Tasmania Jewels: Five things you need to know

• The Jewels are the WNBL's ninth club and make their debut on October 15, 2026.
• Tasmania has been without a WNBL team since the Hobart Islanders left in 1996.
• Taylor Mole is the club's first home-grown rostered player, alongside Opals Steph Reid and Darcee Garbin.

Tasmania won a WNBL championship in 1991 and then lost its team altogether.

The Hobart Islanders played their last home game in 1996. For 30 years the state produced players and sent them everywhere else. On October 15, 2026, that ends, when the Tasmania Jewels host the Geelong Venom at MyState Bank Arena in the club's first game.

This is not an expansion story so much as a restoration. And it arrives with two Opals on the roster, a WNBA guard as the first import, and a head coach who says the plan is to win now.

Opals and WNBA players on the inaugural Jewels roster

Steph Reid is the marquee signing and the biggest name in the building.

The guard was announced in June as the club's marquee player and has since been named in Australia's final 12 for the FIBA Women's World Cup in Berlin, which begins on September 4. She earns her Opals place after three years across Australia, China and Hungary and a leading role in Australia's Asia Cup campaign.

Darcee Garbin is the other Opal on the list, and she has been open about why she signed. Garbin committed once Claudia Brassard was confirmed as head coach.

Gianna Kneepkens is the club's first-ever import and a genuine coup for a team that has never played a game.

The 23-year-old American guard signed on July 26, 2026 after winning the 2026 NCAA championship with UCLA and being drafted by the Connecticut Sun. Her college numbers are the reason Tasmania moved: 49.5% from the field across five years, 43.1% from three and 87% from the free throw line.

"My strengths are shooting. I want to rebound. I want to defend hard. I want to win," Kneepkens said.

"I was in the gym a lot, a tonne; I'm a big gym-rat. That's definitely how I've gotten to where I am."

Keely Froling brings 200 WNBL games to a squad that otherwise has none as a group.

Taylor Mole and the first home-grown Jewels

The signing that matters most to Tasmania is not the marquee one.

Taylor Mole is the Jewels' first home-grown rostered player, and she left the state at 16 to have the career she is now bringing home. The 1.88m wing went from St Mary's to Colorado State and UC Santa Barbara, then built a professional record across the WNBL and four NBL1 seasons at Cairns, Mackay, Geelong and Ringwood.

"I was 16 years old and in Grade 11 at St Mary's when I moved. I knew it was my only choice if I wanted to play basketball at the highest level," Mole said.

"Now, to be able to move back home, to play for a Tasmanian WNBL team, it means everything to me, it's everything I dreamed of as a kid."

"It gives me goosebumps, I'm so honoured. I was that little kid who looked up to our local players and dreamed of being like them one day. I'd hang around after games wanting to get a single high five from a player."

Two more Tasmanians are on the list. Andie Smith and Nikki Parker have been signed as development players, which is the quiet part of an expansion roster and the part that decides whether the club still matters in ten years.

WNBL27 team snapshot

The Jewels enter a league that is changing shape around them.

WNBL27 expands to nine teams with Tasmania's arrival, and the finals format expands with it, from four teams to five. That matters for a first-year club more than it does for anyone else. A fifth finals berth is exactly the kind of target a new team can realistically chase across a 109-game season.

The debut is Thursday, October 15, 2026 at home at MyState Bank Arena against the Geelong Venom, the first WNBL game played in Tasmania since 1996. Every other club's moves are tracked in our WNBL27 roster tracker.

Claudia Brassard has been clear that the Jewels are not treating year one as a write-off.

"What was really important to me, and throughout the interview process, is that the vision is really clear, the vision is winning and playing playoff basketball right away," Brassard told ESPN.

Why the Jewels matter

Every club in this series has a story.

Townsville built a dynasty in a regional city. Bendigo turned a country town into a title contender. Canberra spent decades as the league's benchmark.

Tasmania is the one that had it, lost it, and got it back.

The state won a national championship in 1991 and then spent three decades outside the competition entirely. Every Tasmanian girl who wanted to play professionally in that period had to leave, as Taylor Mole did at 16. The Jewels change the answer to a question that has had only one answer since 1996.

There is also a wider point. The WNBL is expanding while other leagues contract, and it launched a search for a tenth licence at the same time it confirmed Tasmania. The club also opens 10 new roster spots that did not exist in Australian professional basketball a year ago.

Tasmania's basketball history

Basketball in Tasmania has a longer record than the 30-year gap suggests.

The Hobart Devils played in the NBL from 1983 until they folded in 1996, moving from the Kingborough Sports Centre to the Derwent Entertainment Centre along the way. They never won a championship and their best season was 1987.

The women did better. Considerably better.

