The little sister of the Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL), the QLD Minecraft Comets look set to make their first finals appearance since re-entering the league in 2011.

 

The Comets will have to improve on their past two seasons in order to make the jump into the top four but they definitely have the talent and depth available to do so.

 

Improvement will need to come from the entire list. Bridie Kean returns from a summer playing wheelchair basketball in Germany and will lead the Comets into their 2013 campaign. The current captain of the Australian Gliders and dual Paralympic medallist, Kean is a genuine leader that brings speed and intensity to the game. She will be the Comets main avenue to the hoop and as a result will likely attract extra attention from opposition defenders in the form of a double team in most match-ups. Despite the extra attention, Kean needs to score points for the Comets to push for a top four finish.

 

Mel Hall adds perimeter shooting to the Comets with her deadly mid-range game while Ella Sabljak and Shelley Cronau represent the next crop of Gliders players and a step up from those two will go a long way to seeing the Comets make that elusive finals berth. Cronau and Sabljak both tasted international wheelchair basketball earlier this year as a part of the Gliders team that won the Osaka Cup and both will be better players as a result.

 

The Comets are however a little undersized and could potentially be exposed by some of the bigger teams in the league. To combat this, the Comets have enlisted the services of three able bodied players to fill the void, a strategy also employed by the Western Stars to address their lack of height. The Comets’ low pointers will need to work hard to help them up and down the floor but the additional height may well be enough to open up opposition defences and allow for free flowing and consistent scoreboard pressure.

 

There is a lot to like about the QLD Minecraft comets in 2013. The development work going on in QLD is arguably the best in the country and whether 2013 is their year or not, it won’t be long until QLD wheelchair basketball has a stranglehold on both the men’s and women’s competitions.

 

2013 Queensland Minecraft Comets

 

4. Bridie Kean (4.0)

5. Melanie Hall (2.5)

6. Georgia Bishop-Cash (3.5) Junior

7. Bernadette Peterson (3.0) Junior

8. Shelley Cronau (3.0)

9. Kirsty Bishop (2.5) Junior

10. Ella Sabljak (1.0)

11. Mikaela Smith (4.5) Able-Body

12. Belinda Dinga (4.5) Able-Body

13. Alison Herring (4.5) Able-Body

15. Jasmine Clark (3.0)

Sara Tait (2.5) Junior

Kristy Bugeja (2.5) 

 

Head Coach: Mark Casson

Assistant Coach: David Hegerty

Team Manager: Sandra Murray

Development Coach: Gareth Munro

Development Coach: David Pollard