Preparations for the 2006 Commonwealth Games were heating up and there were still concerns about my shins, but I was playing. I was named not only in the Opal line-up but also as joint captain with ‘Harley’, Jenny Whittle. Captaining the national team was wonderful, I felt really honoured—the Australian team was such a huge part of my career and my life, it had always been very important to me. I’d been with the Opals nine years, and along with Harley was probably the most experienced player on the team, and to co-captain with her was fantastic.
We played the first game against India and won by 100 points, 146–46. We were ranked number two in the world, India number 41, and we had both size and experience over them. It felt good to get a decent run up and down the court, playing 20 minutes of the game and downing 41 points.
We followed with wins against Mozambique, England and Nigeria, and we were straight through to the gold medal match against the New Zealand Tall Ferns, in front of a huge crowd. Before our game we watched the bronze medal match between England and Nigeria, with England taking the bronze 78–75. The Tall Ferns were a very physical team, but in the grand final we pulled ahead on points and won gold for Australia 77–39. That victory felt better than winning a WNBL or WNBA championship or any MVP award—we’d won gold in our own country. I couldn’t see the chance of playing for gold again in Australia. At the end of the game I was handed an Australian flag, and the whole team jumped and danced around the arena. It felt very special.
The Commonwealth Games women’s basketball final took place on 23 March, two days before the Games finished, but I missed the closing ceremony. Less than 24 hours after our gold medal win, I was back home in Albury, playing basketball in the stadium I’d grown up in, as a guest player for the first game of the newly formed Lady Bandits. Dad had played in the men’s team, the Bandits, which had started the year after I was born, and I’d grown up watching them play, but the Lady Bandits had been formed just six months earlier, in 2005, and were due to play their first game in the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL). Dad had played a really big part in getting a women’s team up and running in Albury, he was president of the men’s Albury SEABL team at the time, and I’d been asked to play a one-off game. Ray Tomlinson, my old coach from the junior team, had agreed to coach the Lady Bandits, and there was an incredible buzz in Albury and at the sports stadium that night. I’d been given a special light-blue number 15 jersey to wear, and whenever I played in that stadium over the years, I felt so much support and pride. That day all the people I’d grown up with, played with, my Albury friends and family, were there to support me and the new team.
Less than two weeks after the Commonwealth Games, we were hosting the Opals’ World Challenge, with games between the Opals, the US, China and Chinese Taipei. We won in Cairns against China, but I didn’t play as I was ill with a virus. After every big tournament I tended to come down with a flu—I got sick when I stopped, it was just one of those things. I only played part of the game against Chinese Taipei, which we also won, but I wanted to be at full strength to play against the US. My Seattle coach Anne Donovan was coaching the US team, and we lost that first game against them in Cairns by 20 points, 83–63. Our next match would be in Canberra, and after winning gold in our own country just weeks before, we beat the US for the first time in an official international tournament, 76–65, at the AIS arena. It was always special beating the US, because it didn’t happen very often, let alone in front of a home crowd. I don’t think losing meant much to them, but we were elated, and to achieve the win in Canberra was the best. It was a great ending to the Opals’ World Challenge, a huge match for the girls, for me, for Canberra, for Australia. We’d done it. We’d beaten the US.
Looking back, it was the perfect way to thank all the Capitals fans and the people who’d supported me in Canberra. I needed to say thanks, because I was leaving the WNBL. I’d signed another playing contract with Seattle, but also a contract in South Korea. I’d play the WNBA for the Storm from May until August, then go to the world championships in September with the Opals, and then play in South Korea each December for the next three years.
I arrived back in Seattle and began the 2006 WNBA season. Our third match was against Phoenix, where I scored a career-high 35 points and nine rebounds—I was back playing my best. But as we played the regular season, my left shin started giving me trouble again. I kept playing, using medication to get through, eventually having to sit out a game towards the end of the season. I made the All-Star team for the fifth time, and on the tenth anniversary of the WNBA was named in the All-Decade team, together with Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Sue Bird. I was once again the youngest, and the only foreigner. We were honoured in the middle of our last All-Star game against the Eastern Conference team at Madison Square Garden in New York, but the pain was like a knife going through my left shin whenever I ran, and I had to sit out the second half of the game, and the two last games of the season.
Seattle made the playoffs and were pitted against Los Angeles for the Western Conference semi-finals, but the Storm were knocked out, by two games to one. I stayed in Seattle and rehabbed my shin, and met up with our Opals girls at Raleigh–Durham, North Carolina, for preparation games against the US. The 15th FIBA World Championship was held in Brazil, and I only had a month to rehab my shin fractures, again restricting my training to the pool and an exercise bike. I had to get better, I wasn’t ready to leave the sport yet, and after taking two bronze medals at the 1998 and 2002 world championships, I wanted another medal for my country.
That world championship in Brazil was huge. We won against every team in our group—Canada, Senegal, Spain, Brazil and Argentina—before winning the quarterfinal against France 79–66. We were matched up against Brazil for the semi to earn a place in the gold medal game, and were in the crowd watching the other decider for the gold medal between the US and Russia. We’d been trying to get ourselves psyched-up for this inevitable game against the US, expecting the same old battle if we made it through.
At half-time Russia were up, and I remember thinking, ‘Yeah, this won’t last’. It came to three-quarter time, Russia were still up and we were actually saying to each other, ‘This won’t last’. And then, at the end of the fourth quarter, Russia had won. We were stunned. We were going into a gold medal game without having to take on the US, for the first time ever. It was amazing, Russia had beaten them. When we met Brazil in the semi there was just this hyped feeling in the Opals as we played, and when we took that match 66–57 we felt like we’d won the championship before we’d even had the final game.
We went back to the motel and I called a team meeting, the Opals needed to go out and win this gold medal. All of the girls came back to the room I was sharing with Tully. We had a chat about it, how we were going to cope with the pre-game excitement, how not having to play the US was affecting us—we were all completely blown away.
In that final match, Russia took an early 9–2 lead, but we went on a 17–5 run to finish the first quarter and established a lead they never came close to, eventually winning the match 91–74. We had won the FIBA World Championship, the Opals had won gold at a world championship for the first time.
Harley retired after the 2006 world championship. She’d actually retired after the 2002 world championship, but Tom convinced her to come back following the Athens Olympics. Harley’s amazing, she’s a great player and a great person. She’d known me from the time I’d joined the Opals as a teenager. I’d been an aggressive young thing, and I think being just a kid and not physically strong enough to battle against older players like Harley, there’d been some elbows thrown out between us—I know I annoyed the hell out of her, but she’s such a good person, and great fun.
It had been an incredible 2006, topped off by my induction into the AIS Hall of Fame. That was another big thing for me, because the AIS had been such a huge part of my development. The AIS is always going to have a special place in my heart, not only for my years there but also because of their medical team, physios and conditioning coaches who helped me through my numerous injuries, post my time at the institute. It’s the home of sport in Australia, the home of basketball, and I have great friendships that were developed there. That induction meant a lot to me.