Report Card: WNBL's bottom four teams graded

• The Southside Flyers went from WNBL champions to wooden spooners
• A young Canberra Capitals team showed glimpses of brilliance, tying record-wise with fourth-placed Sydney
• Geelong won six games in its first season in the WNBL

The WNBL regular season is now over and with the top four teams left to battle it out for the championship while the other four teams will be watching on from the couch.  

The bottom four teams all had hopes and chances of making the finals this season but untimely losses when it mattered most, coupled with Sydney making the most of their chances late in the season, saw Canberra, Adelaide, Geelong and Southside miss out on postseason action.

With their 2024/25 campaigns done and dusted, it’s time to grade the seasons of those bottom four teams.

CANBERRA CAPITALS

5th: 8 wins, 13 losses

Grade: C

What could have been. After sitting on the bottom of the ladder for much of the first half of the season, the Canberra Capitals created some momentum with a three-game winning streak to start the New Year and gave themselves a real chance to qualify for the postseason.  

Two virtual elimination games against the Sydney Flames over the past two weeks resulted in two heartbreaking losses that were hard to swallow and thus ended their season. It was an overtime classic that they lost to the Flames two weeks ago and last weekend they couldn’t take their chances against a shorthanded Sydney squad, who were without Cayla George.  

Ultimately, the Capitals finished with the same record as the Flames but missed out on finals based on their head-to-head, which Sydney won 3-0.

Despite missing out on finals action, there’s no doubt about the many positives surrounding a young Capitals team and I get the feeling they’ll have learnt a lot in recent weeks of what it takes to win big games in clutch situations. Every possession matters and while they couldn’t get it done this season, if they’re able to bring back much of the young core, they’ll cause some headaches around the league in the future.

Of course, the Capitals go as Jade Melbourne goes. She’s a genuine superstar of Australian basketball and despite her numbers being slightly down from last season, she remained one of the premier point guards, leading the league in assists (6.8 per game). Importantly, she also cut down her turnovers significantly, from 4.9 per game last season down to 3.6. With more pressure on her shoulders than ever before, she took care of the basketball and made those around her better, even if her shots weren’t falling as she would’ve liked.

Melbourne finished the season with a masterclass in an upset win over Bendigo, where she willed her team to victory, finishing with one of, if not the best, individual performance of the season with 40 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and one block.

Prior to the season, I was eager to see the duo of Melbourne and Nyadiew Puoch in action – both played massive minutes all season and Puoch in particular found her groove as the season progressed. She grew into her role and despite not having as many of those ‘wow’ defensive plays this season as she did during the Flyers championship run, she continued to prove herself on that end all while lifting her scoring output from 6.2 points per game to 13.4.

As a unit, Canberra’s defence failed to slow down the opposition’s hottest offensive threat. They couldn’t halt momentum quickly enough and especially early in the season five-point opposition runs often turned into double-digit runs and five-minute stretches blew them out of the water.  

You need to look no further than last Sunday against the Flames where Isabella Brancatisano, who had scored in double figures just twice this season prior to their match-up, caught fire from deep to score a career-high 26 points on eight three-point makes.

ADELAIDE LIGHTNING

6^th: 7 wins, 14 losses

Grade: D-

For me, the Adelaide Lightning were bitterly disappointing this season.

They parted ways with coach, Nat Hurst, mid-season and things didn’t get much better from there. They had a strong squad with incredible top-end talent and a starting five that should’ve been able to compete with the best of them.

A line-up consisting of a pair of Opals in Steph Talbot and Izzy Borlase, Defensive Player of the Year candidate and the league’s leading rebounder Brianna Turner, rising Australian big Issie Bourne and shifty, import guard Japreece Dean should’ve caused a lot more problems than it did.  

The issues lied on the offensive end for the Lightning. They were the lowest scoring team in the league at just 72.1 points per game; the offence never found it’s groove and that just put so much pressure on their defence, which did perform well led by Turner, but they were chasing their tails all season trying to make up for their lack of offence.

