Melbourne back with the Caps and ready for pre-season tournament

The UC Capitals’ pre-season is in full swing, with the final athlete, Jade Melbourne, officially arriving back in Canberra.

Melbourne reunited with Head Coach Paul Goriss and the squad this week, joining training after wrapping up her WNBA campaign with the Washington Mystics.

It has been six months since she was last in Caps camp, and with a new-look roster to get to know, she is looking forward to hitting the ground running.

“Walking into the group, Goz starts yelling at everyone so you know you’re home immediately. The whole energy and vibe around this group is really good, it was a great day one for me but I’m excited to do more with this team,” she said.

Melbourne had just a few days to settle back in before heading to Queensland with the team for the WNBL pre-season tournament – the Townsville Tip-Off. Despite only having a few trainings with the group, she knows they are already shaping up as league contenders.

“We’re just such a well-rounded team, Goz doesn’t even know who he is going to start yet, and to have that kind of problem going into pre-season tournament is great,” she said.

Goriss eased Melbourne back into training after a long 44-game season with the Mystics but said she has fit back in seamlessly.

“Not a lot has changed from last year, some personnel has changed, but the style of play and how we want to compete she’s used to that from knowing me and knowing the system last year, so she’s slotted back in well,” he said.

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With all eight WNBL teams in action this weekend, it will be the first opportunity to see each new squad. However, Goriss said the Caps’ focus would be on implementing their own work from the last two weeks rather than scouting other teams.

“Going into Townsville it’s more so what we want to get out of it for ourselves versus playing against the opposition, we’ve got some goals that we want to achieve.

“It’s mostly around our style of play – how we want to start, how we want to finish games, and how we want to defend,” Goriss said.

The team has used the opening two weeks of pre-season to refine their style of play for the season ahead, with Goriss planning to build on last year while integrating the strengths of the new additions.

“Last year we ended the season first in pace offensively and that’s another goal we want to achieve this season. We want to make use of Zitina [Aokuso] in the low post and in pick-and-rolls, so we have to pick our poison with playing our pace and choosing to slow it down to run actions through Z.

“We’ve got long, athletic players and so we want to be really aggressive on and off the ball with our schemes,” Goriss said.

The Caps will be without Nyadiew Puoch, Teige Morrell, and Zara Russell at the Townsville Tip-Off, creating an exciting opportunity for development players Abby Solway, Tayha Watkins, and Sharn Hayward to hit the court.

Russell is headed to the United States to tour NCAA colleges, while Puoch and Morrell will remain in Canberra with the Caps’ high-performance partners.

“Teige and Nards will stay behind doing some rehab. Teige has a strained quad, so she’ll rehab that and she’ll be good to go next week. Nards is still recovering after an ankle clean-out. They’re both into half-court but we don’t want to risk them full-court, so our three DP’s will travel with us,” Goriss said.

The Caps take on the Geelong Venom at 2pm on Saturday 27 September, before finishing the weekend against the Perth Lynx at 10am on Sunday 28 September.

The Townsville Tip-Off will not be streamed, stay tuned to the Caps’ social channels for updates. Instagram | Facebook | X