QBL Womens Coaching transactions
There has been some movement during the offseason in terms of the women’s coaching. Rebecca Dudic got the Brisbane Capitals gig while Michael Van Dongen returns to the QBL taking the inaugural coaching position for the USC Rip. Former dual Olympian Fiona Hannah takes over at Pirates. Basketball Expressions analyses each move. Rebecca Dudic for Brisbane Capitals Brisbane struggled in the two years under Paul O’Brien and eventually changed direction with the coach they should have had in the first place in Rebecca Dudic. Dudic is an underrated coach that has improved over the years. While Brisbane is likely to get players back they lost due to the previous coaching regime, Dudic still needs to plug plenty of holes, especially in the offensive end of things. With Northside done it sort of open up the Central pool with Bundaberg and Logan as the main competition for the two playoff spots so if Dudic has a good offseason of transactions, Brisbane should have a good chance of returning to the playoffs.
Michael Van Dongen to Sunshine Coast Rip Rob Scheibner always tells me how start up teams are supposed to go. The club get a 'patchy' for a coach to guide the team through their inaugural season or two where your team will endure their biggest defeats. they don’t get to see some success on the court until their second or third season. Enter Michael Van Dongen as Rip's inaugural coach.
Getting a club that doesn’t have a women’s A grade competition, a struggling SBL team and located in a region where they barely support one women’s team let alone two teams into the QBL is an impossible situation. They are bound to have some hit and misses with imports during the first couple of years but the key is to get decent unrestricted players and build on that. Team chemistry will take time as well, if they can get more than 2 wins in their first year I would consider it a success.
Fiona Hannah to South West Metro
Former Olympian Fiona Hannah takes over Pollock as South West head coach. They have add also added veteran coach Nikki Barstow to provide some coaching experience. The Pirates struggled last year and will need improvements at plenty of facets of their game. Getting better imports and adding a couple of veterans to help out should be a good first step. Would be interesting to see how Shyla Heal does in year 2 of QBL, one of the most promising junior talents in Australia right now.
Harry Spencer to Toowoomba
Technically it’s not a new coaching gig since Spencer was co-coach with Michael Dirksen. But with Derksen stepping down Spencer has sole possession of one of the worst women's programs in QBL. It’s a team that overly depends on their imports, and while the Mountaineers tend to get some quality imports (Kisha Lee, Chelsie Schweers) they also get some duds (Breanna Leland). While there are some decent juniors (not at the level of their men’s program) their unrestricted senior players aren’t up to scratch. Spending money on decent unrestricted Aussies should be a priority. With Kisha Lee gone they will need to rebuild or it will be another 0-17 season for the Mountaineers.
Comments