LAUNCESTON Tornadoes head coach Reece Potter has announced his full playing squad for the SEABL season, with four import players complemented by 12 home-grown talents.
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Import players Lauren Mansfield, Mikaela Ruef and Alex Wilson return to the Torns' line-up for another season, with Tayla Roberts returning to her home town and former club as the fourth major signing after several seasons in the WNBL.
Complementing the imports will be 12 local players who will make up the 16-player squad, extended from 13 last season.
Local players suiting up for the Tornadoes are Gemma Korpershoek, Ali Partridge, Liz Howe, Samantha Phillips, Jessy Price, Olivia Chugg (nee Howard), Nina Howard, Stephanie Shaw, Bec Abel and three development players in Paige French, Jayde Brazendale and Claudia Howard.
"We have really good mix of imports and local players in our squad of 16, which builds on the 13 players we had last year, which shows the increased interest in the program and developing our sustainability going forward," Potter said.
"We have a mix of youth and experience, with some girls still junior age at that under-18 high performance level and coming into the squad as development players and then some around the 18-20 age range, a lot in the 22-27 range and a few older ones in their 30s, so we have a really good spread, because you can't buy that experience and maturity while having some players for the future as well."
The Tornadoes lose Emma Russell, Mariah Payne and Emily Harmon from last year's squad.
"Lauren is in her fourth season with us, Alli Wilson is in her third and Mikaela in her second and Tayla is back after being a junior here, plus the locals retaining that core and building on it - I am excited about all of them," Potter said.
"If anything, I think we have a little bit of depth with a couple of players we've added in and that little bit of experience is probably going to help us in the long run.
"Just keeping everyone together for another year means we will be in a good spot to start it off and build on what we did last year."
Potter said making play-offs and winning the SEABL title this season was the aim for the group.
"I think if our group goes about things in the right way and we think about it and things go our way and we have a bit of luck, then I think we can get that done."
Mansfield, the Torns' captain, is likely to miss the first three weeks of the season recovering from an ankle injury sustained in the WNBL.