Townsville Fire round 10 hub: Community spirit fuels Steph Reid’s fire
Steph Reid has only played for the Fire for four years, but her rise to the top has been meteoric. Read her story along with key match-ups and burning questions ahead of their round 10 clash.
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In just four years playing for Townsville, Steph Reid has become one of the club’s most beloved players and captaining the side last week at home against Melbourne was a great moment for the 27-year-old.
Her rise to stardom has been meteoric.
Reid joined the Fire for the 2020 season and won the club’s 2021/22 Most Valuable Player (MVP) award the following season.
Last year the crafty point guard led the WNBL in assists per game and collected the fourth-most steals, helping her to claim the Golden Hands award to go with her championship ring, and this season she picked up where she left off.
But maybe her most prized award was receiving the league’s 2022/23 Cygnett Community Award for her work in the community, which she said was an important aspect of her life as a basketballer.
“We’re really lucky and fortunate to have the platform that we do as athletes,” Reid said.
“I think we have an obligation to utilise that for the better and that’s something that I learned in college and it’s just been something that I’ve carried throughout my career.
“We can make a really big difference in the communities that we’re a part of, and I really like to be able to do that and make an impact on the people in the area that we play wherever we can.
“I’m still working with the Brighter Lives Foundation, so I try and visit there as much as possible.
“Obviously with the season and how many road trips I’ve had, I haven’t been able to do much with the Fire’s community engagement, but they still do such an amazing job with the youth engagement as well as the community engagement.
“So when things settle down, I’ll definitely be tapping back into that when we have some time available.”
At the end of this WNBL season Reid will return to her childhood club the Frankston Blues for the NBL1, where she also played upon her return from college at the University of Buffalo.
After four years at the New York university, Reid played senior basketball for the Blues in the final season of the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) in 2018 before the inaugural NBL1 season the following year.
“Honestly I’ve been up here for so long and I’ve missed a lot of birthdays and milestones in my family and I just thought it was about that time to go back and spend some time with my loved ones,” Reid said.
“My grandparents are really, really important to me, and they’re getting older and I just wanted to have a six-month period where I could spend a bit more time than just the few days that we get with them.
“It’s really all about family for me. I’ve got a good network of people that I can work with, to make sure that I’m still looking after myself in the Olympic lead up but yeah, I just really need to be around my family now.”
This year Reid has valued being able to lean on advice from veteran Opals star Sami Whitcomb as she pursues her own international career.
“I’m loving it. I learn a lot from Sami as a veteran player and a leader,” Reid said.
“I think our games are very different, despite being a similar position, so just learning the parts of her game that she has that are so different to mine and trying to take little gems of knowledge from her every day at training.
“I’ve really enjoyed learning from her and being her teammate rather than having to play against her and chase her around.”
On the other side of the mentoring coin, Reid said having 17-year-old guard Saffron Shiels in the squad had been a great experience.
“Saffron is just such a talented player, we just try and make sure that she continues to feel confident,” Reid said.
“She has such a diverse skill set. She’s such a long and athletic player, she can bring so much to the group that we have.
“So we don’t really try and give her anything specific other than just to go out and be herself, and I think when she does that she’s a huge spark for us.
“She just really needs to be herself and play hard and the rest will take care of itself.”
KEY MATCH-UPS
MIKAELA RUEF V ANNELI MALEY
Maley (13) may have won the rebounding battle on Sunday against Ruef (12), but the Townsville big’s four offensive boards were more than any other player.
Claiming rebounds and scoring second chance points will be essential once again.
Maley may be the league’s premier rebounder but that’s not all she brings to the court.
The Lynx skipper has an incredibly well-rounded game and she is a lead by example type captain.
Both Ruef and Maley finished with double digit points and rebounds three nights ago and it would surprise none if they repeated their efforts.
SAMI WHITCOMB V ALEX CIABATTONI
Whitcomb was the clear standout on Sunday and the veteran had her hands in everything good that happened on court.
For Perth, Ciabattoni and Miela Goodchild split the work at point guard but had vastly different games.
Goodchild found herself under immense pressure and was forced into a ball-carrying support role after failing to score on her eight shot attempts.
Adversely, Ciabattoni relished the physical contact and was impressive in her limited minutes – finishing as Perth’s third-best shooter.
If Whitcomb and Steph Reid can repeat their dogged work frustrating the Lynx guards, Townsville will put itself in a great position to win.
COURTNEY WOODS V AMY ATWELL
Two of the league’s hottest shooters face off again and the only guaranteed winner is the crowd that get to sit back and enjoy watching buckets rain down.
Woods is shooting at 52.4 per cent from the field this season and has scored at least 15 points in all six of her games in December.
Atwell also has 15 or more points in her last six games and her attempts from deep are what has really raised eyebrows in 2023.
The 25-year-old Perth vice-captain has scored a three-pointer in every game she’s played this season – including 18 in the three games leading into Sunday’s match with Townsville – but was limited to just three attempts and two baskets.
Atwell was forced inside the arc, where she scored half of her eight two-point attempts.
Whoever remains hot could be the deciding factor.
THREE BURNING QUESTIONS
How can Perth turn around second-half shocker?
The Lynx were limited to just 26 points in Sunday’s second half while the Fire burst to life with 49, including 27 in the final term.
Despite being outgunned and outclassed, Perth captain Anneli Maley was confident on her teammates’ ability to bounce back.
“I have complete faith in our group that we’re capable of it,” Maley said.
“Townsville are a really talented group. They’re coached really well, they have a deep squad, but so do we.
“I think that we can do anything that we put our minds to. We lacked effort in the fourth quarter, that’s what I felt, so I think that if we can just up our effort game – and sometimes it’s not always about trying harder – I definitely think that we have so much more to give.”
Will Townsville feel the effects of its third game in six days?
The Fire will play their third match in less than a week due to some quirks with the WNBL’s scheduling.
What makes it an even tougher prospect is the fact Townsville coach Shannon Seebohm relied so heavily on his starting five on Sunday.
Townsville’s five bench players featured for a combined 36.07 minutes while four out of five starters clocked over 30 minutes – with Zitina Aokuso close behind with 27.16.
Seebohm said he didn’t want to disrupt his team’s flow once they started hitting their straps.
“I just felt in certain parts of the game, and especially once we seized control in the second half, that I wanted to continue that roll, that group had a really good flow going,” Seebohm explained.
“Amanda (Zahui B) came in and gave us some great minutes. Cass Brown has the ability to come in and be a real sparkplug for us, and Saff (Shiels) and Jess (McDowell-White) are getting some opportunities as well.
“So we’ll lean on those guys probably a little bit more on Wednesday.”
Who will win game of “cat and mouse”?
Lynx coach Ryan Petrik alluded to a number of potential tactical changes heading into Wednesday night’s clash but insisted the pressure was typically on the first winner when it came to double-headers.
“It’s hard to not change the scheme too much,” Petrik said.
“Generally, you would expect the team that wins to keep most of the stuff the same whereas the team that loses has got nothing to lose so you might as well just change everything.
“We’ve got three days of playing cat and mouse.”
Seebohm said he would consider making changes himself.
“There’s always things in the game that you can make adjustments with,” the Fire coach said.
“Maybe there’s certain looks that we showed tonight, we might do something slightly different.”
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