29 May Gunn’s Ready
When the Adelaide Thunder announced they were entering the WNWBL it was not a foregone conclusion that star South Australian Katelin Gunn would be joining them.
Gunn initially planned to remain with the Sydney Blues.
“It was for a period but they got a few more low pointers on board and Adelaide, if you look through the roster, I’m the only low pointer apart from a few rookies who get a deduction so being able to use my strength, I guess it was a big decision in the end to move but it will benefit me in the long run in my skill development and my own confidence,” said Gunn.
The opportunity to build something from the ground up was also too hard to resist.
“Being able to make history being the first Adelaide team to get on court will be pretty cool. Being able to play with these bunch of girls as well, we’re all developing and for some of the girls in the team it’s their first time playing at this level, so it’s going to be good playing with them.”
Plus the opportunity to play under South Australian great David Gould was also enticing.
“Being coached under David Gould will be exciting as well to be able to see the team all come together and definitely develop.”
But building something from the ground up takes a lot of work, with Adelaide’s nine player squad featuring five debutants, Gunn knows they give up a lot of experience to every other team including the two other new teams.
“It’s all about skill development. Obviously not having as much experience on court and being able to develop each game and have David as our coach, to be able to help implement different things at training has been good.”
“We’ve got some obviously fierce competition with some of the other teams with more experience on board and I guess some of the girls that I’ve played with within the Gliders it will be good to compete against them.”
“Hopefully I can build on my own self development as well as other people in the team as well.”
Gunn goes into the season, buoyed by success at the Junior Wheelchair Championships where South Australia claimed the Kevin Coombes Cup for the first time.
In that team were fellow Thunder players Ellie McInerney, Brooke Joppich and Isoleblla Nitschke, signaling there’s plenty of potential coming out of SA.
“Losing the first pool game against Queensland by one point we all got a bit down I guess but it gave us a good reality check that we had to come together as a team and develop and use our strengths on court to then turn it around against Queensland in the gold medal game.”
“We were all pretty nervous to get out there on court but after the first half we pulled it together and used our strengths and then we played good basketball together as a group and we all used everyone’s strengths to be able to come away with a convincing win in the end.”
“Coming away from juniors with SA I had a bit of a voice on court so hoping to implement that on court as well and with Lucinda Bueti and Isy Nitschke, hopefully have those two behind, as well some of the more experienced girls on court, hopefully having their voices come into play and help guide the others.”
ROUND 1 (30 May – 1 June)
Victoria Wonders vs Adelaide Thunder
Friday 6:30pm
Saturday 12pm (11am 3X3)
Sunday 10am (9am 3X3)
(MEL) State Basketball Centre, VIC