2
Aug
Ultimate Guide
Australian Opals World Cup 2026: every player and stats
Ezi Magbegor, Sami Whitcomb and Alanna Smith led Australia into the 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup.
Every Australian Opals player chasing glory at the 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup in Berlin, Germany
- Striking gold: the 2006 world champion Opals
- Sami captains Opals World Cup team stacked with WNBA stars
- Every WNBA player and what they will earn in 2026
Australia goes to Berlin on September 4, 2026 (AEST) chasing a second world title – 20 years after the first and only one.
Sandy Brondello names a team carrying six players who won bronze in Paris, a captain in Sami Whitcomb who was American when the Opals last won this thing, and a front court in Ezi Magbegor and Alanna Smith still building back from injury.
Below is every player: who they are, what they have done in Green and Gold, and the FIBA numbers behind it.
GUARDS
Jade Melbourne
Seattle Storm · Age: 24 · 176cm · Guard
Seattle Storm guard Jade Melbourne, 24, arrives in Berlin as the player the Opals have spent four years building toward this. She was 19 when she debuted at the 2021 Asia Cup and scored 3.2 a game. By Paris she was starting games and running the second unit, averaging 7.0 points and 2.8 assists across six matches, the best numbers of her national team career.
Her assist rate is the tell. She has never averaged fewer than two a game at a senior tournament since that Asia Cup debut, and at 176cm she is the squad's most natural creator off the dribble. Berlin is her first senior World Cup.
- Jade Melbourne's WNBA Player Hub
- How Opals' star Jade's restart in Seattle has been gold
- How Bendigo superstar Isobel Borlase helped land Jade Melbourne
Stephanie Reid
Tasmania Jewels · Age: 30 · 165cm · Guard
Tasmania Jewels marquee signing Stephanie Reid, 30, is the smallest player in the squad by 9cm and the one with the widest single-tournament swing in the entire group.
At the 2025 Asia Cup she put up 11.2 points and 7.4 assists a game for an efficiency rating of 16.4, the second-highest figure any Opal recorded at that event. At the World Cup qualifiers a year later she averaged 1.0 point across five games.
Read that as role rather than form. Reid is a distributor first, and her selection says the coaching staff wants a genuine point guard behind the starters. She returned home this year after stints in China and Hungary to headline Tasmania's debut WNBL season.
- Clutch Steph Reid is Opals 'Jewel' against China
- Opals Notebook: What we learned from the Asia Cup (Reid named All-Star Five)
- Sami captains Opals World Cup team stacked with WNBA stars
Sami Whitcomb – Captain
Phoenix Mercury · Age: 38 · 178cm · Guard · CAPTAIN
Opals captain Sami Whitcomb, 38, is the oldest player in the squad, the most decorated, and statistically the best national team scorer Australia is taking to Berlin.
Her career average of 12.0 points across seven senior tournaments is the highest in the group. So is her peak: 17.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 7.5 assists a game at the 2021 Asia Cup for an efficiency rating of 23.7.
There is no sign of decline in the numbers. She averaged 13.8 points at the 2026 qualifiers, her second-best return at any tournament, and 13.0 points with 5.3 assists at Paris.
This is her third World Cup after 2018 and 2022.
- Sami Whitcomb's WNBA Player Hub
- Sami busts 4-for-7 threes as Opals fend off Japan
- Whitcomb makes long-awaited return from injury
Alex Wilson
Sydney Flames · Age: 32 · 174cm · Guard
Sydney Flames guard Alex Wilson, 32, has played seven senior international matches. Nine other players in this squad have played more.
She is here because of what she did in the seven. At the 2026 World Cup qualifiers she averaged 7.2 points and 3.8 assists across five games, and her efficiency rating of 8.6 was better than four players with far longer resumes.
Wilson made a WNBA roster at 32 after two WNBL championships, which is the same story in a different league: a player whose career kept moving forward at an age when most have stopped.
Berlin is her first World Cup.
- Alex Wilson's Player Hub
- Alex Wilson signs with the Sydney Flames for WNBL27
- Opals escape to stay unbeaten against Turkiye
Isobel Borlase
Atlanta Dream · Age: 21 · 180cm · Guard / Forward
Atlanta Dream guard Isobel Borlase, 21, turns 22 during this tournament, on 12 September, and she is the only player in the squad who has already won an Olympic medal before her 20th birthday.
Her Paris numbers were modest, 3.2 points across six games as the youngest Opal there. Everything since has climbed. She averaged 8.6 points at the 2025 Asia Cup and 10.4 at the World Cup qualifiers, the third-best scoring return in the squad at that event.
At 180cm she can be guarded by neither position cleanly, which is the point of picking her.
- Isobel Borlase's WNBA Player Hub
- Brilliant Borlase joins Australia's elite 21-club MVPs
- Walking bucket Isobel Borlase blings it up for Opals
FORWARDS
Alanna Smith, 29
Dallas Wings · Age: 29 · 190cm · Forward / Centre
Dallas Wings big Alanna Smith, 29, turns 30 in Berlin on 10 September, and no player in this squad has travelled further from where she started.
