With the revolving door at Parliament House spinning at a rate of knots, Keely Froling is one of few in Canberra taking on a leadership role and refusing to give it up.
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The Canberra Capitals young gun is determined to stand up in the absence of a host of WNBL superstars following a thrilling 65-64 win over Japan's Aisin AW Wings at Belconnen Basketball Stadium on Tuesday night.
While a win is always nice, Canberra's focus was on blooding the younger players on the roster as they brace for a baptism of fire to start the season.
Canberra will be missing the likes of Marianna Tolo and Kristy Wallace for their season opener on October 12 with injury clouds hovering over Leilani Mitchell and Kelsey Griffin.
It has left 22-year-old Froling to shoulder the load in the hope she can take her game to another level. When the superstars are back, she hopes she can reap the rewards.
"Obviously this is my third season now so I’ve tried to step up my game a bit and take a bit of a leadership role, but also be a bit more aggressive," Froling said.
"Some of the bigger players we have will draw a lot of attention [when they come back] so I’m hoping that will leave me a bit free and maybe I can get a few cheeky points here and there.
"We’re going to be really deep in all positions, I don’t think we lack anything. That’s exciting for the whole season, especially with a lot of double headers, we’re going to need people to play when you have to back up games.
"We want to start on the front foot, we don’t want to be chasing our tails. It’s a good opportunity for everyone to come in and get the ball rolling, and as we add those few pieces we’ll just get better and better."
The Capitals are slowly pulling together all the pieces of the puzzle with Griffin set to begin competitive practice next week following a significant hamstring tear in the hope she will be fit for round one.
Australian Opals point guard Mitchell is set to arrive in Canberra next week as she continues a rehabilitation program for plantar fasciitis pain which ruled her out of the World Cup.
Griffin and Tolo have taken on key leadership roles at training with coach Paul Goriss and Kia Nurse at the World Cup, but their injuries have left Kelly Wilson to lead the way on the court.
"It starts with us at training right now," Wilson said.
"We’ve got young and some inexperienced players, and for someone like me as a veteran of the league, it’s up to us to set the standard at training in terms of intensity and what we need to be doing, where we need to be at come the start of the season.
"Adding someone like Leilani to the group is pretty exciting for the rest of us. Not knowing where she’s at right now is obviously a bit up in the air, but just having her around will be great."
