Perth Lynx has landed the biggest signing of the WNBL off-season as a replacement for injured Opals captain Sami Whitcomb.
The Lynx have replaced one star guard with another via the 11th hour signing of young Aussie star and last year's No.6 WNBA draft pick Georgia Amoore who will play in the WNBL for the first time in season 2026-27.
As ESPN revealed on Wednesday, Whitcomb has withdrawn from next week's FIBA World Cup in Germany through the on-going management of a knee injury she had surgery on in May.
After Whitcomb's unavailability for Perth was determined, serendipity came into play when Amoore's Chinese contract fell through a fortnight ago.
Whitcomb and Amoore played against each other in the WNBA on Wednesday and recorded a video together for Perth's replacement announcement today. Amoore's Washington Mystics and Whitcomb's Phoenix Mercury again went head-to-head on Friday afternoon at the time of publication.
Amoore, 25, was born and bred in Ballarat and produced a superb college career with Virginia Tech then Kentucky, before she was selected by the Mystics in 2025.
Perth coach Ryan Petrik told ESPN he was excited to coach the offensive pocket rocket with a high IQ.
"I'm excited by her brain. How she thinks, the analytics behind it and the numbers she's processing, the areas she wants to work on in her game and improve on," he said.
"She's only 30 odd games into her WNBA game career, she's obviously only going to get better and better."
Import point guard Aari McDonald was a powerhouse for the Lynx in their Grand Final-campaign of 2023-24 and the Lynx are set to have shades of that game style via their new play maker.
"Georgia can get her own which is great but she has the ability to make everyone else around her have career seasons and shoot the lights out, just get cleaner looks, the amount of gravity and the passes and the pass quality that she throws are just first class," Petrik added.