Perth Lynx captain Anneli Maley has full faith WNBL free agents will want to join club despite ownership delay

Perth Lynx captain Anneli Maley is confident the club will have no trouble attracting star players for next season despite the delay in finding a new owner. WNBL free agency opens on June 10, leaving the Lynx with less than two weeks to finalise the ownership change and sell a message to players throughout the country. Maley is the only contracted player from last season after signing a two-year deal when she moved to Perth from Bendigo Spirit. Basketball WA is negotiating with potential buyers and The West Australian revealed on Monday that prominent business couple Christian Hauff and Jodi Millhahn are keen to take over the licence. While the clock is ticking on getting that deal done before free agency opens, the WNBL has already guaranteed the Lynx will be in the competition. Maley said that information is all that’s required for staff to recruit a strong team. “The attractiveness of Perth, and Perth basketball, means we will be able to sign players, no matter what. No matter how late free agency is, no matter how late we find our owner announcement, we have good people here and people will come to play around good people. That’s the most important part,” Maley told The West Australian. “I don’t have any doubt about its future. I will be here for as long as they keep me. No matter what announcement we’re waiting for, Perth will always have a women’s basketball team.” The WNBL has already seen one major change in the off-season with Melbourne Boomers’ licence being taken over by a consortium in Geelong. The league is attempting to raise capital to take financial pressure off the clubs. The Lynx have taken a Moneyball approach to recruiting in recent seasons, preferring to target younger players and West Australians instead of chasing a large group of highly paid high-profile stars. Coach Ryan Petrik has then formed a game plan which has allowed them to shine and lifted the Lynx to two grand finals in the last three seasons. Maley said she is prepared to wait for news with confidence people are making carefully considered decisions. “I’m sure there’ll be an announcement soon,” she said. “I feel really good about it. The club is solid. We’ve got some really key people that are sticking around. Perth supports its basketball community no matter what so I have full faith in our ability as a club.”