Townsville Fire retain first position in WNBL after navigating rocky waters

In fact, Townsville used to have a team in the men’s NBL named the Townsville Crocodiles.

Lucy Olsen is one of the Townsville Fire’s imports this WNBL season and she spoke on her understanding of her soon-to-be Australian home ahead of her arrival, telling The IX Basketball:

“That it was going to be really hot. That’s what every single person told me; it was gonna be so hot. And yeah, they’re pretty right. But there’s a beach nearby, it’s gonna be stinger season, but the beach is still pretty nice and it’s gonna be hot. It gonna be hot. Yeah, pretty much it was gonna be hot.”

Hot it has been for the Fire both in name and on court. Olsen has played a pivotal and selfless role on a Townsville team that is entering it’s fourth consecutive season in the top 3, with two first place finishes and a championship within that. She has embraced a role off the bench yet is still second in assists per game and third in steals. Her ability to put team and system first while being such a high pedigree player cannot be understated and is illustrative of this team.

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Starting point guard Abbey Ellis, who was the WNBL Breakout Player of the Year last season, has taken a slight downtick in volume but a massive jump in efficiency. She’s shooting 48.2% from the field, a scorching hot 53.9% from three and 91.1% from the free throw line. The coveted 50-40-90 club is exclusive and earned by only the most efficient scorers, but Ellis might be getting the keys to the 40-50-90 club. She’s turning 8.1 field goal attempts into 11.8 points for an elite 1.46 points per possession.

She’s also bringing the heat defensively at the point of attack and controlling the pace of the game offensively which she spoke about with The IX Basketball:

“This year it’s about getting players their own looks. I feel like each game is different for me as a point guard. Sometimes, it is a scoring game, sometimes it is facilitating. Sometimes, my best games, I might have, you know, four points, it’s other stuff, that makes a point guard, control the game and play a great game. So, yeah, I mean, obviously, like, scoring is fun and all that. But I still feel like I’m impacting the game and playing my role to the best of my abilities.”

Ellis’ elevation is often highlighted by Townsville’s captain Courtney Woods and head coach Shannon Seebohm. During HoopsFest, Townsville faced off against the Canberra Capitals in a game controlled by the Caps through the first three quarters. The Fire were able to establish control in the fourth quarter, not allowing Canberra to score a single field goal and making them earn their points from the free throw line. After that game, Woods shared the following in the press conference:

“Today, there’s five minutes left. And it’s just getting everyone together, having everyone take a deep breath, and then making sure everyone’s on the same page and everyone’s feeling calm. And I feel like when we’re playing like that and we’re all trusting in our point guard, especially if Abbey’s on the court, that’s when we play well.”

Seebohm also credited Ellis unprompted in the same press conference for her ability to change the momentum of the game in the fourth quarter, “I thought we did a better job of getting into the ball. We had better point of attack defense. Abbey got a couple steals… Like, we just did a better job of at point of attack. So, now they’re not getting into their stuff quite as easily.”

Their HoopsFest fixture came soon after their worst patch of the season, going 3-3 from December 14 until January 6. This included two big losses against the Bendigo Spirit and Perth Lynx, who are second and third respectively, with both of those matchups happening in Townsville. What’s more is that the Fire Pit possess one of, if not the, strongest home court advantage in the WNBL. This is something Australian Opal and 2025 Asia Cup MVP Alex Fowler knows more intimately than most as she grew up in Townsville, sharing with The IX Basketball:

“[I was a] big fan. I grew up watching all the Townsville Fire players play and when I was 11 or 12 I started going to all the Fire and Crocs clinics from the younger ages and got involved in all that. And yeah, it was around all the studs then. So it was like Gazey (Kate Gaze), Suzy [Batkovic], Darcee Garbin, Cayla George, Mia Murray, Micaela Cocks, Rachael McCully, like insane players.”

She grew up as a fan during the Fire’s golden era through the 2010’s. From the 2011-12 season they made the postseason for seven straight years which included five runs to the Grand Final series and three championships. They were also responsible for literally rewriting history, with the MVP being renamed as the Suzy Batkovic MVP after she retired a six-time recipient of the award. She won all six of them during this seven year window, with Abby Bishop crashing the party amidst two three-peats from Batkovic.

Fowler has now taken the quill and parchment and is continuing to write the Fire’s history. She often recalls what it was like to be a fan and it still makes up a large part of her now as a player:

“I actually think about it a lot. When we have our games and we have our little introductions there’s a lot of times where I’m sitting there. The crowd always get into it, like it’s always been that way. We have some of the best supporters who have been there for,
I don’t know, like 20 years, some of them. There are a lot of times where I’m like, I used to be on the opposite side of this. I used to be sitting in this shirt watching and it’s really cool. I’ll go to a cafe and all these people will be like, oh my gosh, great game last weekend.
It’s just cool to see how much of an impact we have on the community. Like, I used to be in that spot watching all these amazing Fire players come through and I’d be fangirling over there.”

She added how special it is to play for fans she once cheered alongside, “Oh, amazing. Like amazing. They’re just down to earth, Townsville local people. They just love to get around sport.”

And addressed the home court advantage, “the atmosphere, and I know I’m biased, but like the atmosphere is so much fun to play in. It gets so rowdy and then because it’s compact it’s so loud in there too.”

This was all the more reason that the two losses against the Spirit and the Lynx raised concern. It was a period marked by resilience as they were without Courtney Woods for the majority of it and were nursing her back to full health at the back end of it. They also lost 2025 WNBL DPOY Lauren Cox to a season ending injury during that stretch. Cox, much like fellow import Olsen, came off the bench to bolster one of the core pillars this team is built upon; selflessness.

