Opals door shut but Liberty opens it for birthday girl Anneli

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Australian forward and WNBL26's rebounding champion Anneli Maley has earned a standard WNBA contract with the New York Liberty – on the same day the Australian Opals open their World Cup in Berlin without her.

Maley, 28, was left out of Sandy Brondello's 12-player Opals side.

One of the players who made it is Alex Fowler, and the Liberty waived Fowler, also a development player, the day before they re-signed Maley in May.

The national team door closed on her nine months ago. Brondello left Maley out of the 19-player squad for the World Cup qualifiers in Istanbul, named on December 20, 2025, at a point when Maley was leading the WNBL in rebounding.

"Do you want the diplomatic answer or the brutally honest one? I'll get fired if I give the brutal one," Perth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik said the following day.

"I'll say again, shell-shocked. I'm not sure what else she's meant to do. We'll leave it there."

"I think all of us are a little bit shell-shocked that she wasn't in that Opals squad, because her form has been elite. Everyone who made that roster is really talented, I'm not taking anything away from them. But if you're picking on form, with how she's playing, I'm not sure what else she's meant to do."

Maley then posted WNBL26's first triple-double, finished the season as the league's leading rebounder at 14.4 a game with a double-double in each of her last nine games, and scored 65 points for the Perth Redbacks against Willetton on April 10, breaking Elijah Pepper's NBL1 record of 59 with 17 rebounds and 85 per cent true shooting.

The WNBA season that followed has been almost entirely movement. Maley earned a training camp contract with the Liberty in early May, was waived at final cuts, was picked up by the Phoenix Mercury on a one-year deal worth USD $270,000, scored a point in six minutes against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces on opening night and was waived again. New York brought her back on May 23.

Across the two clubs she has played nine games for six points. Her season high is the five she scored at Indiana on July 18, when she went 1-from-5 from the field, 1-from-3 from deep and 2-from-2 at the line, took three rebounds and played thirteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds in a twenty-point loss. She has been scoreless in seven of the nine.

The upgrade was confirmed on September 4, 2026 (AEST). It comes as New York Liberty star Satou Sabally is out for the season with a head injury. On August 24 the Liberty were carrying 12 players with no open roster slots and both of their development player places filled, by Maley and Elizabeth Balogun.

A development player under the WNBA's 2026 collective bargaining agreement can be activated for a maximum of twelve games in a season, and WNBA.com reported in August that Maley would sit out while the Liberty managed that allowance. She had used seven of her twelve. A standard contract removes the limit.

Development players earn a USD $750 weekly stipend that does not count against the salary cap, plus USD $6,136 for each game they are activated for. The standard minimum under the 2026 agreement is USD $270,000 for a player with no years of service and USD $277,500 above that, prorated for whatever is left of the season.

The Liberty have not disclosed her figure.

Maley is the second Australian on the New York roster alongside veteran Rebecca Allen. She won bronze with the Opals at the 2022 World Cup in Sydney and represented Australia in 3x3 at the Paris Olympics.

Australia play Puerto Rico at 7:30pm AEST tonight.