Adelaide Lightning: Five things you need to know

• Adelaide has won five WNBL championships and reached the postseason in each of its first 17 seasons.
• The South Australian Government committed AUD $1.71 million to keep the club alive in 2025.
• Steph Talbot captains a side that has had four head coaches in less than 12 months.

In May 2025 the Adelaide Lightning were close to not existing.

The club that produced Rachael Sporn, that Suzy Batkovic left to build a dynasty in Townsville, that has five championships and a 1990s that nobody in the league could live with, needed a state government to write a cheque so it could take the floor.

"It was unthinkable that the Adelaide Lightning could not be a fixture in the WNBL. We won't let it happen," Premier Peter Malinauskas said when he announced the funding.

They are still here. What follows is the story of how, and of who came through in the first place.

Opals and WNBA players who came through Adelaide

Rachael Sporn is the club's defining figure and one of the most significant players Australian basketball has produced. When the Premier explained why the state was saving the Lightning, hers was the name he reached for.

Steph Talbot is the current captain and the through line to the national team. The forward plays for the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA and has been named in Australia's final 12 for the FIBA Women's World Cup in Berlin.

Suzy Batkovic began at the Adelaide Lightning. She left for Townsville with two WNBL MVP awards already won, added four more there, and the league's MVP trophy now carries her name. That is arguably the most consequential transfer in WNBL history, and Adelaide was on the wrong end of it.

Isobel Borlase came through Adelaide before moving to Bendigo, where she won the WNBL26 MVP award at 21 and became an Atlanta Dream draft pick.

Isabelle Bourne also left Adelaide and is now in the Opals World Cup squad alongside Talbot.

That is the Lightning's real problem in one paragraph. This club has never stopped producing players. It has struggled to keep them.

The year the Lightning nearly disappeared

New ownership took over the WNBL in early April 2025. Most clubs held out before all of them agreed to join weeks later. Adelaide's position was the most precarious of any.

The rescue came from the South Australian Government, which committed AUD $571,000 a year for three years, a total of AUD $1.71 million, and put the team into the AUD $88 million South Australian Institute of Sport to train. The state remains the majority owner.

"We are not going to get kids off screens and grow the number of active female sports participants if we don't have teams like the Adelaide Lightning promoting basketball and physical activity to young girls," Malinauskas said.

"This is a fundamentally good thing and will help inspire the next Rachael Sporn or Steph Talbot."

A minority ownership group followed. Mohan Koo joined an investor group that also includes Jeevan Koo, James Begley and John Paul Drake.

"The Lightning has been a South Australian icon for decades and we're committed to securing the team's long-term success, both on and off the court," Koo said.

Keeping the name

The rescue did not automatically come with the name.

The Lightning brand was owned by former franchise owner Pelligra, and the club has carried the name for all but one of its 33 WNBL seasons. The WNBL and Pelligra agreed terms on the sale of the intellectual property, which meant the five-time champions kept their identity as the league entered its new era.

Losing the name would have severed a rebuilt club from the five championships that make it worth rebuilding.

A new brand and a new chief executive

With the club secure, Adelaide appointed Melanie MacGillivray as chief executive and launched a new brand identity ahead of WNBL26.

MacGillivray came to the role from Major League Soccer, Bundesliga International, Women's Professional Soccer and Sweat. Originally from the United States and now based in South Australia, she was hired to grow the club commercially while aligning it with Basketball South Australia's female participation strategy across the state, including regional areas.

Four coaches in twelve months

The football side of the operation has been considerably less stable.

Nat Hurst and the Lightning parted ways mutually on December 10, 2024, with the club at 2-6.

Scott Ninnis, an Adelaide basketball figure and recently departed 36ers coach, took over for the rest of that season. "This is a proud club with a rich legacy," Ninnis said at the time.

Kerryn Mitchell, a Southside Flyers championship assistant and New Zealand Tall Ferns deputy, was appointed next. She was gone within months, the club parting ways with her 24 hours before a 90-64 home loss to Townsville on November 25, 2025.

