'That's why I came back': KG23 joins It's a Cole World

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Five-time WNBL champion Kelsey Griffin has revealed how leading a young Bendigo Spirit group, as well as reaching WNBL life membership, inspired her to return for a 14th season in the league.

At 38-years-old, the 2018 WNBL MVP could have stepped away from the league in a storybook ending, following Bendigo's championship run last season.

But Griffin joined two-time WNBL champion Bec Cole on the latest edition of It's a Cole World and spoke about how showing young stars like Opals guard Isobel Borlase and college stars such as Kelsey Rees and Olivia Pollerd what it takes to become great led her to returning for WNBL26.

"I've learned so much from this group," Griffin said on It's a Cole World.

"Once we found out that (Marianna) Tolo was pregnant, which is incredible personal news that was going to leave a huge gap - a legend of the game, one of the best centres to ever play for Australia. I had to really think about how I wanted to approach (the season).

"It was basically just going to be a season of uncertainty and I realised that really quickly everyone was going to be looking to me and how I handled it. The reality was is that I came back because I wanted to be able to work with this group and to get to my 250 (games).

"What I didn't expect was to experience as much success as early as we did, in tight games as well. I think through that through those trials and early days and then especially after Tolo where it just we just kind of stayed the course and just relied on our defence and and no one got rattled, it led me to trust the team.

"I think it was almost like this snowball effect where they looked to me to lead them and then I also built a lot of trust because they just kept showing up.

"I truly believed that I couldn't be outcome focused like I couldn't be worried about results because the reality was the odds are stacked against us. So, if I went to every game thinking like statistically what's going to happen like 'oh this doesn't look really great for us on paper', it's going to be a rough season right? But if I'm like, OK, if I go to these games, if I say 'how can I help these these (players), we have debutants, like fresh newbies to the league.

"Along with Abby (Wehrung)... but basically I was just like I could just show them what it takes and not be like really focused on the outcome, just show them what it takes and if it works, it works, if it doesn't, we're going to learn from it and that's going to be the repetitive messaging all year long.

"This is what it takes to do it. Doesn't mean it's going to happen. If it doesn't happen, what can we learn from? Look, I'd be lying if I said I expect ua to be where we are."

Griffin also spoke about the form of prized recruit and WNBL MVP favourite Borlase and how her breakout season in WNBL26 was just the beginning.

"I know she has lofty goals and I've been there to, I've never been to Olympics but I've been to the WNBA and played over there and so I understand what it takes and what it could be like," she said.

"So the other part is trying to prepare her as much as I can for that mentally as well as physically. young, but I've just loved every minute of (playing with Borlase) and I still think she's only like scratched the surface, which is scary to think about because I think there's still a lot more that she can develop."