Jonassen keen to stay as rivals circle Heat stars

World Cup winner Jess Jonassen says "there's no doubt in my mind" that she wants to stay at Brisbane Heat as the two-time Rebel WBBL champions look to re-sign their star players ahead of their tilt at a third straight title.

The Heat have a fight on their hands to keep their champion team together, with Australia allrounder Delissa Kimmince the only player currently on contract for the upcoming season.

Star opener Beth Mooney revealed earlier this month she has received "a few really good offers" to leave Brisbane and given the travel restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, home-grown stars like Mooney and Jonassen will be in high demand if international players aren't available to play this season.

Jonassen says the playing group are desperate to stay together and the allrounder is hoping to sign a new deal shortly.

"There's no doubt in my mind where I want to be playing," Jonassen said on Friday. "Queensland and Brisbane is home for me and hopefully I can keep it that way.

"Given the amount of people off contract for us, there was discussion leading into the end of last season about wanting to keep quite a few of that core group together.

"With this COVID-19 stuff going on, it's obviously thrown a bit of a spanner in the works given you don't really know what your international set-up might look like.

"In terms of our domestic group, we've got a really strong core group there and hopefully they can stick with the Heat and hopefully go all the way and potentially do a three-peat.

"It's definitely not going to be easy (to win a third title), whatever the team looks like. But I'm hopeful that we'll keep a really good squad together and if we have to bring new people in, I'm sure they'll be able to fit in with what we're trying to create at the Heat."

World Cup winners like Mooney and Jonassen will undoubtedly be high on the Heat's priority list when the contracting window opens, as will the likes of Laura and Grace Harris and Sammy-Jo Johnson, who have been a key part of their title wins in 2018-19 and 2019-20.

The Heat will also need a new captain following the retirement of Kirby Short, who leaves big shoes to fill after her leadership was hailed as a key factor in the team's success.

While signing a new Big Bash deal is on Jonassen's radar during the off-season, she's also had to recalibrate her plans to get married after the global pandemic forced the postponement of her wedding to fiancee Sarah Gooderham.

The pair were meant to get married today but a ban on large gatherings of people has put paid to that, while their honeymoon to Hawaii has also been called off for now.

"It's pretty sad, but I've had a few friends pop around at various times today and had a few gifts from them," Jonassen said. "So that was nice to know that people were thinking of us.

"We had planned and put so much effort into having the day that we wanted, that we were going to make sure that we could still have that day. It will just be further down the track than we initially planned for."