At Tokyo she played two games and averaged 0.5 points. By Paris she was averaging 11.5 points and 8.0 rebounds across six matches, and at the 2026 qualifiers she went for 11.6 and 8.0 with an efficiency rating of 15.0.
She was named WNBA co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2025, and the Opals use her the same way. Smith is the player who lets Australia defend a modern five without surrendering size.
- Alanna Smith's WNBA Player Hub
- Alanna Smith, WNBA Defensive Player of the Year 2025
- Alanna Smith turns $98K grind into $5.2M payday
Steph Talbot
Las Vegas Aces · Age: 32 · 188cm · Forward
Las Vegas Aces forward Steph Talbot, 32, has played 11 senior tournaments for Australia, more than any other player in this squad, and the first one on her record is the one worth knowing about.
At Rio in 2016 she played six games, scored no points at all and finished with an efficiency rating of minus 0.7. Ten years on she is one of the most complete forwards in the program: 8.5 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game at the 2022 World Cup, then 5.7, 7.5 and 4.5 at Paris.
Her career assist average of 3.3 is the second-highest in the squad, from a 188cm forward.
- Steph Talbot's WNBA Player Hub
- 'Aces high': Steph Talbot's Las Vegas in driver's seat
- Steph comes up 'Aces' against Borlase's Dream
Chloe Bibby
Chicago Sky · Age: 28: · 184cm · Forward
Chicago Sky forward Chloe Bibby, 28, is the squad's cleanest example of a player who does more than her scoring line suggests.
Her best tournament was the 2025 Asia Cup: 8.0 points and 6.2 rebounds a game for an efficiency rating of 12.4, more than double her rating at the same event two years earlier. That jump, from 3.0 in 2023 to 12.4 in 2025, is the largest year-on-year improvement in the group.
She is a stretch four who won a league MVP award in Poland, and at 184cm she gives Australia a forward who can pull a defending centre away from the rim.
- Chloe Bibby's WNBA Player Hub
- Rookie Chloe Bibby fights through rollercoaster season
- Chloe Bibby steps up as Chicago Sky eclipse the Sun
Alex Fowler, 25
New York Liberty · Age: 25 · 182cm · Forward
Former New York Liberty development player and Townsville Fire WNBL26 champion Fowler, 25, produced the single best statistical tournament of any Opal in this squad's recent history.
She was named MVP of the 2025 Asia Cup and picked in the All-Star Five, averaging 11.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists a game for an efficiency rating of 20.0. Nobody else in the 12 has posted a 20 at a senior event.
Her qualifying campaign a year later was quieter, 2.6 points across five games, which makes Berlin the tournament that settles which version is the real one. On the evidence of the Asia Cup, Australia has a forward who can pass, rebound and score in the same night.
- Alex Fowler's Player Hub
- 'Humble' Fowler leads Opals to Asia Cup gold
- Opals Notebook: What we learned from the Asia Cup
CENTRES
Ezi Magbegor
Seattle Storm · Age: 27 · 193cm · Centre
Seattle Storm centre Ezi Magbegor, 27, is the best player Australia is taking to Berlin, and the numbers are not close.
Her career efficiency rating of 14.0 across nine senior tournaments leads the squad. So does her scoring average of 10.6. At the 2026 qualifiers she went for 14.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in three games for a rating of 18.7, the highest single-tournament figure by any Opal in this group.
She has never had a bad tournament. Her lowest scoring return at any senior event is 7.0 a game, and she has cleared 9.0 at seven of the nine.
Berlin is her third World Cup.
- Ezi Magbegor WNBA Player Hub
- Magbegor suffers facial fracture as World Cup looms
- Opals star Ezi Magbegor lands USD $1M pay rise
Zitina Aokuso
Adelaide Lightning · Age: 27 · 190cm · Centre
Adelaide Lightning centre Zitina Aokuso, 27, is the squad's specialist, and the specialty is rebounding.
Her career rebounding average of 5.1 a game trails only Alanna Smith among the twelve, and she has done it in limited minutes across three tournaments. At the 2025 Asia Cup she pulled 6.0 a game with 8.0 points; at the 2026 qualifiers, 4.8 and 7.0.
She is a two-time WNBL champion and one of the very few Australian women who can dunk in a game, which tells you what kind of athlete Australia has in reserve when Magbegor sits.
- Aokuso dominates paint as Opals defeat Hungary
- 'New legacy': Aokuso leads Opals into semis
- Sami captains Opals World Cup team stacked with WNBA stars
Isabelle Bourne
Sydney Flames · Age: 25 · 188cm · Forward / Centre
Sydney Flames forward Isabelle Bourne, 25, is the least experienced player in the squad by a distance. She has one senior tournament to her name.
It went well. At the 2025 Asia Cup she averaged 6.8 points and 3.2 rebounds across five games for an efficiency rating of 9.2, better than three players in this squad who have been in the program for a decade.
At 188cm she can play either frontcourt spot, which is the practical reason a first-tournament player makes a World Cup twelve. Berlin will be the making of her or the education of her, and both are useful.
.avif)
