Sam Watkins goes through the 2024 Miles Toyota Women’s Premier League Teams, and where he expects them to finish up on the ladder
This preview is reproduced with permission from the Author (Sam Watkins), original article can be seen here
Club basketball is upon us! Commencement of the Miles Toyota Women’s Premier League competition tips off this weekend at Cowles Stadium. A rematch of last year’s final between Checkers and Lincoln University headlines the opening day slate.
The 2024 format will see each team play each other three times in the regular season. The top 4 teams will then playoff in a 1v4 and 2v3 match-up to decide who earns the right to play for the premier league crown. The Patron’s Trophy will now be awarded to the team that finishes 1st after regular season play, adding extra incentive to finishing up as regular season champions.
Join me as I preview the teams competing in the Miles Toyota Women’s Premier Competition. I will also attempt to predict the outcome for each team and who will be hoisting the trophy high come August.
The loss of influential contributors Mary Goulding (NBL1) and Helen Mathews (ACL) will be a lot for the young club to overcome. The addition of veteran players Ashlee Johnston and Terina Wanoa adds experience and leadership that will be needed for the young core, and no team is ever out of any game when you have the shooting ability of the Costley twins, who both are primed for a breakout season.
Coach uncertainty and a team expected to look very different to last year factor into a ranking that would usually sit a bit higher. Sapphire Wairau is the lone returnee of a backcourt that would regularly give opposing teams constant problems, and the former Wildcat will be turning to a much younger core that includes the likes of Grace Neilson, another player who could explode in 2024.
A return to the Miles Toyota Women’s Premier League in 2023 had a fair amount of difficulties and learning for the young UC team. After struggling to find a win early on, they hit their stride in the back end of the season and found themselves in the Patron Trophy Final. The loss of Millie Knight (QSL) will not go unnoticed, but the ability to keep the majority of their roster from the previous year will help to keep the club trending in the right direction.
It’s the beginning of a new era for LU women’s basketball. Stalwarts Lauryn Hippolyte and Rosalia Samia have both graduated, leaving the opportunity for the next wave of young talent to grab the reins. The absence of Grace McGirr (injury) is a massive blow for the Rams, and the attention will shift more towards the experienced Kate Herman and Maddy Timms. Incoming scholars Hana Lacey-Rameka (Rotorua), Madison Cunningham (Napier) and Emma Loffhagen (Rangiora) will also be looking to make an immediate impact.
Winning is hard at any level. To go back to back, even more so. To three-peat? You want to keep your best players. For Checkers, unfortunately, that isn’t the case. While the winners of the last two seasons keep their main contributors for the 2024 season, the absence of Lauren Whittaker (personal) and Karereatua Williams (ACL) may be too much of a loss to grab that third chip in as many years. What they do have is what I believe to be the most complete roster with arguably the best point guard in Olivia O’Neill complemented by the hot-shooting Nicole Gleason and show-stopping Kavanah Lene, but is that enough?
Tall Ferns, College players, Tauihi experience, young players on the rise and just about anything else you could dream of when putting together a championship-contenting team is what could be found across this NC roster. Although we may have to wait a few weeks to see their final form, we may see an unstoppable premier side in the not-so-distant future, similar to the North Canterbury sides we became used to witnessing pre-COVID. If they manage to put it all together, it’s not a team you’ll want to miss. Trust me.
