Keely Froling has found a home for herself in Tasmania for some time and couldn’t be more excited to be part of the leadership group with the Jewels, but she's the ultimate competitor and is expecting to win right away in the WNBL.
A lot of people might be just happy for the state of Tasmania to finally have a team in the WNBL and be excited for the Jewels to be about to represent them on the national stage starting this coming Thursday night against Geelong Venom at MyState Bank Arena.
But not Froling and that's no surprise if you know anything about what a remarkable competitive drive she has, but so does twin sister Alicia, brothers Harry and Sam, and indeed parents Shane and Jenny.
Having now played in Tasmania in the north of the state with the Launceston Tornadoes which has now transformed to the Northern Force since 2021, it has become a home for Froling so it was a natural for her to want to be part of the Jewels.
Not only that, she was the first player signed to a full roster contract for the newest WNBL team, but she's not just happy for them to be out there and making up the numbers as they find the feet in the league.
She wants to be part of a winning team and with a squad featuring the likes of Steph Reid, Darcee Garbin, Brooke Basham, Katie Deeble, Mia Jacobs, Taylor Mole, Madina Okot, Andie Smith, Ella Tofaeono, and import Gianna Kneepkens, she is confident of that happening.
"We want to win, that's how it is, and that's the team that's been recruited," Froling said.
"Obviously there's a lot of steps to go to get there and it's easy to say that, and we'll have challenges, but hopefully we're really successful in this first year and we can build on it."
Froling has been a tremendous servant playing in the NBL1 South at the Tornadoes and the Force so is no stranger to living in Tasmania, but until now it wasn’t possible to do it year-round without a WNBL team in the state.
That's now changed and she didn't take long to decide to be on board with the Jewels to continue her WNBL career that has seen her have previous stints with the Townsville Fire, Canberra Capitals, Sydney Flames, Melbourne Boomers and Geelong Venom.
"I'm just so excited about getting to play here in Tasmania," Froling said.
"I've been here for a long time now and have seen how passionate the fans are and the community is, and to finally have a women's team at this level is what I'm really excited for to show Tasmania what we can do."
Ahead of the WNBL season opener now this coming Thursday night, the Jewels have their leadership group locked away. It's no surprise that Froling is part of that along with Reid and with Garbin as the captain.
Froling couldn’t be happier with that three-woman leadership group and for everything that they provide, and to have Garbin locked in as the captain as she continues her inspirational return from becoming a mother for the first time last December.
"I think we've done a lot of work prior to this locking in the leadership group and it kinda feels like it's been coming for a while, but it's nice to get that established and now we can build on those roles and go from there," Froling said.
"I think obviously everyone brings different leadership aspects to this team and Darce will be great in that role.
"We first started playing together at the AIS so it was a fair while ago now and have done junior Australian teams together, and we haven’t played a WNBL season together.
"But have had lots of rep stuff and we've been good friends so it's nice to have that to call on as we go into this season."
Froling now couldn’t be happier as well with the pre-season preparations the Jewels have had leading into their first season and rather than having some red flags of concerns, she's seen plenty of green flags.
"There's been a lot of green flags, which is good, but I think the main thing that's impressed me is how hard everyone has worked," Froling said.
"I think that speaks to the character of the people that have been recruited, but it doesn’t matter if they're DP's, rostered players or whatever, everyone has come in ready to go from the beginning.
"I've been part of many teams and pre-seasons now, and I think this preparation has been a really high level for us to build on which isn’t always the case. I have been really impressed."
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