2
Mar
In-Depth Analysis
Froling's 'jump to left' ended in Perth 'horror show'
WNBL26 champions Courtney Woods and Alicia Froling at Perth High Performance Centre on March 1, 2026 in Perth. Photo: Sarah Reed/Getty Images
Highlights
Australian basketball star Alicia Froling’s left-hand switch fuels Townsville’s fifth WNBL title.
- Miela Sowah takes over in clutch to lead Fire to title
- MVP Courtney Woods reveals Fire’s clutch secret
- Ryan Petrik says Fire were 'better when it mattered'
Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird once played an NBA game with his left hand against the Portland Trail Blazers because he was “saving his right for the Los Angeles Lakers”.
Three-time MVP Bird dropped 10 of his 21 field goals with his left hand, finishing with 47 points, 14 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 120-119 OT win on Valentine’s Day in 1986.
Forty years later, Alicia 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.
+----------------------+----------------+----------------+
| Category | Froling | Han Xu |
+----------------------+----------------+----------------+
| Minutes | 38.9 | 31.8 |
| Points | 21.0 | 17.0 |
| 2PT | 17/24 | 14/24 |
| 2PT % | 70.8% | 58.3% |
| 3PT | 0/0 | 0/4 |
| FT | 8/13 | 6/6 |
| FT % | 61.5% | 100% |
| Rebounds | 7.5 | 7.5 |
| Offensive Rebounds | 3.0 | 2.5 |
| Defensive Rebounds | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| Assists | 2.5 | 4.5 |
| Turnovers | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| Steals | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Blocks | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Efficiency | 25.5 | 25.0 |
| Plus/Minus | +9.5 | +6.5 |
+----------------------+----------------+----------------+
“I’m incredibly proud to be part of this program, but I also just want to thank everyone who makes it possible for us to be here,” Froling said after the Fire swept the Lynx 2-0 on Sunday, March 1, 2026.
“This season, as anyone who’s part of the WNBL knows, obviously it’s not just the players.
“It’s all of our coaching staff, our strength coaches, our general management, our administration, our physios, our doctors – it takes an absolute village.”
“We’re really lucky to play at Townsville. We have such a great community-owned club.
“We just want to thank all of our supporters and sponsors, especially the Townsville City Council, JCU and The Ville, and all of our other sponsors that make our season possible.”
Flashback to 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.
“I got to the point where I felt like I had two options,” Froling told NBL1.com.au.
“One was to just stop playing basketball together. I was so frustrated, and I knew I wasn't playing to a level that I could play at. Or use my left hand.”
“It had probably been about two years since I had my second surgery, and it just wasn't getting better,” she said.
“I was doing rehab for hours a day, I was form shooting for hours a day. And it got to the point where I was just consumed with fixing my shot. I really couldn't sleep at night, like it was just all-consuming.
“And I got to a point where I'm like, ‘it's not actually getting better’. It's been two years of me doing every single thing that I possibly could. It's just affecting me off the court, and I was like, ‘I just can't keep doing this’.
“So I had to make that decision that what was best for me, I want to enjoy basketball, enjoy life. So that's why I kinda was like, what can I do?
“I knew that I was the kind of person I'm always going to work hard, I'm always going to put in extra work. So I just said to myself, if I put into my left hand what I've put into my right hand, I can do it.”
Flash forward to WNBL26, when star Townsville import centre Lauren Cox went down mid-season with a season-ending knee injury, Froling stepped into the five permanently and made it her own.
Froling was elite on offence, leading the Fire in points per possession (1.062), field goal percentage (55.5%) and rebounding.
