MVP Courtney Woods reveals Fire’s clutch secret

• Townsville swept Perth 2–0 to claim the WNBL26 championship
• Seebohm called Game 2 a “seesaw 50–50” classic
• Woods credited support, calm huddles, and “the power of friendship”
• Seebohm said clubs and players are driving the WNBL’s investment era

Grand Final MVP Courtney Woods and Townsville Fire head coach Shannon Seebohm were itching to celebrate their WNBL26 championship after sweeping Perth Lynx 2-0 on Sunday, March 1, 2026.

But ever the professionals, the captain and five-time WNBL Coach of the Year spent almost 20 minutes talking about their fifth title in a decade.

Related: Ryan Petrik says Fire were 'better when it mattered'

Shannon Seebohm: “Great, what’s the noise coming through the door? And they’re like, they’re having a good time. What’s the feeling? Oh, just disbelief. A little bit surreal.

"Amazing game. Credit to Perth. They had not just a great season, but that was one of the toughest, probably seesaw 50–50 games I’ve ever seen in the WNBL, and surely has to go down as one of the greatest finals games ever played. I think either team could have won that down the stretch. Big runs at the start from them, we make a run in the second, then the second half is just a phenomenal display.

“They claw all the way back, and then it’s lead change after lead change after lead change, and there’s 41 seconds in the game. Just an amazing game. Really proud of my team. Can’t wait to get back to Townsville and celebrate with my family and all our fans.”

On Townsville’s ability to absorb pressure and make big plays

Shannon Seebohm: “We’ve been lucky. We had a hot start to the year. We won a lot of games by 30 points, all this stuff, and then after Christmas, everything just ground to a halt. We had to win close game after close game after close game.

“For us, the turning point was around that Christmas, when we lost to these guys by 20 at home, and Ally Wilson absolutely destroyed us, and Han absolutely killed us. Then we fast-forward: a week after Christmas, we lose Lauren Cox, and I felt like our season was on a knife’s edge.

“We made some adjustments to what we were doing, how we were defending, and all those things, and we managed to overcome that. I think all those experiences in close games, and that series against Southside as well, got us ready for this in a big way. We had a big win at home, played really badly, got absolutely belted on the road in Game 2, and then had to win a really tough game.

“Southside was so physical and tough and locked into us. By the time we got here, we were ready for everything they were gonna throw at us.

“That game there, I think the first quarter was obviously big foul trouble. We had to go to a match-up zone in the second quarter to try to negate some of the fouls and keep players on the floor. We talked about it multiple times before the game and during the game about just moving the ball. We moved the ball really well in the second quarter, got some good threes. Woody hit some, I think Abby hit a really big one against their deep drop coverage. We were able to get that lead going into halftime and have momentum on our side.

“The second half was just a phenomenal display of basketball, and I think that could have went either way. We’re obviously thrilled that it went our way.”

On Grand Final MVP Courtney Woods

Shannon Seebohm: “I’m trying not to get emotional here, but she has played every single role for me that you could imagine. From not playing a second to playing 40 minutes a game. From me telling her she needs to pass the ball more, to she needs to shoot more threes, to we need you to do this in this game.

“In the semi-finals, I asked her to inspire everyone defensively, and she’s not known as a defensive player, but she just makes big plays. Today, she didn’t have a great finals last year, and to come out today and in Game 1 as well and carry us, make big shots, make big plays at the other end of the floor — we asked her to guard Anneli Mailey and keep her off the glass, compete with her on the rebounds, all this stuff. I couldn’t be prouder.

“We’re so lucky to have Courtney at our team, at our club.”

Courtney Woods on Townsville’s two-game sweep to win WNBL26

Courtney Woods: “It’s crazy. Not even the on-court stuff — mentally, how much Shannon has helped me this year. Last year was hard. Losing at Bendigo was hard. This year, I have never wanted something more than winning a championship here. He knew that.

“So much of the last two weeks wasn’t even about basketball. It was he and Sam, our GM, trying to help me deal with the mental side of finals. That was the difference between last year and this year. I felt so much support and love. I was told 1 thousand times that if we don’t win, that’s okay. Honestly, I kind of surprised myself playing like that. A lot of it comes from having such support — my sports psych, everyone pouring into me and pouring into our whole team. We were able to figure it out, the stress of finals.

Courtney Woods on the 41 lead changes and 12 in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Courtney Woods: “I reckon there’s maybe two or three moments where it was like, ‘Oh, this is over’, and we somehow found a way to make shots.

Our group, we get in our huddles — Shannon’s figuring out the X’s and O’s — and we’re all just looking at each other and saying, ‘We’re good, we’re good’. It’s never been a team that snapped at each other or pointed fingers. We’ve always had massive respect for each other as basketball players.

“I know I said it in the semi-final, but it’s the power of friendship. That’s what keeps us connected. If we had lost that game, we would have been in the locker room like, “Guys, we’re okay. We’ll go out and play in Game 3.” When you have the support of all your friends and your coaches, you feel like you can do really hard things.

