'Winning is a skill': Inside Froling’s championship mentality

• Froling has won five championships between August 2025 and August 2026
• She is 71-17 in WNBL and NBL1 regular season games since 2025
• Switching her shooting hand to the left in 2022 changed her career

“I really like winning,” is what Townsville Fire and Knox Raiders star Alicia Froling said of her past 12 months.

Froling, 30, is the core big on the WNBL26 champion Fire and the back-to-back NBL1 South and NBL1 National champions Knox Raiders.

Five championships between August 2025 and August 2026.

• 2025 NBL1 South Championship
• 2025 NBL1 National Championship
• 2026 WNBL Championship
• 2026 NBL1 South Championship
• 2026 NBL1 National Championship

“That's all right, not bad,” Froling answered when basketball.com.au talked through her win-loss regular season record – 71-17 (81%) – in the past 18 months in an exclusive interview with the now left-handed stretch 5.

“I don't take losing well, and I think there is a skill in winning too,” Froling said.

“It’s something that you need to learn how to do – obviously, playing in high-pressure games. It is a skill. I've definitely learned that, and I just want to keep it going for as long as possible because I don't like losing.

“I'm just a competitor. I think that's what it is. I go out there, and it doesn't matter who I'm playing against, if it's my sister, if it's like one of my best friends. I think some people have seen that I'm a very different person on the court than I probably am off the court.

“But that's what I am, just really, really competitive, and it's obviously in basketball, but it's in a lot of things in life as well.

“So I guess I'm motivated by that, but I'm also just motivated because it's fun.

“It's fun that this is my job. It's fun that I get to go to training every day and try and get better at stuff. I'm always striving to do that; my whole kind of mantra is built on hard work.

“I've said it before: I'm definitely not the most skilled player out there, but I'm going to work the hardest, and I'm going to play harder than everyone. And I think that's my biggest asset.

“I just really love winning, and I don't like losing.”

And therein is the secret to there not being a secret to Froling’s ability to impact winning not just in big games but over long stretches of the WNBL and NBL1 seasons.

Hard work and the environment, she said, were the key ingredients.

“I don't think there is a secret,” Froling declared.

“I actually feel like I'm really lucky; Knox is the place where I chose to switch my shooting hand. And it has been all up from there since I made that decision.

“I think that was 2022. I looked back at that last night. So, Knox has been a place where it's an awesome club, really professional. Still, I've also made, like, really good friends among my teammates here; we've kept a group call together and obviously added a few people throughout the years, and I feel like it's just been building.

“Then, in Townsville when I made the move back home. You have to give Sam (Pascoe), our CEO, and Shannon (Seebohm) heaps of credit for what they've built in Townsville, and then who Shannon brought in that 1st year that I was there. He had such a clear vision, and it was like he wanted really good people, and obviously really good basketball players that fit what he wanted to do, and I just think like credit to my teammates, they all bought into that.

“It's just being in really good environments with really good people that all have like a common goal and want to work hard towards that goal.”

Froling averaged 16.1 points and 11.8 rebounds in 32.4 minutes across 23 NBL1 games in 2026, shooting 51.5 per cent from the field and blocking 1.3 shots a night, before going at 14.0 and 9.0 in three games at the National Finals.

In six NBL1 seasons and 137 games, including two National Finals campaigns, Froling has averaged a double-double of 19.5 points and 11.5 rebounds with 2.0 assists and 1.4 blocks at 51.2 per cent shooting, more than 2,650 points and 1,550 rebounds all up even though she refers to the +20 game grind in NBL1 as her “off-season,” which allowed her to work on her individual game between WNBL seasons.

She gave basketball.com.au an insight into how she worked out.

“That's the one thing about winning: I've been drug tested four times this year,” she revealed.

“And I don't have a lot of time for holidays! But I’ve got no complaints, no complaints.

“So in the off-season for NBL1, obviously it's semi-professional. So we'll do two team trainings a week. And then I'll do indies (individuals), skill-based things, usually shooting four times a week, and then I'll try to lift three times a week, and then, depending on whether we have doubleheaders or whatnot, play two games or one game.

“So I do a lot of stuff, especially since my wrist injury, which started at Knox when I switched shooting hands, and then it was getting the rest of my body right too.

“In the off-season or the NBL1 season, I do a lot of work, strength and conditioning-wise, so that my body can maintain the loads that are needed in WNBL. And then it's just like reps.

Trying to get better at little things. I like pushing my body. I like seeing what I can do.

“Hard work is something that's ingrained in me from my parents, and I'm always going to play hard.

“But it's different to WNBL because it's all like individual skill stuff.

“It's like more individual-based, kind of work on myself, my body. Doing those little things. And then, obviously, in WNBL, that flips a little bit, where the loads go up much more, team-training-wise.

“We're training five, six times a week. And then individual stuff and weights is around that.

“So, it's a lot of training, but I think because of the body of work that I've done over the past few years, that's normal to me and that's something that I enjoy doing, and it's also my job. So I'm lucky I don't have to run off to work.

