HAVING a stronger all-round team in 2017 has Cockburn Cougars Women's SBL coach John Triscari excited about what the season holds and there's plenty of reinforcements on the way from the Week 1 team.

Triscari took over as coach at Cockburn last year following the departure of Deanna Smith and he was able to get the Cougars into the playoffs four a fourth straight year largely on the back of the dynamic and dominant abilities of Candace Williams.

She's not there this year and neither is solid inside import Cherridy Thornton, but Triscari feels he has put together a more well-rounded squad and that depth is something he hopes sets the Cougars apart from their opponents.

Brianna Moyes is on board to run the ship for Cockburn and started impressively in Saturday night's two-point loss to last year's minor premiers the Joondalup Wolves.

Kersten Mitchell is already here as the first restricted player as well with Shanara Clark not far away while Steph Jones is another strong addition both in terms of what she can produce on the floor and in terms of leadership and helping the culture grow.

Rockingham Flames championship winners Lizel Buckley and Talisia Bourne are also on board along with Lauren Gandini with Isabelle Miotti, Nicole Pitcher, Chelsea Evans, Vanessa Michael, Nicole Roberts and Alyce Roberts remaining.

Triscari is happy with the group and especially the depth it possesses as he looks to rely a lot less on one individual than they might have in 2016 with Williams.

"I think that when we've got our full strength group we will go 10 deep. And in the WSBL, there's not many teams who can say they go 10 deep. That's where I think we will have an advantage," Triscari said.

"My goal is to be top four this year after we made top eight last year, but really I would settle just to make the finals in a tough league. Last year we relied so much on Candace but this year our team will be a lot more spread and that makes us a lot more dangerous.

"But being realistic, we are minnows in the Women's State Basketball League compared to the power of the Willetton's and Joondalup's, but we are working at it and I'm hoping that the young kids will develop and next year we'll be even stronger."

The additions of Moyes, Mitchell and Jones are enough for Triscari to feel the Cougars will improve naturally on last year but it's more than just those three arrivals that has him buoyant coming into the 2017 season.

An import big in Clark is expected to arrive soon while Taryn Priestly will return from her stint with Fremantle in the AFL Women's but again, it's how deep his squad is that he sees as their strongest asset.

"BJ Moyes is a sensational addition for us and picking up Megan (Thompson) as an additional assistant coach is only going to help us. Steph is a great leader and she's not going to be a star, but she's going to get you her 15 and 10 every game just about," he said.

"We've signed a 6'3 girl (Clark) from the States and she should be here this weekend I'm hoping. She is a true centre but she's also got a bit of range. She played in Romania last year and that's a really tough league so we've got her to come in.

"We've got Taryn Priestly to fit back into our group along with Talisia Bourne, Lizel Buckley and Kirsty Pitcher who had her wisdom teeth out. Vanessa Michael also played through an injury so I expect us to get a lot better."

The Cougars might have gone down last Saturday night against the Wolves by two points at Joondalup, but Triscari liked a lot of what he saw particularly considering Clark, Bourne, Buckley, Priestly and Kirsty Pitcher are still to come into that team in coming weeks.

"I was still really impressed with the girls and the way they committed in the first game. I think that culturally we've made some really good changes here. We were down by 12 points at one stage and there was no whinging at each other, they just got ground it out and got back into the game," Triscari said.

"We did some good stuff but we also did some bad stuff. That last 10 seconds of the game we could have tied it up. I don’t know that it would have helped us win considering we had four players fouled out, but we should have gone to the basket.

"Instead experienced players were looking for someone else to shoot the ball. I think our turnovers were a little bit too high and our system broke down at times so they are things we need to work on."

Moyes is an exciting addition for the Cougars in 2017 and she showed what she is capable of last Saturday night opening the season with 22 points, five rebounds and three assists. Triscari is looking forward to seeing what his point guard can produce.

"BJ wants to play WNBL, that's her goal and I think she would also like to try going to Europe at some point. For a small player, you need to be a point guard, you need to be able to score and she certainly did that in our first game," he said.

"I don’t think she has found her feet yet either. She is fitting into a different style of play that I'm playing around with and we're still messing around with offences, and finding the group that works well together."

Mitchell, too, arrives at Cockburn for this season with strong credentials from the University of Illinois. She opened her SBL career last week with 10 points and 12 rebounds and Triscari only expects her to keep improving.

"Kersten Mitchell isn’t going to be a superstar but she is one of the hardest working Americans I've ever seen come out here. Out on the training track she's throwing herself around, she works really hard and she's mindful of being a team-orientated player," Triscari said.

"I believe she was captain of the Illinois team for two years and that's not heard of, and that's a Divvy 1 school. I'm expecting some further improvement from her. She hasn’t been looking at her perimeter shot yet and I know that's a skill that she has. She is just fitting in really well."

Photo by Vikki Hile