Courtney Woods on her quick repair after colliding with Han Xu’s elbow on a close-out

Courtney Woods : “Oh yeah, I can show you. That’s nice. Apparently, no, I wasn’t split, I was grazed. So no stitches. I was skinned like a cat, that’s what I’ve been saying. Didn’t feel good. Played a lot, but now I’m back. Finals, right? That’s fun.

“Literally, I looked up, and there were some photographers, so I’m sure there’ll be some nice photos on the internet now of that. Really cool moment. Crazy. We might go to sleep now.

Courtney Woods  on head coach Shannon Seebohm

Courtney Woods: “A big part of it is that Shannon’s an elite recruiter. We had success early on. We won that championship in his third or fourth year, and after that, it kind of got out that Shannon was obviously a great coach, and people wanted to come play here.

“That’s not even Shannon’s X’s and O’s. It’s the way Shannon invests in his players. Even me, when I came to the program, I was 23, fresh out of college, didn’t have a chance of hell of doing much special, and I’ve won two championships here, Finals MVP. That’s more than I ever thought I would be capable of.

“My whole dream at the Fire was to start. I was like, if I go my whole career, if I start, I’ll be so happy. Shannon has opened up my entire world and my career. I’m so grateful to him. He has made all of my dreams come true, and he’s made our whole team’s dreams come true this year. It’s such a collective experience. I’m really happy to continue to play here as long as I can.

Courtney Woods  on head coach Shannon Seebohm’s legacy

Courtney Woods: “I think everyone knows that by this point. But not even who Shannon is as a coach — for these finals, Shannon is one of my closest friends. Someone I can talk to about anything. Someone who’s there for me when I play well, when I play bad, treats me the same either way.

“He has such a huge impact on my life, way more than basketball — more as who you are as a person. That’s why people want to continue to come play here, and that’s why we continue to have success with him.

Shannon Seebohm on the WNBL’s new ownership and contribution of the clubs

Shannon Seebohm: “I don’t think it’s just the league. It’s the clubs as well. The league has come in and asked the clubs to invest significantly in the collective bargaining agreement, extra costs, and staffing.

“It’s great we’ve got new ownership, and they’re marketing the shit out of the league — sorry, the heck out of the league, sorry guys — and doing all these things. But it’s actually the clubs as well. They’re the ones making the biggest financial investment right now, as far as I’m aware.

“And the players, too. The players are critical. The league will market them, but we need to keep getting top-tier Australian talent in this league. We need to find a way to still attract high-level imports like Han Xu that keep eyeballs on what’s happening. We need people to continue to support it as well.

“You’ve seen what’s happened with the NBL — this league can go to a different level. When all of those things happen, and everyone’s investing — the coaches, the players, the broadcasting, the sponsorship, the ownership, the club owners — once the collective is all on the same page and everyone’s pushing in the same direction, this league’s gonna boom and go to a level that no one’s ever seen before.

Shannon Seebohm on the challenge of losing star centre Lauren Cox and the youth of his side

Shannon Seebohm: “It’s been a whirlwind. Going into the start of the year, we had the youngest team, but we also had all these expectations that we were going to win the championship.

“That was the whole media narrative.

“I think everyone forgot about Bendigo, and they forgot about Han Xu. Southside Flyers have an extremely talented team. We’re one of the few that don’t have an Olympian or an Opal that’s played at a World Cup or done any of those things.

“We’ve done it through committee a lot this year. Abbey Ellis is a great example. She’s a phenomenal young talent, but she’s still learning a lot. She has had phenomenal games this year, she’s had quiet games this year, and we’ve got great depth. We’ve had Lucy Olsen or someone like that who’s been out to step in and fill that gap when other people aren’t playing well.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. We’ve played good basketball, and we’ve played inconsistent basketball at times. Our whole goal was always to try to play our best basketball at the end of the year, and I truly believe that we did that.

Shannon Seebohm on the intensity back-and-forth battle in Game 2

Shannon Seebohm: “I felt probably like everyone else did. There’s anxiety, there’s excitement, there’s big plays, there’s big calls from the refs, there’s all these things happening. In amongst all of that, you’ve got to remember that if I’m up and hyped or if I’m stressed about something we’ve just done, the players are gonna feed off that. It’s important to stay calm, even though inside I’m not feeling calm or I’m frustrated by something — a shot we’ve taken, a turnover, whatever it was.

“The players need to see that I’m calm, and hopefully that translates to them.

“This was a game that could have gone either way. Big shots by both teams, big plays by both teams. Fortunately for us, we made the right plays at the right time to go to overtime, and then to capitalise down the stretch and make key free throws and big shots to win the game. Really happy to have gotten the result. Definitely glad we’re not going to a Game 3 against Perth, that’s for sure.

Shannon Seebohm on the pressure of being championship favourites

Shannon Seebohm: “Probably right from the start when people were saying we were gonna win the championship because we won a couple of preseason games. That was a lot of pressure to go into a season with.

