Australian Opals coach Sandy Brondello lands in north Queensland from the USA this week, and plans to spend December running her eye over the WNBL after a two-week quarantine.
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High on her radar will be Capitals boom youngster Jade Melbourne who steered the Capitals to a 67-50 win over Melbourne in just her fourth league game on Wednesday night.
A wide-open three with two minutes left on the clock took her tally to a whopping 20 points for the night, icing the cake on a statement win for the two-time defending champions.
Capitals coach Paul Goriss believes Melbourne is the most exciting junior he's ever coached, and declared the 18-year-old a future Opal upon announcing her signing earlier this month.
That prophecy might be closer to coming true than even he would've thought with Brondello eager to cast a wide net before selecting her postponed Tokyo 2021 Olympics squad.
In Melbourne she has a speedy guard capable of taking it to the rim with both hands, and equally adept at draining baskets from three-point territory.
When she's not dribbling craftily through traffic, she's drawing defenders then flicking the ball out to an open teammate, pirouetting to the ring and tossing up a reverse layup. She doesn't mind the hard stuff on defence either.
"She's just got such a great talent, she does everything for the team no matter if it's the offensive or defensive end, it's great to have her on our team and we love everything that she does for us," Capitals guard Maddi Rocci said.
"We've locked in all week about our defensive pressure, we know that Melbourne's obviously a great side, they always come out with that intensity so we just had to match that at the defensive end."
Melbourne's class helped the Capitals race to a 14-point quarter-time lead and the Boomers were never able to bridge the gap.
Their shooting woes continued and they've now gone 0-36 from long range in their last two games.