Firebirds have me stumped. Common assumption is that they threw everything at Dehaney which made Hinchliffe and Ellis look elsewhere. Then of course they’ve missed out on Dehaney. Or have they signed an import, Fran Williams?
I keep thinking back to the FBs tweet that they had a new player that shined this year. Can’t think of any unsigned Sunshine Girls that are defenders now. Or any Sunshine Coast players either? Or perhaps they meant Moore after all winning a premiership is shining. Bizzare.
Byrne is a very popular coach in QLD. So Hinchliffe wanting to play under her is understandable.
The Lightning defence is very unbalanced for me. Three players whose best position is GK. Yes Shimmin and Hinchliffe can play WD but it’s easily their 3rd position. Will they have the speed and footwork to play against a fit Watson? Browne? Even more unbalanced than Vixens 2021 where WD isn’t Eddy’s best position but she is more at home there than Hinchliffe and Shimmin.
Ellis to Fever is an interesting move. I’d think on the face of it she will actually get less court time than this year. I’m not convinced Ellis is a better player than Lewis who they had. Taller yes. So maybe they wanted the height as backup. Ellis had more court time this year but what Lewis showed in the 19/20 was just as strong. Ellis has the height whereas I’d say Lewis is a bit more explosive. Ellis looks panicked when she gets the ball and transitions to attack. That will only improve with court time of course. As a Diamonds fan I’m happy both along with O’Shannessy have contracts as they are the next group of young GKs (along with Hinchliffe) for Australia and all offer something different.
