NBL1 North: North Gold Coast Seahawks reach women’s semi-finals, must grow junior base moving forward

The dream finals run of the North Gold Coast Seahawks women may be over, but coach Caddie Jeffries believes this is only the beginning for her side. Read how the club must improve.

North Gold Coast Seahawks captain Mikaela Reuf in action. She had a stellar season. Picture: Highflyer Images.

The North Gold Coast Seahawks dream run may have ended on Saturday night, but it was still a season to savour.

The Seahawks were bundled out of the club’s maiden finals campaign in the women’s NBL1 North, dealt a 21-point semi-final defeat at the hands of the high-flying Northside Wizards.

“It was always going to be a big ask for us considering how young we were,” Seahawks coach Caddie Jeffries said following the game.

“We stayed with them for three quarters, we were only down by three points at three-quarter-time, I was pretty happy with the first three quarters.”

The Wizards had only lost one game all season as they surged into the grand final with the 86-65 triumph.

As they have been all season, star duo Mikaela Reuf and Miela Goodchild led the way for the Seahawks with 34 points between them, while Reuf also won a whopping 25 rebounds.

North Gold Coast Seahawks player Jessica Boundy in action. Picture: Highflyer Images.

Jeffries was in good spirits after reaching the semi-finals in her first season at the Seahawks, who finished 10th last season.

The senior roster had undergone a massive turnover, with Mikayla Watkinson the only player to remain from last season. Including the coaching staff, 16 of the 18 faces in the women’s program were new.

“To make finals and get the first win is pretty historic for the club,” Jeffries said.

“To knock off Spartans (in the quarterfinal) last week, on paper they’re probably the deepest team in the league. I was super proud of our girls.

“To only drop six games, I’m pretty happy with that for a new group.”

“We’ve put in good ground pieces to keep building and hopefully we can keep a lot of the group together.”

North Gold Coast Seahawks player Jessica Relf in action. Picture: Highflyer Images.

Moving forward, Jeffries believes the club must expand its junior footprint if it is to improve. The Seahawks have already taken a step in that direction by adding the role of basketball development manager to its backroom staff in the past month.

“The challenge was that Seahawks don’t have the junior base that some of the bigger clubs have,” Jeffries said.

“Down the stretch that’s probably what cost us, we weren’t as deep and we didn’t have that experience.

“That’s something I want to work on with the club moving forward, how do we build those juniors up to get them ready to at least make our bench competitive in NBL1?

“That’s what separates us from those top teams.”