New Keilor Thunder guard Tayah Burrows couldn’t knock back the opportunity to continue working with Thunder coach Kristi Harrower.
Burrows has been playing in the WNBL with the Southside Flyers, who are also coached by Harrower.
When the opportunity arose to join the National Basketball League 1 South club, it was one that Burrows was keen to take.
“I’m super excited,” she said. “Kristi has been developing me during the WNBL season and to be able to extend that and keep working with her and obviously train along and play along some super great players is exciting.
“Everyone knows the type of career she [Harrower] had. Obviously she was an amazing point guard and someone I feel like can definitely keep learning off as I have this WNBL season.
“I’m super keen to continue that and keep building my game and that relationship. I’ve only heard good things about the club.”
Burrows moved from Perth to Melbourne this season to take up a WNBL contract with the Flyers.
It wasn’t one that she saw coming as she recovered from foot surgery nine months beforehand. Burrows will have a screw removed from her foot before the NBL1 season starts.
“I wasn’t originally sure if I was going to be playing basketball this season,” he said. “I didn’t really know if I was going to be ready.
“My agent came to me and said that Flyers were potentially interested in me and taking the last contracted spot.
“I came over and trained for a couple of weeks and I was really rapt, it was the first thing I’d done in nine months.
“At the end of the day decided to go with me and I haven’t looked back since.”
She said she loved everything about the opportunity to play in Melbourne.
“It has been a really good experience,” she said. “Obviously this season hasn’t gone exactly how we wanted it to do in terms of wins and losses.
“On a personal note I’ve really enjoyed it, enjoyed living in Melbourne.
“The club has been absolutely amazing in terms of supporting me personally and as a group loved every second of it.”
While keen to reunite with Harrower, Burrows will also play alongside another Flyer Maddy Rocci at the Thunder.
It’s a partnership Burrows is keen to continue.
The season will be Burrows first in the NBL1 South competition and she said it would be a good challenge.
“I’m really excited, a lot of people talk about NBL1 South over here,” she said. “There’s high calibre players, who play in the league, and I think there’s no weeks off.”’
While new to the Thunder, Burrows has quickly understood the motivation in the group to go one better than last year.
As someone who doesn’t like losing, Burrows is keen to help them build.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to at the club, is really motivated to go that one step further,” she said.
“You can really feel that they have a strong culture and bond in the group. I’m super excited to be involved in that, hopefully I can add that little bit more that they need to go that one step further.”
