COFFEY BOOST FOR FIRE AGAINST FLYERS
It’s a last round repeat with Townsville taking on Southside in another Saturday showdown, this time though the action is at the Fire Pit. It’ll be Nia Coffey’s first game in orange. The American arrived earlier this week and she has a couple of training sessions under her belt but Coach Shannon Seebohm says there’s no pressure on her to be a dominant figure first up.
“I’ve liked what I’ve seen in practise, and she seems like she’s fitting in really well with the team and she seems like a really great person. I’m sure she’ll contribute tomorrow night, how much that will be I guess we’ll see. In terms of what we expect from her, obviously she’s come in late, I think we expect it’s going to take a few weeks for her to probably find her feet, having not played a game since the WNBA season.”
Inside information the import has on her WNBA teammate Naz Hillmon’s handy too. The Flyers forward was immense in a beaten side a week ago. Seebohm’s says she’s a player the hosts have focused on, heading into the rematch.
“She had 26 points the other day and 7 offensive rebounds or something like that so we need to do a much better job against Naz, so we’ve got a few match ups we could probably throw at her. Nia could probably guard her, she plays with her at Atlanta, knows her pretty well, probably matched up with her at practise a little bit.”
There’s other a few other areas the team’s worked on after narrowly escaping with a buzzer beating victory but the coach didn’t go into detail on what they were… Nor did young gun Saffron Shiels, who had a chuckle before delivering a vague answer after being asked what be different.
“I don’t want to get in trouble! We didn’t do some things that we said we wanted to, so I think we can this game, and hopefully get that done.”
The guard played 17 minutes against the defending champions, returning from injury. She only missed the new year’s eve Bendigo battle, having originally feared a longer stint on the sideline.
“Yeah my foot’s healed quicker than I thought so that’s really good!”
Next Saturday’s Capitals clash at the Fire Pit will double as her nineteenth birthday celebration and there’ll be 2 more home games to follow, before Townsville travels again at the end of the month.
“Yeah I’m so excited for this run, I love playing at home we have the best fans.”
Tickets to the games are available here. Tip off tonight is at 7pm.
