08 Mar Three New Teams set to take on WNWBL 2025
The Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) will welcome three new teams in 2025 as the league looks to build on the return of the national competition in 2024.
The Gold Coast Rollers will take over from the Queensland Comets as the sunshine state’s team in the top league, Victoria will have an all-female presence for the first time since 2019 and Adelaide Thunder will field a women’s team in the WNWBL for the very first time.
Right Name, Right Attitude
When dual Paralympian Ella Sabljak heard there was uncertainty over a Queensland women’s team returning in 2025, she immediately sprang into action to see what could be done.
“I approached Joel (McInnes) and the team at Gold Coast Basketball and asked was this a possibility, and they said yes let’s see what we need to do, let’s see about budget and we just dived straight in,” said Sabljak.
Who better than a team already nicknamed the Rollers to field a team in a wheelchair basketball competition?
“They were just so on board with having a national league team and especially on the Gold Coast, there’s been a lot of talks happening about having a NBL team here on the Gold Coast in the national league so for us to put in a team into our national league they were just all about it and super giddy.”
The team will call on players from around Queensland including Mackay, Townsville, Rockhampton, Gladstone and the South East.
The spread of talent has meant Sabljak has had to plan out camps between now and the start of the season to ensure the group can spend time training together.
Sabljak who won championships with the Comets in 2015 and 2018 is on just as much of a learning curve as her squad, taking the reins as coach for the first time.
“This is going to be a first for me, I’m going to be learning things on the fly. I’ve done some junior coaching before. We’re just taking this group of girls and we’re starting to put the pieces together at our training sessions and everything that I wanted to know and learn as a player, the tools, I’m trying to teach the girls.”
“They know that we’re on this journey together and we’re only going to get stronger if we support each other.”
A Spark for the Game in Victoria
A host of local players will be able to play in the national league in front of home fans when a Victoria-based women’s team returns to the national league for the first time since the Kilsyth Cobras played in 2019.
Leading the charge will be Australian Glider Laura Davoli who has played for Perth and Queensland in order to get national league games as her star continues to rise within the Australian Gliders program.
“As a kid that came through our program and state development program, a kid like Laura is a perfect example of, she had to go interstate to play national league last year,” said Basketball Victoria Diversity and Inclusion Manager Sheena Atkin.
“We want her here playing and to put these players on show here in Victoria so that not just their family and friends can come but we can expose more of the basketball community to the sport and all the amazing athletes that we have.”
Entry into this year’s league has been driven by Leanne Del Toso and Shelley Matheson and completes a strong junior pathway for the state’s up and coming female players.
“We see it as a really natural step in our next step in wheelchair basketball in Victoria to be able to have a women’s national league team and to make sure we’re supporting the girls who are in Victoria to continue their pathway and play out of their home state.”
“I think the pivotal thing for us as BV is we want to invest in this space, and we want to invest in making sure this is something that is going to be around for a long time and we’re going to have a strong history with WBA in how we can also help and build the sport in Victoria.”
New Roll for Adelaide
The Adelaide Thunder round out the final addition to the WNWBL with the South Australian Wheelchair Basketball Association (SAWBA) switching from fielding a mixed team in the NWBL last season to a women’s team, in the women’s league this year.
“We’ve had a strong group of girls who have been very dedicated to being part of the Association,” said Thunder player and head of SAWBA, Lucinda Bueti.
“A lot of these girls were training with the team last year when we had the men’s team going so we looked at the number of girls we had coming out and we said let’s put in a women’s team because there’s a lot of dedication.”
“They’ve put in a lot of hard effort to get to where they are, so we wanted to reward that effort.”
The team got their first taste of all female competition at the Wheelchair Basketball Illawarra Festival in October last year and held their own against a more experienced Sydney Blues outfit.
The experience only boosted the team’s enthusiasm to test themselves in the national league.
“These girls are rocking up to every session that’s available to them, their drive’s excellent. With this group of girls, the chemistry is a big part of it for us, making sure we’re playing and training as a team,” added Bueti.
Bueti has played in the women’s league for teams in almost every other state other than her own and is hoping to bring what she’s learned back to her local side.
“It’s carrying on that idea of you’ve got your coaches that help develop players but having those senior players out on court makes a massive difference in terms of developing people and getting the best out of them.”
The Gold Coast, Victoria and Adelaide will join WNWBL mainstays Sydney Blues, Perth Wheelcats and defending champions Sydney Uni with Round 1 of the women’s league commencing on May 30th.