Fire Eye Season Opener

The Fire will return to the scene of last season’s WNCL championship triumph to take on the NSW Breakers at Cricket Central in matches tomorrow and Thursday.

Australian squad batters Georgia Voll and Grace Harris spearhead the Fire squad which could field as many as three debutants with a trio of regular starters unavailable.

Australian left-armer Lucy Hamilton will miss the games with a minor quad strain suffered in training, while allrounders Charli Knott and Sianna Ginger are on duties with Australia ‘A’ in India.

Pace bowler Catherine White and Australian U-19 representatives Aya Stafford and Flilippa SueSee have been included in the 13-player squad and would make their WNC: debuts if chosen in the starting team.

Stafford and SueSee are both students at Brisbane State High School and play for Wests in the Katherine Raymont Shield.

SueSee, 18, is a pace-bowling allrounder who also played for the Brisbane Heat in the T20 Spring Challenge series in 2025-26 after finishing as the leading wicket-taker in the KFC T20 Max series last season.

Stafford, a 16-year-old leg-spinner, has represented Japan in ten T20 Internationals including the recent Asia Cup tournament earlier this month.

She played for the Brisbane Heat side in the T20 Spring Challenge last season and was the leading wicket-taker in this season’s KFC T20 Max competition, taking 12 wickets at 15.25.

The Queensland’s team’s new-look leadership group of captain Georgia Redmayne and vice-captain Annie O’Neil will also have the likes of current Australian opener Georgia Voll, former skipper Jess Jonassen and ex-England international batter Lauren Winfield-Hill to work alongside.

Winfield-Hill and Jonassen played alongside each other at Yorkshire in England during the winter, with the Fire allrounder winning two Professional Cricketers Association awards.

She was the PCA Women's Domestic Overall MVP, having scored 889 runs and taken 47 wickets, and was also the Metro Bank One Day Cup Women's Player of the Year.

Coach Mark Sorell said the squad’s depth would give the Fire plenty of encouragement as they looked to build on Queensland’s second ever Ruth Preddy Cup championship victory.

“We’re pretty happy with how it has all come together for the opening games,’’ he said.

“Lucy Hamilton is recovering well after that minor quad setback, Mikayla Wrigley is rehabbing a hamstring strain while Bonnie Berry and Grace Parsons have made good progress after a few off-season niggles and will be close to playing soon.

“The younger players have been progressing nicely during the pre-season alongside the senior group, so we’re all looking forward to getting out there. It’s been good to see Charli and Sianna making the most of their chances with Australia A as well,” he said.

If chosen in the starting side over the two games, White, Stafford and SueSee would make their WNCL and Queensland debuts.

The matches will be streamed live on Kayo and cricket.com.au

Women’s National Cricket League
Round One
NSW v Queensland, tomorrow & Thursday, 9.30am starts.
Cricket Central, Sydney

Queensland Fire
8. Georgia Redmayne (c)

18. Annie O’Neil (vc)
22. Lily Bassingthwaighte
7. Lucy Bourke
12. Grace Collins
44. Nicola Hancock
17. Grace Harris
21. Jess Jonassen
6. Aya Stafford
53. Filippa SueSee
13. Georgia Voll
15. Catherine White
58. Lauren Winfield-Hill

(12th player to be named, one to be omitted).