Kelly Wilson, 42, makes return to WNBL four months after birth of second child

By her own admission, it’s been a pretty quick turnaround.

“I definitely don’t think I’m back to WNBL fitness,” Wilson told The IX Basketball. “In all honesty, it wasn’t planned, I was just getting back into it slowly after having my second child. There’s no point in rushing trying to get back after having children. I’d spoken to Kennedy [Kereama] a fair bit and he was very positive about saying come to training whenever you’re ready and stuff like that. Honestly, it just happened that they were down on numbers and I was helping out at training.”

The five-time WNBL champion brings an array of experience to a team that has been hampered by vacancies in multiple roles throughout the 2025-26 WNBL season, with some news more positive than others. Micah Simpson went down with a season-ending ACL injury on January 23, while Marianna Tolo announced her own pregnancy on November 27.

Forward Casey Samuels has become part of the fabric in Bendigo over the past three seasons, but was only able to play two games in October of 2025 this current season before being sidelined with a foot injury. She was warming up with the team in their most recent match against the Perth Lynx, Wilson’s second appearance of the season, and general manager Dan Jackson is hopeful she will be making her return for the postseason, he told The IX Basketball.

---

Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily

We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!

---

Through all the uncertainty, Wilson has shone through.

“Kelly has been such a big part of Bendigo over such a long time,” Jackson told The IX Basketball. “She lives here, she’s got kids here and it’s a great opportunity to have someone of that calibre around the players.
Now, obviously we didn’t win the games we would have liked to and that’s obviously disappointing. But now going forward, the fact that Kelly can now be around the group, even if she’s not playing in the finals, her contributions are still going to be really positive for us because she is such an intelligent basketball mind, and she just really understands the culture of our club.”

The games he referenced were a January 30 meeting against the Geelong Venom in Geelong and the aforementioned Lynx in Bendigo on February 1. Wilson has been a positive factor for the Spirit in those two games. Having lost both matchups by a combined 31 points, Wilson has been +2 in a total 14 minutes. She has always been a steadying factor for Bendigo and this short stretch is shaping up to be much the same.

“I’m not gonna come back more than three quarters of the way into a season right before finals and try and assert any kind of leadership skills,” Wilson said. “I was just wanting to help out with whatever it is that they needed me to be. So whether that was an extra body of training, whether that was a voice for helping the point guards or anything like that. Whatever, Kennedy was after I was willing to give. Obviously, I’ve got two kids now and my priorities look a lot different but it’s also a really new group from what the Spirit have had. They’ve had a huge turnover of players and I think maybe what was so enticing for me to come back and train with them was watching them from afar.”

Captain Kelsey Griffin has been critical to Bendigo’s ability to stay afloat.

“Our season’s really been filled with a ton of uncertainty, right? There was always the possibility of Tolo getting pregnant and then she did fall pregnant, which was amazing personal news,” Griffin told The IX Basketball. “But then it was, well, are we going to fill the position? So then it was kind of like, well, what do we do? How do you keep young players engaged and full of more confidence if another player is gonna come in, how do you handle that messaging? So a lot of it was around the communication side of things and managing that uncertainty.

“Then the club ended up choosing not to to sign someone,” Griffin continued. “So then it was realizing that the group that we had was how we were going to pursue the rest of the season and continue to feel confidence. I think that the chemistry piece was always going to be something with only one returning starter [from last years championship team]. It was always going to be difficult, I mean, if we’re being really honest. So I think for me, what I thought the team needed was more that calming presence and belief and trust and encouragement that my teammates are good enough and they are capable and what makes us special is our care for each other and how we play together.”

With availability a question throughout the season, Bendigo was going to have to galvanize around more than a gameplan and roster. It needed ideas and symbols to be sources of energy and Griffin took it upon herself to be the genesis of this for the benefit of the team. Young star Isobel Borlase is the fan favorite for MVP this season, but Griffin is gaining credit for seemingly intangible reasons.

As Townsville Fire head coach Shannon Seebohm said in a postgame press conference, “Borlase has had a great season and she’s a phenomenal player and impossible to guard and all of those things, but I feel like the MVP for Bendigo is Kelsey Griffin. They lose Marianna Tolo and somehow get better. Kelsey Griffin goes to another notch. Kennedy’s done a great job, too but Kelsey just gives all those guys so much confidence.”

For Griffin, the chance to play with Wilson has been a delight.

“It was kind of an interesting one, being so last minute and quickly getting her up to speed but then also knowing she wouldn’t be playing finals,” Griffin said. “I guess [its] just really been a whirlwind. Anytime you can add that level of experience and game insight and basketball IQ, you’re better off for it, that’s for sure.”

Griffin also acknowledged the work and preparedness from Wilson.

“I was like, ‘man, she’s looking fit.’ I mean, Kelly always looks fit. And she was running around with the [Bendigo] Braves so I knew that she was like back into it. I didn’t actually know how far along and that she had been cleared to play at this level. So then I was, yeah, really happy and happy for her like four months postpartum. It’s just absolutely incredible. The body of work she puts in to have the longevity and the career she’s had, just, you know, otherworldly, really.”

