The OneFortyOne Pioneers women will hit the court on Saturday night for the opening round of the NBL1 South conference.


The Pioneers kickstart the 2025 season with a Victorian double header roadtrip, set to take on Geelong and Keilor this weekend.


While the team has been training hard in the off season, there will still be some key players missing due to international commitments.


Head coach Matt Sutton said his side was excited to get back on the court and start the competition in earnest.


Sutton said the team had come together well, with several new faces in the side.


“We are still developing as a group, which I’m sure Geelong are as well,” he said.


“Hopefully we will be at a point where we can really compete.”


Sutton said he was hopeful last year’s captain Isabella Brancatisano will join the team this weekend, however the side was not yet at full strength.


“Hopefully Isa will be good to go this weekend, Jayda (Jensen) will not be here until her season is done in Germany, hopefully that will be very soon,” he said.


“Keryl (Ousey) is not back until her stuff in Canada finishes which is late April.


“We have some players that have been with our program for quite a while who will be stepping up which we are quite excited for.”


Sutton said his team was prepared to hit the road to kick off the season.


“It’s a really tough double header, but that’s just the nature of the league,” he said.


“Every game is tough and every road trip is tough and I do not think we’d have it any other way.”


Sutton said his players had been working hard in the pre-season to prepare for the season ahead.


“It’s been a little bit of a challenging off season with players coming in a little bit sporadically and we have had some injuries which have also been challenging,” he said.


“The group is really connected and is bonding very well, they are developing as a group every week and we are hopeful we can continue that trend.”


Sutton said he and his team were continuing their one week at a time approach, with their focus solely on this weekend and the double header matches.


“We will address that, we are pretty locked into this week, anytime we can play at home is a good thing but it is not in our minds just yet,” he said.