Four games, four double-doubles: Inside Winter's hot streak

Written by Julia Montesano

Woodville’s Emily Winter has had a hot start to the 2021 NBL1 Central season.

In her first NBL1 season with the Warriors, the 20-year-old has recorded a double-double in each game.

In their Round 1 win over Norwood, Winter had 28 points and 14 rebounds, Round 2 saw her record 18 and 20, while Round 3’s numbers were 17 and 14.

Arguably, her best performance yet came in Round 4, recording 24 points and 22 boards against Sturt.

Winter credits her personal success to her work ethic, which is something she has always prided herself on.

“I do try to get to training early and do some of my own stuff,” Winter says.

“I don’t really know what the secret is to my success, but I think the secret to anything is just doing the little things well, so I think that’s normally why I get a higher rebound count.

“I just try to do the little things well and when I do, it ends up quite nicely.”

Winter’s basketball journey began in a small country town called Millicent, which is about 400km south-east of Adelaide, and a four-hour drive.

Growing up on her family farm in Coonawarra, she regularly made the journey to Millicent to pursue her sporting interests.

In country towns, Winter says the tradition is always to play either Australian Rules football or netball, so for her, basketball didn’t come into the equation at the beginning of her sporting journey.

But once she hit her local court with her sisters, she fell in love with the game and saw immediate results.

"I played for SA Country all through my juniors, U14s through to U18s,” Winter says.

“It was great to play with the 10 best players in the whole state and get to know people from everywhere, like Shyla Heal, who’s my age.

“Then in 2019, I was with the Pioneers in Mount Gambier so that’s another hour away from where I lived.

“I’m glad to have had familiarity over the years though, because Peter Seebohm (father of Shannon) has been my coach for the past decade.”

Now, Winter lives just three minutes from her training base in Woodville after moving to Adelaide about a month ago for work as an accountant.

After initially being nervous about playing for a new team in a new town, Winter has quickly become the talk of the town instead.

“I didn’t know anyone from Woodville, I just turned up,” she says.

“But all the girls are really nice, which has made coming into a new club a lot easier.

“I think we’ve gelled really well and really quickly together which is really helpful, and it will definitely get better as the season goes on.

“I’m very impressed with the standard of NBL1 Central and I think all the teams are pretty well even.

“All games could go either way.”

As far as the next step in her career, Winter says WNBL is definitely on her mind.

But testament to her work ethic and humility, the 20-year-old remains focused on the NBL1 Central season ahead with the 1-3 Warriors.

“If the opportunity to play WNBL comes, it would be nice for but for now, I’ve just got to keep working hard,” Winter says.

“I’ll keep training and we’ll see what happens.”

With her success so far in NBL1 Central, Winter has set a great example for young players living in the country who want to make a name for themselves.

Her best advice for those youngsters is to simply work hard to make it to the big time.

“You’ve just got to put in the work, and it’ll eventually pay off,” Winter says.

“Me and my sister used to go to the Penola Stadium all the time on rest days because we couldn’t make it to main training.

“Even if you’ve had a bad day, you’ve got to keep positive and move onto the next one.”