Perth Lynx star Anneli Maley could win her second WNBL MVP award after epic triple-double to finish season

Perth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik has declared co-captain Anneli Maley would have produced more triple-doubles this season if he’d allowed her spend more time on court as the countdown starts to her potentially winning her second WNBL MVP award.

Maley will fly to Sydney on Monday for the WNBL awards and will contend with Bendigo’s Isobel Borlase, Townsville’s Courtney Woods and Geelong’s Mackenzie Holmes for the league’s highest individual honour.

Maley previously won the MVP award while playing for Bendigo, but no Perth player has ever won the prize.

The Olympian put her flag in the ground during Saturday night’s 15-point win over Sydney by becoming the only player to register a WNBL triple-double this season.

Petrik said she’d have done that even more if he hadn’t been so focused on keeping Maley fresh at the end of games.

“If I’d not subbed out so many times this season, she’d probably have four of them this year. We wouldn’t trade Maley for the world,” he said.

“It’s her body of work. Borlase and Woods are both elite, and so is Holmes, It’s a really tough crew. So whoever wins it, the three or four who are close are going to be super unlucky.

“Clearly we speak with a bias towards who is really important for their roster. We can’t rebound without the kid. And the ability to play as a big and guard is just huge.”

Maley’s brilliant season was rewarded on Sunday evening when she won the Lynx MVP award. The club celebrated their season at the Swan Yacht Club and named their co-captain as their most outstanding player. Alex Ciabattoni finished runner up to Maley, Han Xu received the Best Defensive Player award and Ally Wilson took home the Golden Hands prize.

Maley is tipping Borlase to win the MVP award, but said this was clearly her best season in WNBL.

“We have such a good team so I feel like I’ve been able to play basketball in a more controlled and more productive way,” Maley explained.

“I think it’s my most productive season. I’m shooting better shots and I’m making better decisions. The year where I did win it, we weren’t a championship contending team. I was just shooting some ridiculous stuff and hoping it went in. I feel like my basketball IQ is much better this year.”

The Lynx are taking no risks with their stars leading into next week’s semifinals against Bendigo. Wilson, Xu, Amy Atwell, Alex Ciabattoni and Gorman will all remain in Perth instead of flying interstate for the awards

“They’re all for medical reasons,” Lynx General Manager Chris Earl said.

“They’ve all been carrying some type of injury. It’s not like we’re just shutting them down. There are reasons.”