Sydney Uni Flames livewire Anneli Maley is making defence cool.
The 22-year-old has the WNBL abuzz with her hustle, energy, crashing of boards and bashing of bodies.
She is racking up rebounds, averaging a league-high 11.4 per game and hauling in a remarkable 20 against Perth Lynx in round three.
The Victorian product and Eltham Wildcats junior arrived at Sydney ready to grasp an opportunity with both hands, and a spot in the starting five, after packing a punch off the bench last season with grand final runner-up Southside Flyers.
Her defensive philosophy is pretty simple.
“It makes me feel good, it’s like a rush when I jump through a bunch of people and grab it. Maybe it’s the same feeling people get when they hit threes.
“In my head, if I go 10 times to the offensive boards and I get boxed out nine times, nobody’s going to box me out that last time. People are going to forget eventually and everyone else will get too tired to keep hitting me if I keep going.
“When you watch me play, I usually get hit seven times before I even get in there and then there’s one time someone forgets to box me out and I get a rebound, so it’s like an outworking thing.”
Maley surprised by the hype around her defence
Maley has been a defensive player for as long as she can remember.
“I learned how to jump from playing volleyball in year 7 and then I guess I just translated it into basketball,” she said.
“I grew up watching Dennis Rodman and more recently I’ve watched in this past WNBA season [Connecticut Sun forward] Alyssa Thomas and honestly, I’d give her more credit than Dennis Rodman, and that’s a big statement.
“I really do love the way she reads the flight of the ball and throws her body around and is so successful as a hustle player, and that’s what I model my game on more now.”
The athletic forward with the spring in her step is surprised by the current fanfare around her defensive game this season.
“It’s weird because for as long as I can remember no-one really appreciates the rebounding side of basketball. It’s always like ‘this player scored 30 or she had 10 steals’. A double-double is great but I’ve never seen or been appreciated this much for my rebounding,” she said.
“People have always said it’s what I do, but it’s never been recognised this much.
“I didn’t know I’d get hype for having 20 rebounds when I only scored 5 points.”
Maley doesn’t need the ball to ‘hurt’ opponents
Emily McInerny, who was part of the Australian Opals team that claimed world championship and Commonwealth Games gold medals in 2006, won the Robyn Maher defensive player of the year award an incredible nine times during her 309-game WNBL career.
Her perspective on defence hasn’t changed, but she believes the game, like its athletes, has evolved.
“I honestly don’t think defence is regarded any differently [now]. It’s still what coaches talk about and you can see it’s a focus for the players,” McInerny said.
“What has changed, I think, is overall the game has sped up with the shot clock duration (24 or 14 seconds) and with all players being so fast and athletic I see more one-on-one contests across the whole court.
“I think in my early days, there were shooters, distributors and role players and team defence strategy was put in place to minimise the threats. Today, everyone is a shooter/distributor so everyone has to lock down in defence.”
So, has McInerny witnessed Maley in full flight this season?
“Yes. And I’ve seen Anneli in previous years too,” she said.
“I really enjoy watching her play. Her energy, her second and third efforts and absolute intent to get the ball shows what a competitor she is. It’s impressive.
“And her opponents need to focus on boxing her out. If not, she’ll hurt them.”
Turning defence into offence
As the old basketball adage goes, offence stems from defence and that’s what Maley hopes will help elevate her game to the next level.
“I’m very grateful to be at Sydney and [coach] Katrina Hibbert really gave me an opportunity and then almost set the task for me,” she said.
“I feel like I was up for it and that gave me the confidence to step into that role.”
“I think the supporting pieces I have around me in Lauren Scherf and [co-captain] Lauren Mansfield helps ease me into the flow of the game. I don’t have to go in and force anything, I’m just able to do what I do and I do like to think other people feed off it.
“Obviously I would like to step into more of an offensive role because I know that I can, [but] I guess it’s just more a switch in mindset to contribute more offensively.”
Offence. Defence. It’s all a mindset.
Round four of the WNBL continues today with Bendigo facing Melbourne from 5:00pm AEDT on ABC TV.
Megan Hustwaite has covered the WNBL for the past 12 seasons and is a member of the ABC commentary team.
