LAST YEAR was not exactly the result the Townsville Fire were hoping for, falling out of the finals after a dominant home and away campaign, but the breakout season of Courtney Woods was certainly one of the biggest positives.

Woods stepped up from role player to team star with an excellent campaign, averaging 13.8 points per game and taking on a bigger role on the offensive end. Now she is looking to build on that effort, and is ready for a bigger leadership role after emerging as a gun of the WNBL.

“I have been fortunate to receive a lot of good advice,” she said. “The biggest thing is I try not to overthink it and I try to be myself. I am naturally an empathetic person, so kind of being there for others. A lot of the girls coming in are coming straight out of college, which is an experience that I had and struggled with it, so hopefully I can give them some guidance and give them some help with it to make the transition a bit easier.”

The Fire were the best team in the WNBL last year, finishing on top of the ladder with a record of 14 wins and seven losses, but were surprisingly eliminated by the Perth Lynx in the first week of the finals in a massive upset.

“There were definitely cracks throughout the year that we could work on,” she said. “I feel like going back to our values and our culture and figuring that out early instead of trying to fix it three quarters of the way through the year. Shannon (Seebohm) has really focussed on that and everyone is buying in and has the right mindset early into preseason.”

The Fire will be taking part in the season opener against the newly formed Geelong United tonight in Geelong, and Woods says the team is extremely excited to hit the court after the disappointment of last year.

“Its been a long pre-season as always,” she said. “Its exciting to not only open the season but to play Geelong in its first ever game is really cool too. Hopefully they can get a lot of fans out and make it a great start to the year.”

The Fire will be bringing in a different looking team to the 2024/25 season, with a whopping eight players joining the roster over the off-season. Despite the changes, Woods says the team is gelling well ahead of the season opener.

“Its been good,” she said. “I think anytime you bring in eight players, you never know what to expect, but everyone is really nice and that makes it a lot easier. Everyone is in the same mood every day and everyone shows up to practice and wants to work hard. Its been nice and calm.”

The Fire have been one of the most dominant teams of the last five years, strongly in contention for the title nearly every season and the weight of expectation does come with that level of success, but Woods says the team can take the pressure.

“I think whenever the Townsville Fire compete, people expect them to win championships,” she said. “That’s what the fans expect, that’s what the community expects. You never really know whether you’re going to be a championship team, but being at least in consideration for it is an achievement.

“Once you get to March, you need a bit of luck, you need things to fall your way and you need to not have injuries. We need to be around at the end of the year and be in a position to win.”

Last year’s disappointment will still be burning for the returning Fire players and staff, but with Seebohm at the helm and Woods ready to take another step forward, Townsville will likely be around the mark once again.

Roster

Abbey Ellis, Alexandra Fowler, Alicia Froling, Courtney Woods, Jessica McDowell-White, Lauren Cox, Lauren Mansfield, Lucy Cochrane, Majella Carey, Nya Lock, Saffron Shiels, Zia Cooke