FRANKSTON TIMES scoreboard
Australian Opals star returns home By Jarrod Potter MELBOURNE Boomers unveiled its Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) centre-piece on Thursday after bringing Liz Cambage home. Cambage, 25, originally from Mt Eliza, will lace up for her first home season in five years in the upcoming 2017/18 WNBL season. The 25-year-old centre won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics with the Australian Opals, has played in the Women’s National Basketball Association for the Tulsa Shock and has also had several other professional achievements throughout China. After a year of soul-searching and contemplation spent away from the court, Cambage returns refreshed and ready to take her place in the Boomers’ front-court. “I really needed a break, especially after Rio,” Cambage said. “I needed a mental and physical break and I’m so lucky that I get to come home to Melbourne. “I thought I was going to retire after Rio – I definitely hadn’t achieved everything that I could but I got to a point where I felt like I wasn’t going anywhere. “So having this year off has really made me see that I love basketball, I do love playing basketball but there are other things that are important to me as well. “(The Boomers were) my family when I left the AIS and it was my first team in the WNBL and to be gone for six years and come back to Bulleen becoming the Melbourne Boomers and still have the key values – family
Picture: Basketball Victoria
and the youth and just so together… it means a lot.” Cambage is no stranger to the Deakin Melbourne Boomers; as a 19-year-old, she was a key player when the team won the 2010/11 WNBL championship. She attempted a return to Austral-
ian shores, but snapped her Achilles tendon, leaving her unable to join in the 2014/15 season. But that time garnered her perspective as she continues to evolve as a player and a person. Therein lies the great amalgam of work-life she can experience at Melbourne.
“Three years ago I did my Achilles and I learned a lot about myself and the sport and the major thing I took out of that was that sport is not forever and I’m not going to be an athlete forever,” Cambage said. “So I came back from that injury, trained with Guy (Molloy) and he got me ready for China. “That’s why it’s so great coming to play with the Boomers as I get to study Deakin as well – I get to start thinking about stuff after sport and when I am done with basketball.” With a trophy cabinet featuring national championships earned with elite Victoria Metropolitan women’s teams over the years, a WNBL championship and her Olympic accolades, there is still plenty of desire to hoist the championship and return to the podium with her beloved Boomers. “I’d love to win another championship – I haven’t won anything since I was 19 with the Boomers so I want something sparkly,” Cambage said. “I know the board and Guy have been working so hard to get the players that they want and with me, Jenna O’Hea and the girls they have and the girls they’re still trying to get, I think we’re looking very, very strong.” Cambage, who starred for the Opals at the 2016 Rio Olympics where she contributed a tournament-high 23.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, is looking forward to getting back on court in front of her home city supporters. Coach Guy Molloy said that having the Opals players, Cambage and O’Hea, on board would contribute
Star filly searches for dry track By Ben Triandafillou THE Shane Nichols-trained three-year-old, I Am A Star, will be hoping to recapture its previous winning form when it heads to Adelaide to take on the fillies and mares in the million-dollar Group One Robert Sangster Stakes (1200m). Failing on the drenched Heavy 8 Randwick track in the Group One Doncaster Mile (1600m), I Am A Star will be searching for a dry track at Morphettville on Saturday 6 May. “She ran in the Doncaster but the track was just too wet,” Shane Nichols said. “Turning for home she tried to quicken but her legs were just spinning and she wasn’t able to make up any ground, she needs a firmer surface.” Prior to the Doncaster Mile, the daughter of I Am Invincible had an exceptional lead up, winning the Group Two Kewney Stakes (1400m) at Flemington against the fillies as well as a dominant three-length victory in the Group Two Sunline Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley. “She has run well, defeating both the fillies and the mares in Group Two races as well as
winning the (Group One) Myer Classic in the spring,” Nichols said. “She’s had one run at the (Morphettville) track in a Group Three race as a two-year-old and won easily. “She takes travelling very well and has done a fair bit of travelling for a three-year-old; being bred in New Zealand, to then being sold in Sydney and has raced in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.” I Am A Star will be aiming to be the first filly to win the Robert Sangster Stakes since Rostova, an outside chance, won the Group One in 2010. In doing so, the filly will face a highly competitive field with the likes of the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained, English, the undefeated South Australian runner, Desert Lashes, and the Lindsay Park contenders, Sheidel and Fuhryk, all being nominated. However, Nichols is confident the filly can run a big race as long as the weather is favourable and the track isn’t too soft.
Girl power: Carlton draftpick, Jess Hosking, with Saige Bayne
Girls making a mark on the peninsula By Ben Triandafillou THE Mount Eliza Junior Football Club will have the only female footballer from the Mornington Peninsula joining the under-15’s School Sports Victorian Team this year. Saige Bayne, the 2016 Joan Hill Medal runners-up, will be joining the Victorian team to play off at the National Championships in Perth on the 22 July. Bayne, 14, was also one of the youngest girls to join the Dandenong Southern Stingrays under-18 Girls TAC Cup side this season. “Saige started three years ago when Mount Eliza had an all-girls competition in the under-13s, she was 11 at the time and has been playing ever since,” proud father and president of the Mount Eliza Junior Football Club, Fraser Bayne said. The Mount Eliza Redlegs also had the 2016 Joan Hill Medal winner, Eloise Allen-Burns, and Isobella Shannon playing in the under-18s Stingrays side. The Mount Eliza Junior Football Club has
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Frankston Times 1 May 2017
to the development of the rest of the Boomers’ roster. “To have the leading scorer in Liz from the Rio Olympics and the second leading rebounder it automatically, not to make a rod for our back, but we’re championship capable with Liz coming in, with Jenna coming in and the other girls returning to our group,” Molloy said. “So it makes for a very exciting year for us and I can’t wait to get going in late August.” Deakin Melbourne Boomers chair, Tony Hallam, said Cambage would add muscle to the Boomers’ in a quest to return to the playoffs, along with fellow new signing Jenna O’Hea, also an Australian Opal. “Liz’s return marks an exciting time in women’s sport in Australia, with growing public attention and support. Liz is one of the very best players in the world,” Hallam said. “Today marks a significant moment for our club, our partners, and most importantly, our members. “It also means the Boomers’ rapidlygrowing fan base will see the very best Victorian talent in action right here in Melbourne, we’re thrilled that Liz is coming home to play.” The Deakin Melbourne Boomers have now announced seven players for the 2017/18 WNBL season with Cambage and O’Hea joining young gun Monique Conti and returning stars Maddie Garrick, Bec Cole and Britt Smart, along with second-year guard Bec Ott. An eighth player will be announced in the coming weeks.
continued to expand their junior girl’s teams and currently have over 150 players across seven girl’s teams. “The Mount Eliza Junior Football Club has started to become inundated with junior girls off the back of the AFL Women’s league,” Bayne said. The Mount Eliza Redlegs has also been able to put together their first under-nines all-girls side which will be coached by Rebecca Lanting. Competing in the open division, the girls previously had to join the boy’s sides due to being low in numbers, but this season will team up and take on the boys. “We are receiving more enquiries daily and hopefully next year with the new oval in play we can get more girls team up and running,” Bayne said. “We want to continue to grow girls footy at the club and are excited by the participation rates to date and hopefully our girls team will continue to be successful on and off the field.”