She was in the drivers seat of another DPOY, this time from the pine, and has left a massive whole that the Fire are filling collectively. Fowler lent insight to these conversations, “Shannon just spoke to all of us and said everyone has to step up a little more now. That defensive pressure that we used to have of just Coxy, you know? She changed shots just by being in the keyway. She was such a good defensive threat. If we get beat on defense we could trust Coxy to be there to block those shots. So it kind of was more put on us for individual containment. We just have to be better defensively and locking the paint. He’s put that emphasis more on us, like, we need to take more pride in our defense and I think that’s what’s going to help us win games and help us get as far as we can in finals. He’s kind of put that on us and I think it’s a good challenge we’ve got to figure out ourselves.”

Seebohm also spoke on life without Cox stating: “Yeah, it’s very different. I think we’re adjusting to life without Lauren Cox a little bit still and figuring out how that works and needing to think about our defense in the post a little bit more. And also how we guard on the perimeter like Coxy probably saved us 10 plus points a game, I would say, with people either being worried to drive in there because they’re going to get blocked or having to change shots or, you know, whatever it was. And so adjusting to that been been different but I think the girls are doing a pretty good job with it.”

While they were navigating these waters, Seebohm also revealed that the team had barely had any team sessions: “We’ve only trained, I think, three times since Christmas or something, maybe four times since Christmas, whatever it’s been. That’s been what I think’s been the biggest challenge is actually getting practice reps.”

That statement was true up until January 24, famously one month after Christmas eve and three days after January 21, when they played the Perth Lynx in Perth. They had one of their most gutsy wins of the season without Cox and coming up against Han Xu. Townsville played a 6’3 Alicia Froling as their lone centre, who still gives up eight inches to Xu, as well as a rotation of wings hotdesking at the five. This win was predicated on cohesion offensively and players stepping up defensively. Seebohm spoke with The IX Basketball after the game on the offensive side of the coin:

“I think sometimes we just forget what makes us good. Today we actually remembered that and we moved the ball well. I think when we’re not, you know, like someone comes off a pick and roll and all they’re thinking about is scoring and we’re not seeing the whole floor. I think that’s when we get bogged down, we take some early shots and no one’s in rhythm in our team. I think you saw in the first quarter particularly when we move the ball and Abbey gets a open three, then Miela gets one, then Courtney gets one, then Alex gets one, then they over help off Frols, she gets a layup, then Lucy comes in and makes a play. I think that’s when we’re at our best and sometimes we forget that.”

Woods then spoke on the defensive end of that game with The IX Basketball, starting with the Fire’s ability to generate turnovers off of Xu: “Han’s obviously a huge part of what they do. I think when they played us in Townsville, she had, what, 32 points, something crazy. So that was a huge part of our defensive plan. I think whenever we’re able to get out in transition we’ve got such great finishers in our bigs [and] really great shooters. So I think that’s when we’re playing our best. Then the game slowed down a lot in the second half. So it was good. It was ugly, but we still found a way to get enough points on the board.”

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They also won the rebound count 61-43 and although they lost the turnover count 12-16, Townsville were forcing live ball turnovers while largely giving up dead ball turnovers. Seebohm lent his insight to the possession game:

“Possession is everything in basketball. We’ve been terrible rebounding the ball and that was one of the things we spoke about before this game. Like, I think Anneli Maley still had 15 boards but we at least held her to three offensive rebounds. We did a better job against Han and then [Amy] Atwell had a bit of an off shooting night for them as well. So, like, I think we did a good job against a team like Perth, if you give them more possessions or you give them second chances or you turn the ball over live, they’re going to absolutely destroy you and they’ll score 100 points. And that’s pretty much what happened last time we played them.”

Woods then touched on the players who stepped up the most at the center position, especially considering Froling sat late with four fouls:

“Chantel Horvat’s been great for us. The fact that she broke her shooting hand and then has come back in the season and she’s really figured it out for us, we’re really lucky to have her. So, I feel like it’s games like that where you can just ask her to go out there and give her absolute best. She’s obviously undersized against Han, probably a bit undersized against Zitina [Aokuso] last game as well, but you know, she’s going to give it 100% every game. So, yeah, we’re really lucky to have her.”

Through all of this adversity, the Fire have retaken their place atop the WNBL standings. They’re alone at 17-4 with two games to play in the season; their next against the middling Capitals who are fighting for the four seed and their last against the second placed Spirit. With the way the cards might fall, that game at the end of the season could decide first place.

As the league pivots towards the postseason, Townsville are hitting their stride. The basketball side of things are running smoothly and it’s about managing health as well as each player preparing for the postseason in their own way. Olsen reflected on the season and uncovered her personal adjustments at this stage of the season:

“We had a big stretch in the beginning where we were home a lot and that helped us get our foundation. 
At this point in the season, a lot of it’s staying healthy and making adjustments more mentally than physically. I feel like it helps to practice as a team during stretches where you have a lot of games, but personally, I find it fun when we can just play and then get a little shooting in and then play the next day. But I think it came at a good time in the season where we had our foundation. We can work on making adjustments quickly on the fly and see how we do without practicing. A lot of it is mental and seeing if we can take what we saw on film and apply it to the court on the next game. That was really good practice, and luckily how the schedule is, now we have a few weeks at home before we do have to play in finals.”

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It’s likely the Townsville Fire finish the regular season in first place and face off against either Canberra or the Southside Melbourne Flyers in the first round of postseason play. Both of those teams are guaranteed to have a record below .500 and with home court advantage in that series, a sweep might be imminent. Team comes first in Townsville and they only have four losses to speak of on the season, with three of those coming in a stretch of turmoil. It will be a joy to witness who comes away as champions in the 2025-26 WNBL season with the Fire looking primed to restate their claim.