They’ve played and won eight grand finals in as many weeks.
So what’s another one for the Dandenong Rangers as the Women’s National Basketball League decider looms on Sunday?
The Rangers have gone from looking like missing the WNBL finals altogether to the verge of winning the title, thanks to a remarkable run of eight straight wins.
After shocking the regular season’s best team Adelaide Lightning in the preliminary final, the Rangers take on Victorian rivals Bulleen Boomers in the grand final at Melbourne’s State Netball Centre in freakish form.
Rangers coach Mark Wright believes the pressure of having to win each match to survive has brought out the best in his side.
“Every game’s been elimination for us. It’s been just next game, next game for us,” Wright said.
“It think it has (brought out the best in the team). We’ve been in situations now where we’d have faltered early in the season – and we did – but we’ve definitely overcome that now.
“I don’t think I’ve taken a time-out in the second half of the last four or five games because the players have worked it out themselves.”
Dandenong’s Opals star Jenna O’Hea has been exceptional, while import centre Krista Phillips has also shone as a team, virtually re-assembled at the start of the season, has gelled at the right time.
O’Hea’s 28-point haul, along with Phillips’ 14 points and 14 rebounds helped the Rangers past the Lightning, and the duo will be pivotal again.
O’Hea formerly played for Bulleen and was part of the team which won last season’s WNBL title.
How Phillips deals with Bulleen superstar Liz Cambage will have a huge bearing on the game.
But despite Cambage having played in so many big games, the 20-year-old says the nerves still bite – especially in the first all-Victorian WNBL final for 25 years.
“I’ve been nervous all week. If you’re not nervous, you’re not ready,” Cambage said.
“Basketball from youth up to WNBL is strongest in Victoria. We’re such a sporty state – it’s great to have an all-Victorian final.”
Bulleen expect to have captain Sam Richards back from a calf injury after she missed the major semi-final win over Adelaide a fortnight ago.
“I’m ready to go. I feel really good, fit and strong and had my first training session last night,” Richards said on Thursday.