The Hobart Islanders and the 1991 championship

The Hobart Islanders competed in the WNBL from 1986 to 1996 and won the championship in 1991.

That side was spearheaded by Robyn Maher, a FIBA Hall of Famer and one of the most significant players Australian basketball has produced. The title remains the only national senior basketball championship won by a Tasmanian club.

The Islanders played their last home game in 1996 and the state has been without a WNBL team since.

What the JackJumpers proved

The case for Tasmania was made by the men first.

The Tasmania JackJumpers entered the NBL in 2021 to a fair amount of scepticism about whether the market could sustain a club. They reached two championship series in their first three years and won the title in 2023-24.

The Jewels are run by the same organisation, and Brassard has said openly that she intends to borrow the model.

"I want to align with how the Jack Jumpers have done it, their values and what's important to a regional team and Tasmania and Tasmanians being tough, resilient and disciplined. All the things we're going to instil from day one," she told ESPN.

Claudia Brassard and the people building the club

The first appointment the club made was the most important one.

Claudia Brassard was named inaugural head coach ahead of a field that included Guy Molloy, Cheryl Chambers and David Herbert, all of whom have coached in the league before.

Her record is Townsville's. A former import for the Fire, the Canadian was an assistant to Chris Lucas for the club's back-to-back championships before coaching it to a third title in four seasons in 2018. She coached the Fire from 2016 to 2019 and was succeeded by Shannon Seebohm, who has since won another. She returned to the sidelines with the Townsville Flames in the 2025 NBL1 North season before taking the Jewels job.

"Tasmania has such a rich basketball history, and I'm so proud to be a part of this next chapter as the first coach of the Tasmania Jewels and to continue to Defend the Island," Brassard said.

"I'm excited to be a part of creating a team that Tasmanians can see themselves in; disciplined, hard-working and proud, with high standards in how we train, how we compete and how we represent the state."

Around her is a front office built for the job. Christine Finnegan is the club's chief executive. Kayla Steindl, a former WNBL player, is assistant general manager and was the first full-time employee appointed when the licence was confirmed. Steve Old is executive chair of both the Jewels and the JackJumpers.

The name, the brand and where they play

The Jewels did not exist as a name until fans chose one.

When the licence was awarded the club had no identity, and the WNBL said the name, branding and logo would be decided by supporters. The Jewels were unveiled with an identity drawn from Tasmania's basketball history and the state's wilderness.

"We're incredibly proud to launch a brand that we believe represents the unique beauty of the state of Tasmania and the unbreakable resilience of our team and our community," Finnegan said.

MyState Bank Arena in Hobart is the home floor and the venue for the October 15 debut, with the club built to represent the whole state rather than one city.

Five Fast Facts

1. The Jewels are the WNBL's ninth club and debut on October 15, 2026 against the Geelong Venom.

2. Tasmania last had a WNBL team in 1996, when the Hobart Islanders played their final home game.

3. The Hobart Islanders won the 1991 WNBL championship, spearheaded by FIBA Hall of Famer Robyn Maher.

4. Taylor Mole is the first home-grown Tasmanian rostered by the club, having left the state at 16 to pursue a career.

5. Gianna Kneepkens, a 2026 NCAA champion with UCLA and a Connecticut Sun draftee, is the first import.

The road to October 15

• 1986: The Hobart Islanders join the WNBL.
• 1991: The Islanders win the WNBL championship.
• 1996: The Islanders play their last home game and Tasmania leaves the league.
• 2021: The Tasmania JackJumpers enter the NBL.
• 2024: The JackJumpers win the NBL championship.
• August 2025: Tasmania is confirmed as the WNBL's ninth team, with a search launched for a tenth.
• December 2025: The Tasmania Jewels name and brand are unveiled.
• March 2026: Claudia Brassard is named inaugural head coach.
• June 2026: Steph Reid is announced as the club's marquee signing.
• July 2026: Gianna Kneepkens becomes the first import.
• October 15, 2026: The Jewels play their first WNBL game.

Looking ahead

A first-year club usually asks to be judged on patience. This one is not asking for any.

Brassard has said the target is finals in year one, and the expanded five-team format gives that ambition a realistic shape. Two Opals, a WNBA guard and a 200-game veteran is a serious foundation for a squad that did not exist twelve months ago.

The harder measure takes longer, and Taylor Mole is the clearest expression of it. For 30 years a player from Hobart or Launceston had to leave the state to have a professional career. Mole left at 16 because there was no other option, and she is coming back because now there is.

Andie Smith and Nikki Parker will not have to make that choice. That is the thing the Jewels actually change, and it will not show up in a win-loss record for years.

Whether they win in October is a smaller question than whether they are still here in ten years. On the JackJumpers evidence, they will be.