Townsville Fire Season Box Scores
+-------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Player | POSS | PTS | PPP | FG% | 3PT% | FT% | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF |
+-------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Miela Sowah | 16.9 | 17.8 | 1.055 | 43.6% | 41.3% | 93.5% | 2.6 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 2.0 |
| Courtney Woods | 15.7 | 14.5 | 0.928 | 48.3% | 40.7% | 84.3% | 4.5 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 3.4 | 2.3 |
| Alicia Froling | 11.4 | 12.1 | 1.062 | 55.5% | 31.3% | 58.3% | 8.2 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 2.4 |
| Abbey Ellis | 11.6 | 11.7 | 1.006 | 45.9% | 49.5% | 87.9% | 3.6 | 3.0 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 2.0 | 1.9 |
| Alexandra Fowler | 10.7 | 10.6 | 0.990 | 49.5% | 38.5% | 77.6% | 6.0 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 3.0 |
| Lucy Olsen | 10.6 | 8.5 | 0.801 | 36.5% | 31.4% | 87.2% | 2.4 | 3.2 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 2.4 |
| Chantel Horvat | 8.5 | 7.4 | 0.871 | 45.0% | 15.8% | 68.5% | 3.7 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 2.3 |
| Lauren Cox | 9.5 | 7.1 | 0.752 | 39.2% | 17.2% | 55.9% | 5.7 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 1.9 |
| Chloe Forster | 3.1 | 2.4 | 0.758 | 34.0% | 25.0% | 72.7% | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.4 |
| Dakota Crichton | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.739 | 35.3% | 25.0% | 50.0% | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.6 |
| Catelyn Van Es | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.667 | 25.0% | 50.0% | 75.0% | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Piper Anderson | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.000 | 33.3% |100.0% | — | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Jessie Edwards | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.750 | 33.3% | — | 50.0% | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
+-------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| TEAM TOTAL | 89.0 | 84.6 | 0.950 | 45.2% | 37.8% | 74.7% | 33.4 | 18.5 | 8.6 | 3.0 | 13.5 | 17.6 |
+-------------------+------+-------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+But it was in the half-court where Froling separated herself. She generated 1.215 points per possession, including assists, with more than 61% of her dimes coming via kicking to open threes.
Alicia Froling's Offensive Impact
+-------------------------------+-----------+--------+----------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Category | POSS+AST | PP(P+A)| Rank | Rating | AST/TO | %POSS | POSS | %AST | AST | %2AST | %3AST |
+-------------------------------+-----------+--------+----------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Total (Poss + Assists) | 344 | 1.215 | 91% | Excellent | 1.24 | 89.5% | 308 | 10.5% | 36 | 33.3% | 61.1% |
| Transition | 29 | 1.345 | 80% | Very Good | 1.33 | 86.2% | 25 | 13.8% | 4 | 75.0% | 25.0% |
| Half Court Offense | 315 | 1.203 | 92% | Excellent | 1.23 | 89.8% | 283 | 10.2% | 32 | 28.1% | 65.6% |
+-------------------------------+-----------+--------+----------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+On boards, Froling was equally elite. She generated more than a third of Townsville’s offensive boards, almost a quarter of all team rebounds and was a primary reason the Fire sustained its half-court scoring efficiency.
Alicia Froling's Impact on the Boards
+----------------------+---------+-------------------------------+
| Category | Value | Notes |
+----------------------+---------+-------------------------------+
| Offensive Rebounds | 3.4 | Elite second-chance presence |
| Defensive Rebounds | 4.8 | Finishes possessions |
| Total Rebounds | 8.2 | Team-leading interior volume |
| Team OREB Share | 35.1% | (3.4 of 9.7 team OREB) |
| Team REB Share | 24.6% | (8.2 of 33.4 team REB) |
+----------------------+---------+-------------------------------+
Unsurprisingly, a vast majority of Froling's scores are at the rim, predominantly on the left side of the key way. But she also hit a clutch three in Game 1.
Alicia Froling's Shot Making
+--------------------------+---------+---------+--------+
| Shot Zone | Made | Attempt | FG% |
+--------------------------+---------+---------+--------+
| Restricted Area / Paint | 111 | 192 | 57.8% |
| Left Short Corner | 5 | 8 | 62.5% |
| Right Short Corner | 1 | 2 | 50.0% |
| Left Baseline Mid | 0 | 1 | 0.0% |
| Right Baseline Mid | 0 | 5 | 0.0% |
| Left Elbow / Mid | 0 | 0 | — |
| Right Elbow / Mid | 0 | 0 | — |
| Top Key Mid | 0 | 0 | — |
| Above Break 3 (Left) | 0 | 1 | 0.0% |
| Above Break 3 (Right) | 0 | 2 | 0.0% |
+--------------------------+---------+---------+--------+
There is absolutely no doubt, Froling's story is one of the greatest in Australian sports history. There has never been a professional athlete in any sport who has changed their dominant hand midway through their career and continued to compete at the highest let alone lead their team to a championship.
Froling is extraordinary and was the catalyst for Townsville's fifth WNBL championship.
