Journos say Dandenong will three-peat in WNBL

The coaches have had their say, now the expert journalists have given their predictions of who will star in the Price Attack Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) this season, tipping off on Friday night.

Dandenong are still the favourites among the media, with just less than half of respondents thinking they will three-peat this season. Canberra were a very close second, with Sydney Uni just tipping out Bulleen Melbourne for third.

Despite having Melissa McClure back from injury and new coach, Perth are still tipped to be on the bottom of the ladder come February with the AIS not far behind. According to the media, Adelaide will be unlucky to miss their first playoffs series in their 13-season history and Townsville will finish in sixth place for the second year in a row.

The media were also asked to predict the season’s MVP, Coach of the Year, the player who will have a break-through season, the coach who recruited best in the off season and the team most likely to improve.

Results in these categories were as follows:

Most Valuable Player
It’s hard to go past the world’s best player when predicting the League MVP, and half the media responding couldn’t, choosing Lauren Jackson as the likely recipient. The other half chose players such as Belinda Snell, Jacinta Hamilton, Hollie Grima and Erin Phillips.

Coach of the Year
After an outstanding debut season in 2004/05, Adelaide’s Chris Lucas scored 55% of the votes for Coach of the Year this season. Gary Fox (Dandenong) picked up 27% and Carrie Graf (Canberra) had the other 18%.

Break-through player
Almost all media had different ideas on who would have a break-through season, with Bulleen Melbourne’s Hollie Grima and Adelaide’s Rebecca Duke tying for the top spot. The responses seemed split down geographic lines, with plenty of hometown bias seeming to determine who got the gong!

Best recruiter
The media have agreed with the coaches when it comes to who has done the smartest recruiting in the off-season. Dandenong’s Gary Fox scored more than half the votes for his vision to the future in picking up Jenna O’Hea and Kathleen Macleod from the AIS and also snatching Shelley Hammonds back from the west coast. Sydney also rated a mention among quite a few respondents for their capture of Natalie Porter, Kristen Veal and Alicia Poto (now injured).

Season's biggest improver
The media got this one right last year, predicting Bulleen Melbourne as the biggest improver throughout the season. Bulleen went from finishing sixth in 2004, to being second at the end of the regular season in 2005. They did go on to lose a winnable game to Sydney Uni in the preliminary final, but the foundation is now there for more success this season. This year, the media have predicted (rather obviously) that Canberra will be the team to move up the charts with rocket, after finishing a disappointing fifth last season.

The WNBL tips off this Friday (September 30) with Adelaide hosting Townsville at Wayville and Bulleen Melbourne taking on Sydney Uni in a preliminary final rematch at the Veneto Club.

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