle hands down no arguments. We credit great basketball no matter which state they come from.
Fakalata is also highly rated, especially for her speed and skills. Good scorer as well, from most spots on the floor. If you are talking true PG role players then I would have these two in front.
Hocking is always in the top bracket in scorers in most tournaments. Great player and effort but definitely not quite at the same level of speed, ball handling and distribution. High percentage of points come from inside the paint via lay ups, drives and resulting foul shots. Definitely an impact player, but not seen as a true PG role at a higher level. Maybe SG, wing, depends on what style that team is adopting.
Olechnowicz and Smith are elite players but may end up have varying roles over the next couple of years. Again, not seen as true distributing PGs, more SG or even SF/PF (Olech). On track for big futures.
I read a lot of information on forums and see a number of girls heavily promoted on socials each month, but just thought I would offer a short coach's perspective of what we see and have discussed over the past couple of years in this particular age group (on this thread). Rep coach's views and reviews on player rankings can be quite different to what is splashed across our socials in edited video clips! In addition to our local girls (of course), we actually invest a lot of time into analyzing certain interstate players. There are many other girls in the 2009/2010 age group as well, I have only briefly mentioned a few.
National coaches may have slightly different views and takes on all of the players, but ultimately we all have access to the same information, footage, stats and watch the same games played. I am sure the scouting reports wouldn't be too extremely different.
