2004 WNBL Champions!!!

RareAirShoes.com would like to congratulate the Dandenong Rangers after they won their first ever WNBL Championship!

The Rangers capped off a sensational season in 2003/04 as they downed the Sydney University Flames 63-53 in the final on the 22nd Feburary 2004.

Jacinta Hamilton top scored for the Rangers with 18 points, while the Flames' Belinda Snell lead Sydney again with 19 points. The Grand Final MVP was Emily McInerney, who also was named this season's Defensive Player of the Year.

Allie Douglas

Carly Wilson

Jacinta Hamilton

Emily McInerery

Jessica Bibby

Shelley Hammonds  

Born: 6/03/83

Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

Height: 188cm (6’3”)

Footwear: New Balance 1004

Shelley Hammonds, the Sydney Flames new prize recruit, has had a busy off-season since she graduated from the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in March 2002.

Since March, the 2000 WNBL Rookie of the Year has played a pivotal role for her hometown SEABL side, the Illawarra Ospreys.  Whilst playing for the Ospreys this season the 19-year-old received her first Player of the Week Award, scoring 33pts@59%, 10rebs, 2ass, 3blks and 2steals in a win over Hume City 92 – 80. To conclude her inaugural SEABL season she finished the as the league’s Leading scorer, averaging 24.5ppg and also ranked 5^th in Rebounds with 11.0rpg, and 3^rd in Blocked Shots with 1.77pg and was the main go-to player on the Ospreys young squad. She was also a unanimous choice in the South/East All-Conference Women’s Team for season 2002.

In 2002, Shelley-H, the AIS leading scorer in 2001-02 season, has juggled national commitments as a current member of the Australian U/22 Young Women’s National Basketball team, the Sapphires, which included a tour to China in May/June and then playing in the Oceania World Championship Qualifying Series in July against New Zealand (Sapphires took the series 2-0, qualifying for the 2003 World Championships).

To top this all off, she has followed in the footsteps of a line of successful Australian basketballer players such as Larissa Cavanagh, Kelly Lemezs,  Michelle Musselwhite and reigning WNBL MVP Penny Taylor when she was crowned early in September the prestigious the 2002 Women’s ‘Under-23 Australian Youth Player of the Year’.

The RareAirShoes.com team would like to wish Shelley Hammonds many successes for the upcoming WNBL 2002-2003 season with Sydney Flames !!!