The popular centre turned 30 this month and her family has planned a big bash tomorrow night to mark the occasion - making up for the fact she was at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra for her 18th birthday and playing college ball in the US on her 21st.

And Gabe has plenty to celebrate.

Defying age, she found career-best form to help Spirit snare back-to-back WNBL titles, earned All Star Five selection both years, and is again dominating the court this season.

The icing on the cake was getting a late call-up to the Australian team for the 2014 World Championship in Turkey and returning with a bronze medal hanging around her neck.

“Had someone told me my past two years would turn out the way they have, I’d have laughed and told them they were dreaming,” she says from behind her desk at Bendigo Toyota, where she works full-time as the dealership’s marketing manager.

“There’s no way I would have picked us to win a WNBL title on our home floor, let alone do it twice, then to get named in an Opals team to play in a world championship…”

But the fairytale was almost over before it began, as Gabe initially knocked back new national coach Brendan Joyce’s invitation to join his pre-world-titles training squad.

“When he first called me up, I said ‘thanks, but no thanks, I think I’m past it’,” she says.

“I had a pre-conceived idea of what an Opal was, and I certainly wasn’t it. With all these young, athletic, tall girls coming through, why would you want someone who is nearly 30 and can’t jump?

"In my eyes, I didn’t have the game style or the body type that the Opals player have always had. Plus I worked full-time and had a lot of things going on.

“I think Brendan called (Spirit coach) Bernie Harrower and had a chat, then Bernie called me and said he thought I should give it a go because I’d been playing great.

“So I rode the wave, went to the training camps and Brendan kept on inviting me back.”

Gabe toured the US with the Australian squad and was not disappointed to miss selection in the final team, but a late injury to superstar Liz Cambage saw the Bendigo favourite told to pack her bags, fly out at the 11th hour and realise the dream.

“It was all a blur because I got such a late call-up, but it was really sensational.

“We got presented with our singlets at dinner at an old villa in Italy where Cadel Evans had his wedding. It was gorgeous, but I’d flown in that day, trained that afternoon, and I literally fell asleep at the table.”

Gabe’s world title debut tournament was marred slightly by a gastro-like illness that caused her to lose 5kg and later faint at the Opals’ quarter-final against Canada.

But she will treasure the whole experience long after she’s hung up her basketball boots.

“I really thought that ship had sailed, but somehow I ended up at a world championship, even though I wasn’t necessarily supposed to. I guess that’s just typical of my career.”

The 188cm-tall shooting and rebounding machine grew up in Seymour playing every sport she could, but was channelled into elite basketball by coach and mentor Craig Hockley, who urged her to trial for the Victoria Country academy program in under-14s.

“I was absolutely hopeless – couldn’t catch, could barely run and wasn’t very co-ordinated,” she laughs, “but I was tall, they picked me and it all took off from there.”

Playing all her junior club basketball for Broadmeadows, Gabe spent many hours on the road travelling to intensive training days and state squad duties during her mid teens.

She took up an AIS scholarship at 17, represented Australia at the 2003 world youth titles, then spent three years playing and studying marketing/communications at the University of Oregon before returning home to recover from Achilles tendon surgery.

“I was lucky that when I came back that summer, there was word that Bendigo was starting up a WNBL team,” she says.

“It was pretty exciting to think I could play at the highest level in Australia so close to home. My family always loved watching me and Dad would take days off work while I was at college to watch podcasts of our games, but they missed seeing me play live.

“Now they are basically at every game here and have been since I came to Bendigo.”

Gabe’s family – including parents Karen and Barry, sisters Genevieve and Madelaine, brother-in-law Brett, twin toddler nieces Ava and Isabel, and even her 89-year-old Great Auntie Jean – are her biggest fans.

“The twins are very cute. They sit in the stands and watch and cheer me. I often get videos and voice messages from them, singing their Go Gubba Go! song. They love it.”

But the girls share their adoration with a vocal Bendigo crowd that goes up a notch when the name “Ga-abe Rich-ards” rings out over the loud speakers after a basket is sunk.

While she credits her junior coach Hockley with teaching her all about the game of basketball, Gabe says sister Genevieve is responsible for her fierce competitive edge.

“She is two years older than me and was my idol growing up,” Gabe says. “I wanted to be as good as her and our battles in the front yard playing round the world or one-on-one were pretty epic and usually ended in tears, or one locking the other out of the house.”

Her work ethic on and off the court also comes back to her family.

“I have worked full time through my entire basketball career.

“It was one of mum’s requirements when I came back home that I either studied or worked.

“It is a bit unusual and I think of all the girls in the actual Opals team this year, I was probably the only one working full time.”

She says she could not have achieved so much – including SEABL stints at Knox and the Lady Braves in the off-season - without the support of her employers.

Gabe is not sure exactly why she has blossomed so late in her basketball career, but she’s certainly enjoying the ride.

“My style of game hasn’t really changed,” she muses. “I worked on my fitness a lot three years ago and lost a fair bit of weight and that has transferred onto the court.

“I’m still playing the same way I always did, I can just do it a bit better since I’m the fittest I have ever been.”

Still, she could do well to invest in a commercial ice block factory, such is her love of ice baths and her need to clad various limbs in frozen packs week after week.

“I certainly need a lot of it these days… I am banged up and sore after games and sport some pretty awesome bruises at work. My test of a Monday morning for how I have pulled up is how well I can walk up the stairs at work!”

Gabe has signed on to stay with Spirit until the end of next season. Heading into her fourth decade, that’s as far ahead as she’s prepared to look right now in terms of WNBL.

Just before we end our chat, she reveals she plans to take a break from basketball in the 2015 off-season and return to playing local netball instead of SEABL.

“I’m looking for a team… and haven’t committed to any club just yet,” the former Mount Pleasant premiership netballer teases.

For coaches seeking a tall, talented goaler for 2015, that’s more cause for celebration.