Former Opals coach Tom Maher believes Adelaide counterpart Peter Buckle should be the next holder of the national post after overseeing the Lightning's astonishing transformation into WNBL favourite.
Adelaide (18-3), clinched the minor premiership on the weekend with a 71-58 home win over second-placed Bulleen (15-6), which it will host in the major semi-final on February25.
Dandenong (13-8) consolidated third spot with a thumping 101-53 home win over West Coast (2-19).
With a 13-9 record looking like the mark to guarantee a top-five spot, Bendigo (11-10) probably blew its chance with a 72-70 home loss to Sydney (12-9) that dropped it two places to seventh and pushed the Flames into the five.
Sixth-placed Logan (11-9) still has a slim chance of making the finals following an 83-60 home win over the AIS (2-20), which also lost 90-77 to Canberra (9-12).
The recruitment of Buckle and some top-class talent, including Suzy Batkovic and Abby Bishop, who tallied 24 points and 14 boards against Bulleen, have helped Adelaide rebound from last season's disastrous 3-19 campaign.
Buckle is the assistant to current Opals coach Carrie Graf, whom he also served under for three of Canberra's WNBL title-winning teams and twice guided Townsville to the WNBL playoffs before joining Adelaide this season.
''They [Adelaide] have turned out better [than I thought] - the coach has just done brilliantly,'' Bulleen coach Maher said of Buckle.
''When Carrie Graf has done her time, I'm thinking to myself 'well, that [Buckle] is the next Australian coach'.''
The Lightning beat Bulleen despite Buckle deciding to rest star centre Batkovic, who returned against Bendigo last week after missing three games with a back complaint.
''After the Bendigo game, she pulled up pretty sore, so we just want to make sure heading into the finals she'll be 100per cent,'' Buckle said.
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