Canberra Capitals players say they are "emotionally and mentally exhausted" after the WNBL failed to secure a last-minute venue due to bad planning around the FIBA window, forcing the Southside Flyers to forfeit.
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A delayed flight home from the FIBA Women's World Cup qualifiers in Serbia for three Southside Flyers players proved the unravelling, after player unavailability and scheduling conflicts at the National Convention Centre forced last year's league winners into an embarrassing forfeit.
Canberra's head coach Paul Gorris said the WNBL should look at adapting the season to fit the nine day FIBA window to prevent this from happening in future.
"We knew going into this season that obviously teams were going to have 24-48 hours with whoever came back from Serbia," he said.
"So maybe it has to look at a two week break in the season to give everyone enough time to get back, have enough practice and not have jet lag, or put people at risk of injury.
"We've had a few games cancelled, not forfeited. I really don't remember any at all, not in my time in the WNBA at least in six years, but we live in different times now obviously with COVID ... so I guess there are no surprises anymore."
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Opals Maddi Rocci, Kristy Wallace and Sara Blicavs were forced to delay their flights home due to PCR test unavailability at the airport, leaving less than a 24 hour turnaround to tip off against the Capitals.
This left Southside without three of their star players, paired with injuries and workload issues, to force the club to pull the pin and suffer a 20-0 forfeit defeat.
Postponing the fixture was an option, as the Capitals have a week break between their next two fixtures, but the NCCC was not available.
"We were disappointed, we feel for them ... and disappointing that we don't get to play in front of our own fans," Gorris said.
"We want to play the game, and we want to win the right way or lose the right say. So we did try and get an alternative venue here at the NCCC for next week ... but there was no availability, the facility was totally booked out."
The Capitals have had four fixtures postponed in the new year, only playing six fixtures across the last month and a half.
Capitals forward Mikaela Ruef said Thursday's game cancellation was just another thing the players had to roll with this season, but no one wanted to win via a forfeit.
"At this point in the season everyone's getting really frustrated, and I think, emotionally and mentally exhausted about it," she said.
"I know the fans are frustrated, like having our games cancelled all the time, and I mean imagine how us as players feel ... it's just a bit ridiculous.
"We're definitely at the point where we're all sick of it."
Similar to the need to address the FIBA window logistics raised by the forfeit, Ruef said given COVID had been around for more than two years, the league should be prepared with better scheduling.
"We think things could have been done better to prepare for a situation like this, and I think we're concerned as a playing group that the season's going this way," she said.
"Because a lot of us had concerns beforehand that were just kind of ignored and pushed to the side and now we're in this situation. It's kind of like 'I told you so' type of thing. It's not just our team, it's every single team, every single player in the league is feeling that emotional and mental drain, and ... I think personally I feel a bit let down."