“Then, when Lauren Cox went down, that was also a moment. She’s been pivotal to us, not just this year but last year. Looking at who we may play in the finals — Southside, Bendigo, Perth — with Han Xu, not having Lauren Cox was a significant piece to be missing. But we regrouped really well after that, probably the New Year’s Eve period.

“We had a couple of weird games. We lost to Geelong by 30 on our home floor, and I think that was a great wake-up call. From that point on, we didn’t really look back, other than that Southside game two hiccup. Really proud of my team. Great players stepped up at the right time.

Courtney Woods on fouling out with 1:22 to go in regulation

Courtney Woods: “But the sequence of events after that was incredible. Lucy came in, Miela hit that massive shot, and then we went to overtime without two of our starters. The way that we kept going — Alicia (Froling) made some huge plays, Miela hit two game winners pretty much — that represents our entire season. When we’ve needed people to step up, they have.

“As Shannon said, that’s what makes us special. We don’t have one person that everything goes through. We don’t have this Olympian superstar. It’s all of us, and it has been all of us the whole year.

“Every game, other people have stepped up, and this series is no different. That’s what made this team super special.”

Shannon Seebohm on Courtney Woods taking more responsibility once Lauren Cox was ruled out for the season

Shannon Seebohm: “She’s just tough. Anything I’ve ever asked her to do on the basketball court, she’s tried her best to do. Whether that’s score, defend, or rebound.

“We lost Lauren Cox. I went to her and said I need you to get two more, need to average seven rebounds a game, she goes and does it. Last year I say to her, ‘Hey mate, we’re not gonna win unless you start passing the ball with people when they’re open’, she goes and leads the league in assists. Talk to her recently about ‘hey, you need to start shooting the three when you’re open cause everyone’s guarding you for a drive’ — she comes today and nails them.

“I can’t say enough good things about her. She has led our team from the front since day one, with no experience in this role. We have the youngest team, and you could see our practices — I can honestly sit back in practice half the time now, and she coaches the team as well. She literally does everything for us. I’m so grateful to have a player and person like Courtney on our team.

Courtney Woods on the big plays of the championship series.

Courtney Woods: It’s Miela hitting that massive shot to send us into overtime, but it’s Chantel Horvat who got the offensive rebound. Plays like that — Miela hits the shot, but it’s all of us who are in position to make that happen.

“There were moments when we got in our huddles, and we’re all looking at each other and telling each other we’re okay. Perth was loud; they sold out their arena; it was stressful; and they went on a lot of runs. But that connection between all of us as players provided enough encouragement and support that we were able to keep fighting.

“There were a lot of times where we could have rolled over, and Perth could have gone up 15, but we continued to make tough shots when we really needed a bucket, and it was all different people.

“Alicia had so many tough finishes on Han; she’s probably the best, one of the best defenders in the world. That’s been our season. Shannon’s asked us to be brave and fearless, and we’ve given each other enough encouragement to make that happen.”

WNBL Champions

• 1981 – St Kilda Saints
• 1982 – St Kilda Saints (2)
• 1983 – Nunawading Spectres
• 1984 – Nunawading Spectres (2)
• 1985 – Coburg Cougars
• 1986 – Nunawading Spectres (3)
• 1987 – Nunawading Spectres (4)
• 1988 – Nunawading Spectres (5)
• 1989 – Nunawading Spectres (6)
• 1990 – North Adelaide Rockets
• 1991 – Hobart Islanders
• 1992 – Perth Breakers
• 1993 – Sydney Flames
• 1994 – Adelaide Lightning
• 1995 – Adelaide Lightning (2)
• 1996 – Adelaide Lightning (3)
• 1997 – Sydney Flames (2)
• 1998 – Adelaide Lightning (4)
• 1998–99 – Australian Institute of Sport
• 1999–00 – Canberra Capitals
• 2000–01 – Sydney Panthers (3)
• 2001–02 – Canberra Capitals (2)
• 2002–03 – Canberra Capitals (3)
• 2003–04 – Dandenong Rangers
• 2004–05 – Dandenong Rangers (2)
• 2005–06 – Canberra Capitals (4)
• 2006–07 – Canberra Capitals (5)
• 2007–08 – Adelaide Lightning (5)
• 2008–09 – Canberra Capitals (6)
• 2009–10 – Canberra Capitals (7)
• 2010–11 – Bulleen Boomers
• 2011–12 – Dandenong Rangers (3)
• 2012–13 – Bendigo Spirit
• 2013–14 – Bendigo Spirit (2)
• 2014–15 – Townsville Fire
• 2015–16 – Townsville Fire (2)
• 2016–17 – Sydney Uni Flames (4)
• 2017–18 – Townsville Fire (3)
• 2018–19 – Canberra Capitals (8)
• 2019–20 – Canberra Capitals (9)
• 2020 – Southside Flyers (4)
• 2021–22 – Melbourne Boomers (2)
• 2022–23 – Townsville Fire (4)
• 2023–24 – Southside Flyers (5)
• 2024–25 – Bendigo Spirit (3)
• 2025-26 – Townsville Fire (5)

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