BIRTHDAY BASH FOR CAPS CLASH

It’s been a big week of celebrations for the Fire. Coach Shannon Seebohm welcomed his third child to the world while it’s Saffron Shiels birthday today. Canberra’s keen to spoil her 19th party but the hosts have no intention of letting that happen, hoping for a similar result to their 81-48 triumph when the sides faced off last month. That big victory made up for Townsville’s 80-81 round 4 loss in the nation’s capital and the man in charge is excited for the decider.
“Yeah really looking forward to it! It’s a big game for us, we’ve obviously split the season series with them one one so far, and outside of Perth and Bendigo they’re probably one of the in form teams in the league. They’re coming off three wins in a row and they’re full of confidence.”
And Seebohm expects the visitors to be full of energy as well, anticipating them to play upbeat and look to score early in offence.
“We know they’re going to be coming in here trying to run and gun and play pretty fast so it’s going to be a really good challenge. I think we’re going to need to do a great job with our team defence and be really locked in for 4 quarters to get it done.”
And the Fire will be working as a team to reduce Jade Melbourne’s influence for the Caps, according to Alicia Froling.
“I think it’s being physical, I think it limiting touches on the ball for those players. As a team I think we can play really good defence so it’s not on one individual person to stop one superstar, it’s on everyone.”
The Co-Captain’s eager to see Nia Coffey build on her club debut. The import’s embraced extra time to gel with her new teammates ahead of a second appearance in orange.
“I mean it’s pretty hard to get off a plane and then play three days later. She’s done an awesome job of getting to know people and getting to know the system that we play in, so I think she’ll start to feel a lot more comfortable.”
The Fire is sitting comfortably in the top half of the ladder and can take a major step closer to securing a playoff position by collecting a third straight win. Froling’s frothing for finals action after several seasons without it.
“I think our best basketball is ahead of us too which is exciting coming into playoffs. Obviously we still have a few games to get through before that but I think it’s going to be really exciting.”
Tip off tonight is at 7pm. Tickets are available.