Giants’ women hoping to regroup strongly after tough 2024 season

Goldfields Giants women’s coach Jaymi Worthington will ideally target an athletic forward or power centre to boost the squad’s NBL1 ranks next year after a 12th place finish in 2024.

Worthington said the group’s “achievable goal” had been to make an inaugural play-offs appearance in their third season.

But with three wins, they finished six games and percentage outside the eight.

Worthington said it would be a pivotal few months as the coaching staff mulled over the composition of the 2025 squad, including the status of Filipino international Jhazmin Joson and US guard Lauren Fech.

“Jhazmin is back in Asia at the moment training with their (the Filipino) 3x3 team, but she has shown some interest in coming back,” Worthington said.

“We haven’t discussed it as a coaching group yet, but any consistency we can build among the playing group I think is a tremendous bonus.

“That’s the hard part — when you’re replacing your main players after each season, so to build some genuine consistency would be beneficial.

“Lauren heads back to Europe to play in our off-season and a lot depends on which team she signs with and if they make the finals .

“If that’s the case, their season can stretch into May.

“At this stage, she hasn’t committed to anything but from me, she’s been a great asset to the team.

“And if she was keen to come back, we’d definitely be open for discussions about that.”

Worthington said the NBL1 West division was stronger than ever this year because of WA’s appeal, especially among overseas players.

“Look around at the various teams and there’s great players, some of whom are heading off to the Olympics,” she said.

“Assessing the athleticism of the (rival) players and the speed of the game, I’d love to go down that path of actively chasing an athletic centre or power forward, for sure.”

Kalgoorlie-Boulder Basketball Association president Rob Tagliaferri said it had been a tough season for the women’s squad, but they were on a solid path.

“The (main) positive was the culture of the group which was a credit to the coaches, managers and players,” he said.

“Even though they didn’t win many games, the team stuck together and the coaches were prepared to make some tough calls where they had to ensure we had great culture.

“Additionally, they maintained training sessions throughout the whole season and at times their style of play was competitive, just not consistent.

“However, it is about always being competitive and winning games, so moving forward we have to develop greater depth in the squad, which will require some careful recruiting and local player development.

“Also, we need to improve our fitness through strength and conditioning training and improve our outside shooting and defence.

“With the potential introduction of a D-League women’s team next year, this will help expose some our younger players to higher-level competition and be used as preparation for NBL1.

“In general, I think the women’s team fought hard this year and looked like they enjoyed being part of the program, but we know we have a lot of work to do and I’m confident that we have the right group to make this happen.”