Sport
9 December, 2025
Maryborough Lady Blazers are 2025 CBL North West Women Champions — The Coaches' Say
Three years after winning Finals MVP in the Lady Blazers’ inaugural CBL premiership, Millie Cracknell has once again led Maryborough to the promised land.
The star guard clearly has a knack for breaking Bendigo hearts on the biggest stage.
After scoring the last four points in Maryborough’s 2021/22 Grand Final triumph versus the Braves, finishing with a game-high 25 points, Cracknell made her presence felt from the opening tip-off.
With the Lady Blazers suffering from a nervous start, their player-coach kept them above water with 12 first-quarter points.
Despite routinely being face-guarded, Cracknell continued to cause headaches for the Braves with her elite handles that generated space to attack the paint or spot up for a three.
Cracknell is at her most dangerous when driving down the lane, with many of her trips ending with a tough layup make, drawing a foul, or a sharp kickout to an open shooter.
Not just an offensive machine with a game-high 34 points, Cracknell continued to shine with some excellent defensive plays, none more brilliant than a strip steal that led to Maryborough building a 10-point advantage late in the fourth quarter.
Saturday’s performance was the culmination of an outstanding return campaign for the NBL1 player with the Ballarat Miners, officially awarded league MVP and Defensive Player of the Year during the Grand Final presentation.
Now in an exclusive club of two-time Lady Blazers CBL premiership player and a title-winning coach, Cracknell said her second taste of glory was even sweeter.
“I was speechless — to come from where we have come from, every game we have just gotten better and better, and it just means so much to us. We really deserved that, we worked so hard all season,” she said.
“I think the nerves were definitely a factor in both finals. The start of both games was a little bit nervy, but we stuck at it and we found our groove.
“I think we have the grit that we weren’t going to let them get away from us, we were going to keep fighting to the end and I think we pipped them in the end with our fitness and our transition.
“For a young team, we have really good composure. A lot of young teams can get pretty frazzled, but I feel like the connectedness we have with each other allows us to stick together.”
Cracknell’s coaching efforts have been heavily supported by assistant coach Max Nagle, with the pair appointed just three weeks before the regular season started.
With limited pre-season training, Nagle said he’s been pleasantly impressed by the growth of the playing group.
“We came onto the scene in this season really late, it was a bit of a mash together for round one and it was really emblematic of the resilience we showed all year,” he said.
“We couldn’t be prouder of the group and the team and even just the community for getting around us.”
When Bendigo threatened to pull away in early passages of the first and second quarters, Nagle was quick to call timeouts, with Maryborough able to regroup after the stoppage in play.
Nagle said he reiterated his pre-game address of ensuring his team showcased what got them to the Grand Final.
“It was that message that we have shown enough resilience all year to get anything done, so if the game goes down to the wire, we are going to back ourselves in,” he said.
“Bendigo has some really good athletes and also just talented players on their team. They probably bat as deep as any CBL team that’s been going around for the last few years.
“There was a timeout early in that second quarter where the message was repeat stops and let’s just generate offence off of that.
“Sometimes when the game’s not working, you let the game come to you, we did a really good job of knowing that our time would come and when it did, we really capitalised.”