Coming off what she described as a "really good" season for New South Wales, it was a shock for Naomi Stalenberg to not be offered a new contract.
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But New South Wales' loss is Tasmania's gain with the 26-year-old top-order batter signing a deal with the Tigers for next season.
Set to catch the Spirit of Tasmania on Wednesday, making the nine-hour drive from Sydney to Melbourne, the state's new recruit is excited about the upcoming prospects.
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"I'm really looking forward to heading to Tassie to make an impact down there and I've heard a lot of great things about the coach, Salliann Briggs," she said.
"She was kind enough to invite me down there, so that was pretty much the reason why and I'm looking forward to it.
"For me, I felt like I had a really good season last year with New South Wales so I'll just be embracing the new team, change in environment and drawing from what I've learned over the past seven years playing elite sport.
"I just want to continue to build on who I am as a player and who I am as a person and be able to make an impact within the Tasmanian team."
Scoring 455 runs in her 19 matches across WNCL and WBBL competition last season, Stalenberg, who was previously an all-rounder before succumbing to a foot injury several years ago, joins multiple former teammates in the program.
She says Nicola Carey, Maisy Gibson and Belinda Vakarewa were vital to securing her signature for the season, speaking highly of Briggs' work as leader of the group.
"What they really enjoyed about being in Tassie is that it's a really relaxed culture and everyone's very inviting, very warm and very collective.
"They've all really enjoyed Salliann as the coach, she runs a really good program and there's a lot of supportive staff members within the program that really help everyone gel together really well."
Maintaining a special connection with Tasmania having made her New South Wales debut in Launceston back in 2013, the hard-hitting star is also looking forward to stepping onto Bellerive Oval once again.
"I really enjoy batting there actually - it's one of my favourite grounds. It's always a good batting track and we've played some exciting matches there as well so I've had a lot of success and I'm looking forward to continuing that."
Stalenberg is the third new face to join the Tigers with Heather Graham making the move from Western Australia and University young gun Chloe Abel making the step up after showing promise at national under-age carnivals.
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