'Surreal' call-up a dream for newest Opals debutant

• ‍Bonnie Deas reflects on World Cup success‍
• 'All Glass': Bonnie Deas is best freshman rebounder in US‍
• Every Australian player in the 2026 Transfer Portal

Bonnie Deas is about to realise the lifelong dream of wearing green and gold as she prepares for her Australian Opals debut Maddy Rocci is acutely aware time waits for no woman and feels an urgency as this year’s World Cup and 2028 LA Olympics approaches.

Together they will lead the Opals’ back-court in next month’s clashes against China in Melbourne, writes Michael Randall from CODE Sports.

Deas, 20, was cleaning her bedroom when Opals coach Sandy Brondello’s name flashed up on her phone.

Brondello asked Deas a question she well knew the answer to: “do you want to play for the Opals?”

“I said ‘I would love to’ and she said I’d been selected to play in the series and she was excited to watch me play,” Deas said.

At a She Hoops event at Courtside Melbourne, Deas admitted when Opals’ team manager Trish Fallon handed over her green and gold jersey, it felt “surreal”.

“I’ve just been trying to work hard because the goal is to be playing in this jersey,” Deas said.

Rocci, who turned 28 earlier this month, has become one of the finest point guards in the WNBL and is eyeing selection for September’s FIBA World Cup in Germany

She knows the heartbreak of missing out on major teams, pipped for the Opals squad for Paris 2024.

“As you get older, you mature in lots of different ways, and I think, for me, the first times that I didn’t make teams it hit much harder than it probably does now,” Rocci said.

For the full story on CODE Sports Basketball, click here.