Georgia Gayle keeps her Molten Golden Ball in her spare bedroom, a reminder of her MVP heroics in last season’s Super League Basketball Women’s Play-Off final victory against Oaklands Wolves.
On that occasion, Gayle paced the winners with 19 points and five rebounds as the B.Braun Sheffield Hatters recovered from a 21-11 first quarter deficit, to claw the game back in their favour in the third quarter and go on to dethrone the Wolves, who had earlier beaten Sheffield back in March in the SLB Women’s Cup final.
“I can’t really describe it, to be honest. You saw from the videos. I was streaming, and I was crying,” Gayle reflects on the 83-73 win at the O2.
“To be honest, I didn’t think we were going to win by how we started the game, how I personally started the game. But then the momentum started to build, people started to step up; it was the perfect time for them to step up.
“That moment when we lifted the trophy, it was like a relief. We’d worked so hard. We had so many challenges, and it was just like the icing on the cake.”
And even when she leaves the house to go to training, the Play-Off trophy is there as the second glorious reminder. But, as memorable a win as that was for the Hatters’ star that day, her goals are much bigger this season.
“This year, we’re not settling for one trophy, I think we’ve got to aim to win all of them,” Gayle says. “Yes, it might be a bit of a stretch, but we’ve had a great preseason so far. We’ve got some really talented people on the team, and I’m really excited to see what they can do in the league.”
Those players include Marina Fernandez and Antoinette Lewis, who both enjoyed time with the Newcastle Eagles. Cheyenne Stubbs, Grace Graham, and Megan Mullings are three new faces joining the returning Shauna Harrison, Emma Gandini, and Nina Krisper.
A recipe for success and a team that could make Gayle’s ambitions of winning everything a bit less of a stretch and more of a possibility.
Gayle realises, though, that for Hatters to enjoy that level of success, then injuries will have to be kept to a minimum. It hampered the Sheffield side last season, which made their Play-Off victory against the Championship and Cup-winning Wolves team all the more memorable.
It’s a trademark of the Hatters. Fighting through adversity and competing with pride. But Gayle wants to translate that to more silverware.
“Fingers crossed this season we don’t have any injuries, any issues, and that we continue with the same team to the end of the year,” she said.
“I think that’s why Oaklands was so strong last year, too, because they had so many people – they basically kept the same team the whole year. So hopefully, for us, we can keep that bond that we’ve built already, and it’ll carry us all the way through.”
The Hatters begin their season with a trip to the Newcastle Eagles on Sunday, 21 September at 4:30pm.