“I enjoy working hard, and I enjoy pushing myself and seeing how good I can be.”

Froling said the Fire’s success was built on chemistry, the luxury of turning Townsville into a “bubble” and the excellence of five-time WNBL Coach of the Year Seebohm.

“In Melbourne and NBL1, like there's so much more going on, whereas in Townsville, I feel like I'm away from it all,” Froling said.

“I literally always say we're in a bubble, and we kind of just focus on us. Obviously, the rest of the league does what they do. But I think that what we have in Townsville is so special.

“And what Shannon's built and what (Courtney Woods) has brought into it is just a place where you go, and if you do the work, you will get better.

“It's just cool and really cool to have really good teammates that want to do that and are genuinely happy for your success.

“The other thing is everyone wants everyone to be successful. So it just breeds a culture of, ‘hey, like, you're going to be successful, I'm going to be successful,’ and then you win basketball games from that.”

In two seasons, the Fire has gone 34-10, won a championship, and lost in the Grand Final Series, while Knox has gone 37-7 in the NBL1 regular season.

Every great player looks for an edge heading into their next season and for right-handed Froling it’s continuing to improve her shooting – with her left hand. “I just did what I had to do,” she said when she switched after injuring her wrist in 2022.

As for WNBL27: “Nothing crazy, just bringing up probably my shooting percentages was the biggest thing that we spoke about (in my exit interview).

“The longer you're in Shannon's system, the more you understand what he wants.

“So just getting smarter every year with that kind of stuff. But just bringing up my percentages, especially being a newbie lefty, but shooting percentages. Maybe hit a few more threes; that'll be nice too.”

For much of the season, the scout on Froling was a short closeout, clearly visible in the semi-final series against Southside Melbourne Flyers.

“I think you saw in like the Southside series, but I hit a three every game because they didn't do that (closeout). So it's something that I have the capability of doing, and that Shannon trusts in me and says he wants me to shoot those shots.

“But I also, it gives because I think my, one of my biggest strengths in my game is being an elite screener. So if you're going to give me a run up on a screen where you're going to be in a deep drops and I've got Mila Sowah or Woody coming off to get a wide open shot.

"I'm faster than all the bigs in the league; I'm a better screener. So there are options, and Shannon's so smart with that stuff that he puts me in positions to be like, ‘hey, shoot this one,’ and then you miss a few, or it's not the time and score situation.

“To set that screen and it's it's literally a free shot. So, the deep drops are what they are. And if teams want to keep doing it, I think you saw at the end of the year with Perth, it didn't work.

“So if teams want to keep playing, that's great. I know that I trust in my abilities and in Shannon's coaching genius to figure out what they do or how, but if they want to close me out, I'm sure we'll have counters for that as well. So, it doesn't bother me how they're going to play me; there's going to be something that we'll do.”

Froling expects much of the same from the Fire in WNBL27; she’ll continue to stretch the floor on the offensive end and anchor the Fire on the defensive end.

“My stuff is going to be like spacing the floor, kick out corner threes when somebody drives,” she said.

“For me, and I think in most of Shannon's system, if any big, including (Alex) Fowler or someone, is setting a screen, we're rolling just because that draws so much attention.

“I'm definitely working on that stuff, but is it going to happen into pick and pop a lot? Probably not.

“It's going to be me standing in the corner. Defense collapses, kick-out threes are probably where I'll get most of my threes, because realistically, even when I was a right-hand shooter, that wasn't a massive part of my game.

“My strength has always been my downward pressure on the rim and that gravity that I kind of pull.”

With five championships in 12 months, winning is part of Froling’s DNA, but she doesn’t take it for granted, nor the work it took to get there.

“It's still obviously really exciting,” she said.

“It's just cool. It's cool for the years of work that this Knox team, for instance, our group's been together and now it's like paying off.

“The Townsville team, the year before we'd lost in that grand final. So it seems it's all this winning happening at once, but it's from the years of work that have gone into it, too.

“I’m definitely really enjoying them all. (But) it has made my off-seasons very short.)

“So it's enjoy it, then quickly pack up and move to the next place. But it's just special.

“It's definitely something that I want to keep doing, definitely not sick of winning. Would love to continue winning championships for the rest of my career, but I don't know if that's feasible.

“But, yeah, definitely something that's really special and I definitely enjoy it.”

The one question Knox fans will be hanging out for an answer to is: Will Froling be back in NBL1 in 2027 to chase an historical threepeat?

“Yes, well, but I haven't put pen to paper yet.”

Instead, Froling is firmly focused on Townsville’s pre-season and chasing her sixth straight championship in WNBL27.

“Just really excited,” she added.

“I think to bring back the core of a championship-winning team is really special.

“And then, as Shannon does, the master recruiter, he's brought in some pieces that I think will complement us really well.

“It's an awesomely run club with really great people, so it's fun to go to work every day, and I'm just excited to get back up there, get training, get back to some warm weather too.”