How Alicia Froling felt 'seen' by Shannon Seebohm

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WNBL champion Alicia Froling has revealed how Townsville Fire head coach Shannon Seebohm "saw what he thought I could do" after the veteran was forced to switch from right to left handed to save her basketball career.

At the start of the 2022 NBL1 season, when she switched her dominant shooting hand from right to left. She had two major surgeries on her right wrist to repair cartilage, tendon damage and possible nerve damage.

"That first year when I switched hands and I won the NBL1 South MVP, I remember being like I'm really proud of myself," Froling told Bec Cole on It's A Cole World.

"And then from then I kind of feel like I've been like, I'm really good — but no one's noticing me. Or not noticing me — but you know I've been like okay cool, I'll keep working, I'll keep working, I'll keep working. Because I kind of knew that was coming.

"When I made the move to Townsville and I spoke to Shannon, like the things that I knew I could do and the belief that I had in myself — he was saying some similar stuff in what he saw and what he thought I could do.

"Even last year was really cool. Obviously it didn't end well for us but we were really successful. Nobody expected us to be in that grand final.

"So then this year to come back and to finally do it and to win it — it's just so fun.

"And yeah probably — I think it's been almost four years now since I've changed it.

"I was genuinely so close to stopping basketball.

"Like I was not good at basketball. I wasn't playing well. My wrist was cooked.

"So yeah — it's kind of cool to just be like wow, there's a really high chance that this would never have happened.

"And if it wasn't for my — I call it stubbornness — people call it determination.

"But I was like stubborn because I just loved basketball. I didn't want to stop playing basketball.

"So I was like I'll just use my left hand."

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Froling’s decision to switch to her left hand after wrist injuries threatened to end her basketball career led the Townsville Fire to its fifth WNBL championship against Chinese superstar centre Han Xu’s Perth Lynx.

Right-handed Froling, 30, didn’t just play one game with her left hand; she’s now multiple seasons in and a WNBL champion because of it. Froling constantly went as Xu and finished at the rim with elite efficiency.

She finished second to teammate Courtney Woods (26) in the WNBL26 Grand Final MVP voting yesterday with 19 votes after going head-to-head with 2.08m Xu, who is one of the best defenders in the world.

Froling averaged 21 points and 7.5 rebounds across the Grand Final Series, shooting 70.8 per cent from two-point range while logging nearly 39 minutes per game.