Here's a scary thought for the Bendigo Braves rivals in the NBL1 South women's competition - last year's undefeated conference and national champions just got better.
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Ahead of Wednesday night's season-opener against old foe the Ballarat Miners, the Braves have officially announced the signing of Bendigo Spirit WNBL star Ally Wilson.
The Australian 3x3 team member adds another classy playmaker and defender to a Braves' roster that only had one departure after last year's stunning season - multi-sport athlete Milly Wicks, who has joined the Bendigo strikers in the Victorian Netball League.
Braves championship coach Mark Alabakov said Wilson's signing was a coup for the club.
"It's exciting for the club and the program to have another high calibre player that wants to come and play here,'' Alabakov said.
"Ally wants to continue to get better and to stay sharp for Gangarrus duty.
"Ally is at the peak of her powers and she has willingly come here to continue to improve her game.
"The program is as good as the people you have in it and it's a rising tide lifts all boats situation.
"That makes me proud of the work we've done to build a program where these emerging Australian players want to come to play.
"Concurrently, you can take emerging local talent and Braves juniors and move them up the food chain at the same time. Those two things are often competing goals, but we've been able to strike a healthy balance with it over five years."
Wilson, who led Norwood to the NBL1 Central title last year, averaged 12 points and five assists per game with the Spirit in the recently completed WNBL season.
FAMILIAR FACES A BONUS FOR WILSON
She'll join a formidable backcourt led by fan favourite Kelly Wilson and Opals squad member Amy Atwell.
"The good thing is that Ally has been in the trenches with a number of our players,'' Alabakov said.
"She's played with Kelly (Wilson), Meg (McKay) and Cass (McLean) with the Spirit in recent years and Amy (Atwell) is her partner.
"Ally spent a lot of time between Bendigo and Adelaide last year and I did workouts with her and Amy for probably the last six weeks of the season.
"She watched some of our games and she's very aware of what we do and the emerging young players we have in the program."
Wednesday night's season-opener in Ballarat has a strong Bendigo flavour.
The Miners are coached by Spirit coach Kennedy Kereama and Spirit duo Mehryn Kraker and Abbey Wehrung will be two of Ballarat's best players.
"Ballarat has made wholesale changes, so they'll be very different to what we saw last season,'' Alabakov said.
"Without being dismissive because there's certainly some talented players on their roster, the early stages of the season are about righting your own ship rather than focusing too much on what other teams are doing.
"It will be about how we play and how fast we can get back to the way we played at the business end of last year."
The Braves first home game of the season is against Waverley this Saturday night.
