Why the Fire never rebuild, they reload

Since Shannon Seebohm was appointed as Head Coach, the Townsville Fire have been a model of consistency and arguably the WNBL's benchmark.

In those seven seasons, the Fire have qualified for the post-season on five occasions and won two championships, including WNBL26.

The key to the Fire's continued success is their continuity, with last season's starting five of Abbey Ellis, Miela Sowah, Courtney Woods, Alex Fowler and Alicia Froling all being part of the program for a period of time.

"[Continuity] is really important," Seebohm said on The Loop.

"You see it in sports all the time: the longer that groups stay together, they begin to know what each other is going to do on offence and defence.

"Some people go out and recruit the best players available and just try and figure it all out once they get there.

"But the way we play and the team that we have, we obviously wanted to find the right pieces and people that really fit into roles that make sense on our team.

"We've been able to do that fairly well, while also being excited about what we've been able to do [in free agency].

"I think we've made ourselves even stronger than what we were last year, finding players that complement the way that we want to play basketball.

"Obviously we'll make some tweaks here and there, but the style that we've played has been really successful, and we wanted to try and find people that can plug into the players we already do have on the roster.

"[I'm confident] this chemistry will help us get through the tough times throughout the season."

The new pieces Seebohm alludes to include imports Marie Gülich and Lauren Jensen, as well as Commonwealth Games gold medallist Emma Clarke, who joins from the Bendigo Spirit.

"Emma is great, and she's someone that I've followed for a number of years and is always someone that's at a really high level of talent," he said.

"She's had some injuries the past few seasons, but I don't think she has reached the ceiling or what she's capable of yet.

"Her ability to play multiple positions, to attack closeouts, and shoot the three, I think she will fit into our system.

"We've seen in our League, how successful the likes of Anneli Maley can be playing that guard role at the four-spot. I think Emma's got that type of ability, where she can punish bigs on the perimeter and guards at the rim.

"She's a player that we've wanted to have in our system for a while, and now that we've got one, I'm really excited about her potential and can't wait to see how she fits in."

Seebohm's side will open their title defence against Grand Finalists, the Lynx, at the Perth High Performance Centre on October 17.

Before that, all nine WNBL teams will descend on North Queensland for the annual TechnologyOne Townsville Tip Off, which will see Seebohm's squad play in front of their loyal fans.

"We have the best fans in the League by a country mile," he said.

"Hopefully we get as many of them to all of our home games as possible.

"There's no better atmosphere than playing at the Fire Pit in front of our fans; it's going to be a really exciting season."

Townsville's first home game of the regular season is on October 25 against the Sydney Flames.