Why Opals legend returned home to lead Lightning

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The Adelaide Lightning never recruited two-time Olympian Tess Madgen to play for the historic South Australian franchise during her illustrious 14-year career, even though she was a homegrown product.

Which makes it significantly more ironic that just two years after hanging up her boots, the former Australian Opals captain is the one trying to lead the club back to its former glory as the General Manager of Basketball.

After taking up the position in March this year, Madgen joined NBL legend Jason Cadee on the eve of the WNBL27 season, to discuss why she made the career move and how the Lightning were going to bounce back to become the league powerhouse, which saw Adelaide win four championships in the 1990s and another in 2008.

The 2022 WNBL champion also said why she believed the Lightning were set for an exciting new era with stalwart and WNBA star Steph Talbot leading the way, alongside new recruit Zitina Aokuso.

"One of the main reasons why we play any sport, right, is that we can continue to learn and we get that really good growth mindset," Madgen told Cadee, who she attended the Australian Institute of Sport with in their junior days.

"I'm still learning every day. I still want to be better and better as I can be for the team and the front office and the organisation.

"I think by still being involved in sport, I'm finding that a lot easier than if I wasn't. Like it's an addictive thing to, it's an obsession to want to get better and better and leave the place that you are in better than what you found it.

"That's another reason why it really enticed me to go to the Adelaide Lightning.

"I think there's a tremendous opportunity to build something great there and it has started.

"I love who I work with every day, the coaches, the players, the front office, and I couldn't really hope for a better organisation to walk into to build it really as a start-up from the ground up."

Adelaide had a disappointing 2025-26 season, finishing seventh with a 7-16 record, and switching coaches after Kerryn Mitchell was dismissed early in the season and replaced by Aja Parham-Ammar.

But Madgen, who is spearheading the Lightning rebuild, said they were excited for a new season with a roster that's also full of South Australian talent such as Talbot, Tayla Brazel, Elissa Brett and more.

"I grew up watching when you could only watch one game of WNBL a week on ABC at 5pm with my mum, and it was one of my fondest childhood memories," she said on the basketball.com.au podcast.

"That (Lightning) team was full of South Australians. It's actually their 30 year anniversary of their three-peat this year.

"I just fondly remember watching Rachel Sporn every week on that team and wanting to be her one day.

"I think that is one of the greatest parts about playing professional sports or being involved in professional sports is that we can shape a better future for young people."

With the WNBL reaching new heights last season under the new ownership group of Robyn Denholm and Larry Kestelman, the new season is only going to build on that success, including a new team in the Tasmania Jewels coming into the league.

And Madgen had one message for basketball fans on the eve of the 2026-27 season.

"People kind of need to start putting their money where their mouth is and come and show their support for the great game that we have," Madgen said.

"If you want to support women's sport, the easiest thing you can do is buy a ticket and actually show up.

"It's so easy to be a critic online or have your opinion, but can you just please go buy a ticket and show up and I promise you, you'll want to come back for the next game.

"I think that's the biggest area that we can for sure improve on and it's not just fans rocking up, it's how we're talking to it in market, how we're advertising the game, marketing our players, storytelling, like it all goes into it and hopefully all of that work goes into it does fill stadiums and I think that should be the number one goal moving forward."

WNBL27 tips-off with the Jewels' first ever game as they host Geelong at MyState Bank Arena on Thursday night from 7pm AEDT.

The Lightning travel to Sydney to take on the Flames on Sunday before hosting defending champions, the Townsville Fire on Tuesday.