THE WNBL has wrapped up for another year, and there was plenty of excitement across the course of the 2023 season.

It was a different looking landscape as the campaign rolled on, with contenders rising and falling in a tense finish to the home and away fixture. Ultimately, the strongest side in the Townsville Fire claimed the grand prize, but other teams showed plenty of promise and delivered highlights of their own.

As we did with the NBL over the past few weeks, Rookie Me Central will be taking a look at how each side fared in the 2022/23 season, with mixed results across the eight teams.

Although they fell just short of claiming the title, it was still another strong season from the Southside Flyers. Despite losing some key figures over the course of the fixture, Southside remained one of the best sides in the competition, and clawed past its crosstown rivals to make it to the grand final series.

The addition of Lauren Jackson was one of the most eye-catching moves of the last off-season, with the veteran coming out of retirement to try and drive the Flyers towards a title. The 41-year-old seemingly got back towards her dominant best as the fixture rolled on, but suffered a season-ending Achilles injury, delivering heartbreak to the Flyers.

Over the course of the season, the team also lost skipper Aimie Rocci and talented youngster Dallas Loughridge to season-ending injuries, making the blueprint for the rest of the fixture much trickier moving forward.

However, the team rallied and managed to still secure a spot inside the top-two at the end of the season. The Flyers conjured a gutsy series win over the Melbourne Boomers in the semi-finals to advance to the decider. They were unable to slow down a rampant Townsville Fire side in the Grand Final, but still had a strong campaign overall.

Southside Flyers

2022/23 record – 15 wins, six losses

Many teams would not be able to cope with the number of injuries sustained by the Flyers, given their importance. However, the team rolled on and came awfully close to winning it all.

MVP – Maddison Rocci

Rocci has fully established herself as one of the premier guards in the nation, and delivered another fine season at WNBL level in the 2022/23 season. She was a consistent contributor on both ends of the court, leading the team in both steals and assists, while also proving a handy scorer to round out her game well. Despite not standing the tallest, she was still one of the team’s best rebounders as well, doing a bit of everything and taking on more responsibility when her teammates went down with injury. At 24 years of age, Rocci has plenty of basketball ahead of her, and the Flyers are likely thrilled to have locked her away for next season too.

Next season

Maddy Rocci and Rebecca Cole are locked in as the team’s backcourt once again next season, having both had strong campaigns, with the latter truly stepping up in the finals. As for Jackson, the future is still unclear, but at 41 years of age, it seems likely she may have played her last game at WNBL level. Bringing back Kayla Thornton would go a long way for Southside, with the import producing an outstanding campaign in 2022/23, while Loughridge will also be a priority for the team in terms of re-signing.

Improving on the scoring front would be a good area to address in the off-season, as the team’s lack of scoring came to the forefront in the Grand Final series. Against the Fire, the Flyers failed to produce 70 points in both games, which is rarely enough to knock off the best teams, so expect the team to look to improve its offensive output.