TEAM chemistry is such an important ingredient for any sporting organisation.
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The Bendigo Spirit's championship win and the winning run this year has been built on more than just talent.
Our relationship as a group off the court is just as important.
We spend that much time together over the WNBL season that we basically become a family.
When we're on the road travelling that bond is even more important.
Take last week for example.
The girls left Bendigo on a bus late Thursday afternoon.
Best part of two hours later arrived at Tullamarine. We then had a one hour flight to Canberra before we boarded another bus to get to our motel.
Friday morning we were up early for breakfast, then it was off to training.
After our shootaround it was back to the motel for lunch and then we had a couple of hours to do what we wanted.
Then it was team meeting time, get organised for the game and a bus trip to the AIS Arena.
The game against Canberra started at 7pm. After the game it was straight back to the motel for ice baths and recovery.
We grabbed a quick dinner and then it was off to bed.
We had to be up at 6.30am Saturday morning to get to the airport for flight back to Melbourne.
Then it was back o the bus for two hour trip back to Bendigo.
We were back in Bendigo at lunch time and then we had to play the Melbourne Boomers seven hours later.
If the team chemistry is not right, road trips like that can become a nightmare.
We're very lucky that we have a great group of girls.
Sara Blicavs (pictured), Chelsea Aubry and Gabe Richards are the characters of the squad.
Sara and Chesea keep us entertained with their humour.
Gabe loves to be the quiz master on the plane.
Every flight we take she takes the team, and members of the public, through some quiz questions.
It's a lot of fun and it relaxes the group.
When you're on the road a lot you need to find ways to relax and take your mind off basketball.
If you think about basketball too much you'll play the game in your mind before you even arrive at the stadium.
When we're on the plane I always have my iPad loaded up with TV shows I need to catch up on.
At the moment I'm all over Revenge, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy and my personal favourite at the moment, Scandal.
I'm also hanging out for series two of Suits - it's a legal show and it's very, very good.
Watching those shows keeps my mind off basketball.
It's a big help, especially when we have back-to-back games likes we did last weekend.
The girls did such a great job to back-up from Friday's win and defeat the Boomers in Bendigo on Saturday.
It was great to see so many people at the game supporting us.
Keep it coming because we love playing in front of our home fans.
If the team chemistry is not right, road trips like that can become a nightmare