Otherworldly is the word for it. It’s not often a 42-year-old makes a return to professional basketball. It’s not often a player returns to the top league in their country just four months after giving birth to their second baby.

She also fills an important role on the court to round out the regular season. With Simpson going down, there’s a hole at the backup point guard spot, but one the Spirit feel they are going to be able to manage as they make their way into the postseason.

“I think our rotation will be relatively set,” Jackson told The IX Basketball. “Abbey Wehrung will play the bulk of the backup point guard minutes. Meg’s [McConnell] played, you know, 30 plus minutes for us all season anyway so there’s not a lot of backup minutes, but Abbey’s more than capable. She started her career playing the point guard with the Canberra Capitals back in the day so she’s more than capable of doing it. She has a good decision maker, her ball handling skills are up to scratch. So we definitely feel comfortable with where we’re at there.”

---

---

Wehrung is another returning teammate from last year’s championship and she also took home Sixth Player of the Year honors last season. She’s is welcoming the return of her long standing teammate in Wilson, telling The IX Basketball:

“It’s just epic to bring someone of that calibre and experience in. There’s no one else in the league that comes close to having the experience that Kelly does. And I think even though she’s only playing three games, she’s obviously going to still be training with us and there’s going to be heaps that Meg and I can absorb from her. I’ve just found every season that I’ve had with Kelly, it’s eye-opening how much stuff she thinks about that we don’t. Yeah, little things like that, definitely. But, yeah, just super grateful to have her around.”

It’s not lost on Wehrung how amazing Wilson’s return is: “Yeah, I mean, just like, I was like, whoa, that’s freaking incredible, you know, like it’s pretty soon after having a second baby.”

Having been born just an hour away from Bendigo in Daylesford, Wehrung is ingrained in the culture and understands the importance of community in regional Australia. This extends to Wilson and what she represents to Bendigo.

“She’d been training with us and when Micah went down, she sort of said, ‘I’ll train with you guys, whatever you need,’ so we already knew she was going to be around the group,” Wehrung said. “But just to have her playing these games is super special. The Bendigo community, obviously. are just ecstatic that she’s back in a Spirit uniform and yeah, it’s really special.”

Wehrung, Wilson, Tolo, Samuels and Griffin make up the cohort from last year’s championship, as well as Simpson and Georgia Booth in development player roles. Tolo and Wilson are definitely out for the postseason while Samuels is uncertain. That leaves only two players from their championship run as guarantees for this postseason run.

Compare this with last WNBL Grand Final. Wilson was starting and played 49 minutes in both games of Bendigo’s 2-0 series win. This was in March of 2025 and it was later announced that she was pregnant at the time which was known to the team.

“Her selflessness extends to the point where she works so hard to be the best version of herself all the time,” Spirit head coach Kennedy Kereama told The IX Basketball during that run. “She’s making sure that there is never a situation where she’s not prepared or she hasn’t done the work. She’s an incredible leader by example and how you should live your life, how you should manage your time. Her nutrition and fitness regime is incredible. And I mean, she does it without the money that LeBron has and has done it for the same amount of time.”

Those words carry even more potency knowing that she was carrying another person at the time. She earned a starting role as a guard when her team had Veronica Burton and Sami Whitcomb. The Spirit Wouldn’t have had their success without her and were reliant on what she added on and off the court. Even against the Townsville Fire in last seasons Grand Final, who started two centers, Nia Coffey and a 6′ guard in Courtney Woods, 5’7 Kelly Wilson was the answer.

In her return this year, it’s more of the same selflessness from Wilson, downplaying her attributes.

“Abbey can play the one, I don’t need to work with Ab,” Wilson said. “I think part of the reason why I suited up for those games was just about load management and trying to get to that postseason and to see what that looks like for the team.
So the plan is to kind of spread those point guard duties out by a committee, and Izzy is more than capable of playing the one, so is Abs and they do it naturally anyway. What that looks like is obviously going to be a little bit different in terms of managing player minutes and stuff like that, because you ask Abbey to do a huge job each week when it comes to defending the other team’s best player. So, you know, that also looks a little bit different. So, my role over the last few games is just to try and help, you know, I guess get them through.”

The Bendigo Spirit currently sit in third, a game behind the Perth Lynx in second. They have one more game away against the first placed Townsville Fire while Perth host the last placed Sydney Flames. When the Spirit signed Wilson, second place and home court advantage was theirs to lose, which they lost. The effect she’s had has been an unmitigated success and these losses go far beyond one player. Still, it’s all but guaranteed that the Bendigo Spirit find themselves on the road in the postseason against the Perth Lynx, a team they have a 1-3 record against.

Wilson has been training with both the Bendigo Spirit in the WNBL and Bendigo Braves in the NBL1. An appearance in the NBL1 season, which runs during the WNBL offseason, might be one to watch. As for next WNBL season?

“Oh, that is 100% too far down the line,” she said. “I’m not sure what I’m doing next week. Like I said, I’ve got two kids now and the commitment of WNBL is a lot. But look, never say never. In some way, shape or form, I’ll probably be involved with the Spirit and I live in Bendigo but what that looks like, I have absolutely no idea.”