Gold Coast Rollers wheelchair basketball: The stories behind inaugural WNWBL squad
The Gold Coast has returned to the national stage in basketball with a team in the elite Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League. These are the stories of the 12 women who have triumphed over their impairments to star on the hardwood.
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The Gold Coast will return to the national stage in basketball on Saturday night when the Gold Coast Rollers take the court in the elite Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League.
Born from the ashes of the two-time national champion Queensland Comets, the Rollers have replaced the Brisbane-based team in the 2025 WNWNBL with a vision to winning the Gold Coast’s first national sporting title since 1991/92.
A trio of Paralympians, in coach Ella Sabljak, Dr Bridie Kean and Melanie Thompson, will bring an international experienced edge to a squad where ages range from 18 to 48.
The Rollers are a de facto Queensland state team, drawing on athletes from as far afield as Mackay and Toowoomba, though a majority of the squad are southeast-based.
Coach Sabljak, unable to take the court herself due to pregnancy, was the driver behind Queensland wheelchair basketball women’s resurrection on the Gold Coast.
“Sporting Wheelies (who operated the Comets) suggested that they were going to be more social-based, which is totally fair, and they weren’t going to put a team in this year,” Sabljak said.
“That’s when I was like, oh, that’s not okay - we need to find a space for women to compete and that’s when I approached Gold Coast basketball.
“Joel McInnes (Gold Coast Basketball’s chief executive officer) just said yes, let’s do this. They always wanted to have a national league team, following the Blaze in the NBL (which folded in 2012). Now we have the women’s wheelchair basketball team, which is just as good as the NBL, representing the Gold Coast.”
The season begins Saturday at 7pm at Carrara Indoor Stadium with the first of a three-game series against the Perth Wheelcats.
GOLD COAST ROLLERS WNWBL SQUAD
Anne-Maree Alley
Age: 45
Hometown: Berkely, NSW
Residence: Gold Coast, QLD
Representative history: Community level Gold Coast Rollerblaze wheelchair basketball B Grade winners team in the Suncoast Spinners 2025 tournament
Classification: 1.0
Impairment: T4 complete paraplegic
My impairment story: “I was involved in a car accident in 2014 with my husband and three kids. He was killed and I was left a paraplegic. If it wasn’t for his fast thinking I think no one would have survived. He will be forever our hero.”
Why I play: “A friend invited me to go and give it a try one weekend and I loved it and never left.”
Fun fact: “I own a lot of shoes for someone who never technically walks in them.”
Kristy Bugeja
Age: 44
Hometown: Mackay, QLD
Residence: Mackay QLD
Representative history: Queensland representative since 2008
Classification: 2.0
Impairment: Burst blood clot on spine, combined with transverse myelitis
Why I play: “I started playing due to watching a friend train and play.”
Anthea Castelli
Age: 39
Hometown: Gold Coast, QLD
Residence: Gold Coast, QLD
Representative history: Australian Gliders representative, all levels in between starting from 1997
Classification: 1.0
Impairment: Spina bifida
Why I play: “I was introduced to the sport as a kid and always loved it.”
Gorja Ebert
Age: 21
Hometown: Paterson, QLD
Residence: Fraser Coast, QLD
Representative history: Australian U25 representative; Australian development squad; National juniors wheelchair championships; WNWBL
Classification: 1.5
Impairment: Nemaline myopathy
My impairment story: “I was born with a congenital myopathy which is a weakness of muscle throughout my whole body.”
Why I play: “I was introduced by a friend to meet new people and see if wheelchair basketball was a sport that I could enjoy.”
Ashlee Grice
Age: 24
Hometown: Maitland, NSW
Residence: Brisbane, QLD
Representative history: QLD Comets 2019 and 2022
Classification: 4.5
Impairment: Able-body athlete
Why I play: “I had an assignment for a Film class in year 11 where we had to make a documentary on a minority. I decided on wheelchair basketball and found my local club at Mackay Basketball had a team, Mackay Machines. Having played Able-Bodied basketball since the age of five, I was excited for the opportunity. I fell in love with the sport and community and decided to keep playing. I met my now-deceased husband through wheelchair basketball and love that we were able to play together, something relatively unheard of in any other sport.”
Bridie Kean
Age: 38
Hometown: Parkdale, VIC
Residence: Sunshine Coast, QLD
Representative history: Two-time Paralympian and Australian captain (Bronze in Beijing 2008, Silver in London 2012)
Classification: 4.0
Impairment: Amputee
Why I play: “Watching Gliders dominate at Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and meeting Liesl Tesch”
Maddie Kelton
Age: 18
Hometown: Gold Coast, QLD
Residence: Gold Coast, QLD
Representative history: Australia U25; Australian Development; QLD Comets; QLD Southern Challenge; QLD Kevin Coombes Cup
Classification: 4.0
Impairment: Proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD) from birth, affecting left hip, left femur, left knee, left tibia and left ankle.
Fun fact: Distant cousin to the late Roy (Kelton) Orbison; known as the pocket rocket
Sarah King
Age: 20
Hometown: Gladstone, QLD
Residence: Brisbane, QLD
Representative history: Australia U25 world championships team 2019 and 2023; Queensland women’s team since 2018; Australian Gliders squad
Classification: 3.0
Impairment: Spina bifida
Why I play: “My older brothers played able bodied basketball when I was growing up and so wanted to find a way to get involved as well, then found wheelchair basketball.”
Annabelle Lindsay
Residence: Sydney, NSW
Representative history: Australian Gliders
Classification: 4.5
Natalie Palmer
Age: 27
Hometown: Murwillumbah, NSW
Residence: Brisbane, QLD
Representative history: WNWBL 2015
Classification: 3.5
Impairment: Spina Bifida
Why I play: “My mum made me attend a session and it ended up being one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
Melanie Thompson
Age: 48:
Hometown: Darwin, NT
Residence: Gold Coast, QLD
Representative history: Australian Gliders, Paralympics 2008, many other Worlds and Zone qualifiers
Classification: 2.5
Impairment: Paraplegic from a car accident
Why I play: “Spinal nurse told me about wheelchair basketball.”
Fun fact: “I was a ballroom dancer in a past life.”
Emerald Wilmshurst
Age: 25
Hometown: QLD
Residence: Maryborough, QLD
Representative history: Australian Gliders squad; Australian U25 World Championships 2023
Classification: 4.0
Impairment: Cerebral palsy, epilepsy
My impairment story: “I had oxygen deprivation at birth which caused a brain injury and so I was born with cerebral palsy, which has impacted my development.”
Why I play: “In March 2019 I went to a come-and-try day that the Fraser Coasters’ coach did, I gave it a go and loved every moment of it. From there I just stuck with it.”
Fun facts: “I like going to the gym, I volunteer at the animal refuge, I’ve got my license but currently waiting to be able to drive again as I had to have a break because of having a seizure, can’t wait to have it back.”
Charlotte Barber
Age: 22
Hometown: Toowoomba, QLD
Residence: Toowoomba, QLD
Representative history: Queensland Comets 2024
Classification: 4.5
Impairment: Autism, weak muscle tone, Herniated disc bulge
Why I play: My two older brothers started playing wheelchair basketball and one day, when I went to watch them, I was asked if I wanted a go. I have been playing ever since with them and I love the sport.
Krystal DeMaid
Residence: Mackay, QLD
Representative history: Queensland representative
Classification: 4.5
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