WBBL Preview: 'Canes ready to be 'brave' to rise up ladder

WBBL|09 result: Sixth (6 wins, 7 losses, 1 no result)

WBBL|10 Squad: Nicola Carey, Zoe Cooke, Heather Graham, Ruth Johnston, Lizelle Lee (South Africa), Hayley Silver-Holmes, Tabatha Saville, Amy Smith, Lauren Smith, Molly Strano, Rachel Trenaman, Chloe Tryon (South Africa), Elyse Villani, Callie Wilson, Danni Wyatt-Hodge (England). Replacement players: Suzie Bates (New Zealand)

Ins: Lauren Smith (Thunder), Chloe Tryon (Sixers), Danni Wyatt-Hodge (Scorchers), Callie Wilson, Suzie Bates (Sixers), Zoe Cooke

Outs: Naomi Stalenberg (Renegades), Maisy Gibson (Stars), Shabnim Ismail (Thunder), Bryony Smith, Emma Manix-Geeves, Julia Cavanough 

Possible best XI: Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Lizelle Lee (wk), Elyse Villani (c), Heather Graham, Nicola Carey, Chloe Tryon, Ruth Johnston, Lauren Smith, Molly Strano, Amy Smith, Hayley Silver-Holmes

Player availability: The Hurricanes will lose both Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Chloe Tryon to the international series between England and South Africa in mid-November. But the island state side has already signed New Zealand international Suzie Bates to replace Wyatt-Hodge. Local player Rachel Trenaman is unavailable this season due to a knee injury but the Hurricanes are hopeful Amy Smith will have more game time this campaign after injury setbacks.

Inside word with Hurricanes coach Jude Coleman

After missing out on finals in WBBL|09 Coleman said the focus for her side was to 'back themselves in' and take on the game more to give them more chances to win this season.

The Hurricanes' mixed record in the WBBL comes despite Tasmania's dominance in the WNCL where the state has won the last three titles with Hurricanes players Nicola Carey, Elyse Villani, Molly Strano, Heather Graham, Lizelle Lee, Hayley Silver-Holmes and Lauren Smith featuring in the most recent win. 

Coleman said it was always a "step up" when international players come into a competition but added she wanted her players to back their individual style and hopefully the results would come. 

"I think we've fallen into that trap a little bit in the past and have been a little bit confused as to the type of players that we want to be. We've just really sold the message this year to just play your brand of cricket and we'll find a role in the team that suits that," she said.

"Then just go out there and enjoy it and have fun. Will that work? You never know. It's a quality competition so we'll just be trying our best and looking to be in the contest whenever we can and fight as hard as we can."

While that strong core of players from the Tasmanian championship team remains at the club, the side will be bolstered by the inclusions of top-order batter Danni Wyatt-Hodge and allrounder Chloe Tryon who they picked up at the draft.

Pick one strategy: "We probably knew how it was going to play out with respect to who would retain their players. We were hopeful that the Sixers wouldn't have enough money for Sophie Ecclestone but it didn't work out that way. It was pretty clear the teams who would retain the players that we went for. So the strategy behind that was more about pick number nine and trying to eliminate as many teams as possible in that first round so that we would have more people to choose from with our second pick."

Picking Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Chloe Tryon: "We were stoked to get Danni. We knew that obviously the Scorchers could retain her, but we were really hopeful that they'd retain Amy Jones instead. We're really excited to have Danni on board with us. She's an explosive top-order batter. You know she's a lighter frame, but she can hit the ball hard and she scores freely. We really like that style of batting so we're so excited to have her with us and obviously she's an absolute gun in the field as well so she complements our batting line-up nicely.

"We felt like we needed a little bit more hitting power in our middle-order. It's probably something we haven't had, we've got some good strikers, but they probably haven't come off for us in the past. We were keen to get some hitting power in that middle order but we were also looking for a spin option who could bowl in all three phases and take the ball away from the right-hander. We obviously lost Maisy Gibson to the Stars and whilst we're hopeful that Amy Smith will be right for the WBBL we felt like we needed a little bit of cover there. It was hard for us to let Shabs (Shabnim Ismail) go because she's a match winner."

Signing Lizelle Lee as their international pre-selection signing: "We were hopeful that Lizelle would be a local player this season because she's obviously moved her family over to Hobart and has lived here for two-and-a-bit years now. We were hopeful that she'd become a local player, but she hasn't quite, the timeline didn't really work out. We always want to keep players who have bought into our program in our line-up. We went with Lizelle and it was pretty easy decision for us."

Translating WNCL dominance into WBBL success: "It's a tough question. It's a step up when you've got international players available. What we're hoping for from our players this season is to just back themselves and play a brand of cricket that suits them as individuals and not try and be anything different to who they are. I think we've fallen into that trap a little bit in the past and have been a little bit confused as to the type of players that we want to be. We've just really sold the message this year to just play your brand of cricket and we'll find a role in the team that suits that. Then just go out there and enjoy it and have fun. Will that work? You never know. It's a quality competition so we'll just be trying our best and looking to be in the contest whenever we can and fight as hard as we can."

Young players to watch: "They'll love the fact that I've said young, but she's relatively new back to the scene. Tabatha Saville is back on our list and she played way back at the start of WBBL. She was on the list last year, but she'll be in and around. I think I'm excited to see how she goes without putting too much pressure on her. We've signed Callie Wilson, who's a young player who's been in the Tigers set up for the last few years and she's a young quick who we certainly feel like can play a role if we need a quick."

Key match-ups in WBBL|10: "Pretty much all of them are important at the moment. I think the teams have done a great job with their lists. There's some really strong lists out there and I don't know that you can single out any because there are so many good teams in the league this year. I think we probably look at the teams that we have to play twice. We've got the defending two-time champs in the Adelaide Strikers, we've got to play them twice. We've got to play the Perth Scorches twice who have two world-class players like Sophie Devine and Beth Mooney. So anytime you've got to play those teams twice, you know it's going to be a tough season but we're looking forward to it, those two games are probably the key ones where we want to win."

Improving in WBBL|10: "We didn't win enough of the big moments in games last year. We were in and around all the time. We had a number of games that we only just lost and that's where we've been the last few years. We're always in the contest and that's the kind of team that we are but we probably don't win those big moments in games. That's our focus for this year is to win more of those moments. To do that you've got to be brave and be willing to lose them which sounds crazy but that's our focus. I think that's how we will turn it around this season."

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