Aja Parham-Ammar was named interim head coach the following morning, the fourth in under a year. The Boston College alumna was Queensland's Female Coach of the Year in 2023 and head coach of the Logan Thunder.

Chief executive Melanie MacGillivray fronted the media alongside Talbot after the Mitchell exit.

"It's been a tough 24 hours. No one's denying that," MacGillivray said. "We remain committed to driving a culture of high performance, respect and integrity."

WNBL27 team snapshot

Adelaide enters WNBL27 in a league of nine clubs with a five-team finals series, which gives a rebuilding side a more realistic target than it had a year ago.

Steph Talbot remains the anchor. The club has continued to move players in and out, with Kiara Waite among the arrivals and Sharne Robati heading to Canberra.

The bigger question is the one the last two years have posed repeatedly. Adelaide can find players. Whether it can hold them long enough to build something is what the new ownership and front office exist to answer.

Why the Lightning matter

Every WNBL club has a story.

Townsville proved a regional club can be a dynasty. Bendigo turned a country town into a contender. Tasmania is returning after 30 years away.

Adelaide is the cautionary tale and the proof of concept at the same time.

Five championships. Seventeen consecutive postseasons to open the club's existence. A 1990s side that set the standard for the competition. And then a slide that ended with a Premier at a press conference explaining why the state could not let a basketball club die.

The reason he could make that argument is the reason the club matters. Adelaide has produced players who went on to define the national team, and it is still doing it.

The dynasty years

The Lightning were the WNBL's benchmark before anyone else was.

Adelaide made the postseason in each of its first 17 seasons, a run of consistency no club has matched since, and won five championships built around Rachael Sporn and a group that made Adelaide the hardest trip in the league.

That era is why the club has five banners and why losing it was never going to be acceptable in South Australia.

The greatest Lightning players of all time

Rachael Sporn is the greatest player in club history and the name the state still reaches for when it explains what the Lightning are.

Suzy Batkovic started here before becoming the most decorated player the WNBL has produced.

Steph Talbot is the current captain, a WNBA player and an Opal heading to a World Cup.

Isobel Borlase and Isabelle Bourne are the most recent proof that the Adelaide pathway still works, even if both now play elsewhere.

Five Fast Facts

1. Adelaide has won five WNBL championships and reached the postseason in each of its first 17 seasons.

2. The South Australian Government committed AUD $571,000 a year for three years to save the club in 2025.

3. The Lightning name was retained only after the WNBL bought the intellectual property from former owner Pelligra.

4. The club has carried the Lightning name for all but one of its 33 WNBL seasons.

5. Adelaide used four head coaches in less than 12 months across 2024 and 2025.

Club timeline

• Adelaide wins five WNBL championships, the core of them in a dominant 1990s.
• 2024: Nat Hurst departs on December 10 with the club at 2-6 and Scott Ninnis takes over.
• April 2025: New ownership takes over the WNBL and Adelaide's future is uncertain.
• May 2025: Premier Peter Malinauskas commits AUD $1.71 million across three years.
• 2025: The WNBL buys the Lightning name from Pelligra, and Melanie MacGillivray is appointed chief executive alongside a new brand.
• November 2025: Kerryn Mitchell departs and Aja Parham-Ammar is named interim coach.
• 2026: Mohan Koo and a minority investor group join the state as owners.

Looking ahead

Adelaide starts WNBL27 as a club that has spent two years surviving rather than competing, and finally has the pieces in place to change that.

The money is committed for three years. The name is secured. There is a chief executive with a commercial background, a minority ownership group and a training base at the South Australian Institute of Sport. Steph Talbot is still here.

What the club has not had is a settled bench. Four coaches in twelve months is not a foundation, and the most useful thing Adelaide could do in the next twelve months is appoint someone and leave them alone.

The talent will keep coming. Borlase and Bourne prove that, even though both now play elsewhere. The task is no longer saving the Lightning. It is giving the next Sporn a reason to stay.