All season it felt like the Lightning needed more scoring out of Talbot (12.2 points per game) and Turner (11 points per game) but that never really eventuated and left a lot of the scoring responsibility on the shoulders of Borlase. Despite leading the team in scoring (14.6 points per game), the young gun largely struggled shooting and finishing around the bucket this season, highlighted by shooting just 21% from deep and only 34.7% overall. She’s known for her ability to drive through contact and finish but there’s plenty to work on, which is exciting because she is already an Olympic bronze medallist and just 21-years-old.

GEELONG UNITED

7^th: 6 wins, 15 losses

Grade: C-

Basically, every new team entering a league finds it tough going – with the exception of the Tasmania JackJumpers in the NBL -and while Geelong United had their fair share of losses along the way, I believe this season has laid a strong foundation for years to come.  

It was a rocky start to life in the WNBL when United lost by 26 points on opening night to the Townsville Fire but as they proved throughout the season, they were able to bounce back quickly and a week later claimed the franchise’s first ever win, a fighting 90-87 victory over Southside.  

They were never going to be the most talented roster but when they knuckled down defensively, they were able to hold their own for large parts of games.  

Import Haley Jones did a mountain of work all season long for United, averaging 14.6 points (team-high), 6.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. She was often battling against bigger wing players in the paint but never backed down and was a constant contributor on both ends of the court.

The mid-season addition of Alex Sharp provided a massive boost, and as Keely Froling went down with a season-ending injury, her importance only grew. Much like Jones, she goes to work in the paint and is a workhorse who averaged the most minutes (33 per game) for Geelong,  

After struggling to hit shots most of the season, Jaz Shelley showed WNBL fans what her game is all about late in the season as she broke out of her shooting slump against Southside in early January and never looked back. Highlighting her emergence is the fact she averaged just 6.2 points per game in the first dozen games of the season before averaging 19.1 points in her next seven outings.  

Finishing with a 4-6 record at home is fine effort for a team in its inaugural season and there’s plenty to build upon going forward for Geelong.  

SOUTHSIDE FLYERS

8^th: 6 wins, 15 losses

Grade: D-

From champions to wooden spooners, the Southside Flyers couldn’t recreate what made them great last season despite boasting a roster full of stars.  

They certainly had their injury issues with Carley Ernst and Bec Cole playing just nine and 14 games respectively, but with the talent on their roster it was a season to forget for the Flyers.  

The top-level talent of Naz Hillmon, Alice Kunek and Maddy Rocci couldn’t overcome a lack of depth within the squad, which was obviously compounded by the injuries to Ernst and Cole. It was a tough initiation to head coaching in the WNBL for Opals legend Kristi Harrower but no doubt she will be better for the experience.

A winless January which resulted in an eight-game losing streak from late December to last week, when they finally broke through for a win against Adelaide highlighted their struggles in 2025.  

If it weren’t for Hillmon, the Flyers would’ve found themselves in an even deeper hole. Despite the team having major consistency issues, Hillmon was a pillar of consistency, scoring in double figures in every game she played and sitting second overall for scoring in the league at 19.7 points per game while also bringing down 9.7 rebounds per game.  

Another positive for the Flyers was the emergence of Dallas Loughridge. Thrust into the starting line-up, Loughridge proved herself in her first season as a fully-fledged rotation player in the league. After averaging just five minutes per game last season, Loughridge’s playing time ballooned out to 29 per game and she made the most of her opportunities, shooting an insane 51% from deep, playing strong defence, averaging 11 points and only 1.5 turnovers per game. The future is very bright for the 21-year-old.

When push came to shove, the Flyers just couldn’t defend to the level needed to compete with the top four teams. Giving up an equal league worst 85.2 points per game, Southside’s defence just wasn’t good enough to keep them in games against teams, who boasted multiple offensive threats.

‍