Logan Thunder star Mikaela Ruef says her undefeated side could win the entire NBL1 national competition this season.
Last season Ruef’s Thunder won the NBL1 North competition. On the Coles Express NBL1 Show this week she said that this season’s team is just as good and wants to go on and win the Coles Express NBL1 National Final this season.
“We won it all last year, so we are hoping to repeat again this year,” she said.
“There’s a little bit of pressure, we are a slightly different team from last year … we’re different and we know we’re different, we try not to compare to last year but we try to take one game at a time. We do a really good job of focusing on each game and taking it as it comes.”
Ruef said one of their biggest rivals this season is the Southern District Spartans, who are second on the ladder and were the runners-up in last season’s NBL1 North grand final. She also highlighted the Cairns Marlins led by Cayla George and the Townsville Flames as two of the other team’s Logan has to watch out for.
Logan Thunder star Mikaela Ruef says the #NBL1North is better than the #NBL1South ?
— NBL1 (@NBL1) June 15, 2022
Watch the full interview on the Coles Express NBL1 Show here: https://t.co/tDQAD63ejB ? pic.twitter.com/vjPbML7K3J
After pandemic-related complications, the NBL1 is now a fully national competition and Ruef says there is a “massive Victoria bias” when it comes to who people say are the best teams in the NBL1.
“No offence to you guys [co-hosts Megan Hustwaite and Peter Hooley], but there is a massive Victoria bias going on in basketball,” she said.
“Last year we could have won the entire national competition, we had a really tough team with six WNBL talents on our team … If we could have had a chance to play in the national competition I really think we could have won it.
“We think the [NBL1] North is as good as any other league in the competition, we would really love the chance to repeat and then go down and win the national competition. I think we could, the North Teams are better than the South ones.”
Watch the full interview on the NBL1 Show here.
