Inside Knox's streak-killing championship chase

• The Knox Raiders beat the Cockburn Cougars 93-72 to win the NBL1 National Women's Championship
• The WNBL will expand to nine teams in the 2026-27 season with Tasmania joining the league
• 2025-26 WNBL Team Lists and Roster Tracker

A mid-season coaching change and two superstar mid-season signings helped the Knox Raiders build into what became an NBL1 women's juggernaut.

Having claimed the NBL1 South Women’s Championship last month, they completed the double over the weekend, dismantling teams on their way to becoming the NBL1 Women’s National Champions in Canberra.

Incredibly, Knox defeated the undefeated in both Championship games, first taking care of business against Geelong United, who went 24-0 in their run to the NBL1 South Grand Final, before also handing Cockburn, who swept the NBL1 West, their first loss of the season in the NBL1 Nationals Championship Game.

Alicia Froling, who was a member of the NBL1 South First Team and NBL1 Nationals All-Star Five, spoke after the win about being the team that ends opponent’s fairytale seasons with a nightmare.

“We just focus on us, that’s what we’ve done all season and we have confidence in ourselves, confidence in our abilities,” she said.

“It’s something that wasn’t really talked about, but it definitely feels good to knock them off."

Winning both deciders by 20+ points, the Raiders didn’t just knock off their undefeated rivals, they dismantled them with a defence that suffocated high-powered offenses.

“Records or being undefeated never came into the equation, it was about us,” coach Craig Simpson said.

Geelong averaged 89.3 point per game in the South, while Cockburn averaged an incredible 97.7 in the West. When push came to shove, Knox rose to the occasion on the defensive end, holding Geelong to just 64 points in the NBL1 South decider, while Cockburn was held to 72 points on Sunday.

To Cockburn’s credit, they pushed Knox in the first half, trailing by just four points, 46-42, at the main break. Steph Gorman (14 first half points) and Jewel Williams (11 first half points) were finding their way through Knox’s defence, but all that changed in the final 20 minutes.

Williams was held scoreless in the second half, while Gorman scored just two points. The Raiders turned up the intensity and the Cougars simply couldn’t keep up, claiming a dominant 93-72 win.

If you needed any more insight into the ruthlessness of this Knox unit, Kristy Wallace provided the perfect example at half time of their first Nationals match-up. Taking on Manly Warringah, champions of the NBL1 East and riding a 19-game winning streak, the Raiders held the Sea Eagles to a measly 14 points in the first half.

Wallace was asked at half time on the broadcast, what could be improved heading into the second half and clearly not content, she stated, “defensively, we can always get better.”

An unbelievable mindset, proving just how much Knox chased perfection on the defensive end.

That all began with 100% buy-in from each and every player. Highlighting that buy-in is the fact Wallace, a former WNBA player and Olympic bronze medallist, and Agnes Emma-Nnopu, a former NCAA National Champion and Sydney Flames signee, came off the bench every game after both joining the team 11 games into the season.

The Raiders would go undefeated after adding Wallace and Emma-Nnopu.

Clearly Knox’s talent was supreme, but we’ve seen plenty of teams look great on paper and not produce on the court. Having those two superstars be willing to come off the bench – when on any other team in the nation, they would’ve been starting – speaks volumes to Wallace and Emma-Nnopu’s unwavering commitment to winning and team-first mindset.

“All we wanted to do was win,” said Wallace post-game.

“[Knox] is the best club in the country, hands down,” Froling said. “To do the journey with a lot of the same girls, obviously we added some really key pieces, but we kind of kept that core, it’s pretty special.

“We all get along really well too. It’s really fun to win, but it’s so much more fun to win with people you genuinely love and care about too.”

You may think with so much success it was all smooth sailing for the Raiders, but they had to deal with a mid-season coaching change when Craig Simpson took over from Alan Westover in early June.

Simpson took charge of the highly talented Raiders squad and led them to the promised land. He spoke post-game about the club wanting to push the boundaries and giving their players the best opportunities possible.

“Our CEO to our board and our coaching staff, everyone has the same vision and that’s to push standards, provide better opportunities for our players to come here and aspire to move forward, and to continue to build,” Simpson said. “We resource that, we pride ourselves on pushing those boundaries, and I think you see that in the results.

“We’re super proud and we’re going to keep questioning and pushing that forward.”

Knox’s depth was second to none and always showed up in crucial moments throughout the season. Seven players scored in double figures against Cockburn, led by Nationals Grand Final MVP Paige Bradley (15 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds), who made it an MVP double after also claiming honours in the South Grand Final with 20 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds.

“The first half was a grind, credit to Cockburn,” Froling said. “In that second half you saw the depth of our team, our training, our ability to pass the ball, hit big shots and make big plays.”

Having completed the dream season, the 2025 Knox Raiders will be remembered as the team that stared down undefeated squads and showed them no mercy in the two biggest games of their season.