Townsville coach Shannon Seebohm has labelled the Southside Flyers the most talented team in the WNBL as his side head into the grand final series on a club-record 14-game winning streak.
Seebohm's Fire swept Perth 2-0 in their semi-finals series and established home court advantage for the finals, starting Saturday, after coming top in the regular-season standings.
They will have a significant rest advantage after the Flyers overcame crosstown rivals Melbourne by one point in a thrilling game three on Wednesday to progress to their second WNBL finals series in three seasons.
The last time Townsville and Southside met in the WNBL finals was a one-off game in 2020, the Flyers prevailing 99-82.
Seebohm acknowledged his side have momentum and rest on their side, but is wary of a team with firepower all over the court.
"They're extremely talented - probably the most talented team in the competition," the Fire coach told a packed media scrum on Friday.
"It's great we're getting an opportunity to go up against the best and we feel good about our chances.
"The amount of offensive firepower they've got ... probably seven or eight players that have scored 25-plus points in a WNBL game before and if you look across their roster, everyone has won a championship.
"They've got that championship experience, which is one thing we don't have but the great thing for us is we've got the hunger to get that so we're going to come out and play extremely hard in this series."
Townsville had Southside's number in season 2023, beating them in all three of their contests.
The closest result was a 13-point win in December and Flyers coach Cheryl Chambers said their work without the ball needs to improve.
"We haven't defended them particularly well in the past," she said.
"Games they've been challenged in, people have kept them to lower scores."
For Flyers forward Sara Blicavs, the grand finals series shapes as the cherry on top after a successful 12 months.
Blicavs is a two-time WNBL champion (2014, 2020) and won bronze with Australia at the 2022 FIBA World Cup.
"Winning a championship will add to my little hype circle that I'm in at the moment," she quipped.
"It would be great but we've got our work cut out for us and we've got to take it game by game."
