This article is in partnership with WNBL.
The 2025-26 WNBL season has been a big one for Dallas Loughridge after she moved from the Southside Flyers to the Adelaide Lightning. Not only has she changed teams, but she’s taken on a greater leadership role.
The 2025-2026 season kicked off in October 2025, and at the time, Dallas reflected on how much she enjoyed her prior experiences at Southside, which included navigating additional responsibility when injuries took a toll on the team the previous season, and “the opportunity to just go out and play my style of game”.
No doubt her time at Southside over three seasons – from the 2021/22 season through the 2024/25 season – made her well-equipped for her new chapter with Adelaide. She said making the jump over to Adelaide will be a significant career move and exciting opportunity.
“Here in Adelaide, I think being a leader will add even more to my game, and I think it’s going to be good for me,” she told Basketball Australia in October 2025. “It’s going to be a bigger role and I’m excited to grow my game and take on a new opportunity.”
She has proudly played a pivotal part in not only leading the Adelaide squad on the court, but helping reshape the culture of the team overall.
“We’ve spoken from day one about the culture that we want to build as a team, and I think we’re definitely building that,” she said in the same interview.
Having played in the WNBL and NBL1 South, the past couple of years have been filled with ups and downs for the player, including overcoming an ACL injury that occurred in the 2022-23 WNBL preseason. Sharing a message at the time on social media, she thanked fans for their support.
“In the recent preseason game, unfortunately I went down with a knee injury. I have just found out that I have sustained an ACL injury and require surgery,” she wrote on Instagram in October 2022. “I would like to thank everyone who has reached out with their love and support it means a lot.”
Determined to remain resilient in dealing with this setback, she added: “Although I will miss the game I love so much it’s now time to move forward and put all my focus into my recovery to come back stronger than ever”.
In terms of a big win for the sports star, she was awarded the 2025 NBL1 South Women’s Youth Player of the Year in August. “Congratulations to Dallas Loughridge of the Dandenong Rangers, recognised as one of the league’s brightest emerging talents and for her impact throughout the 2025 season,” NBL1 South stated at the time.
On a personal front, playing basketball professionally has also given Dallas a platform to speak about her culture and explore it differently after feeling she was’t seen as “Indigenous enough” by some in the past. In June 2025, the proud Yorta Yorta woman, whose Indigenous heritage stems from maternal great grandmother Patricia Murray (who she calls ‘Ninny’), played in Indigenous Basketball Australia’s All-Stars game.
Last year, she reflected on her journey of reconciling with her cultural identity, and striving to make Ninny – who passed away when Dallas was three years old – proud.
“I feel like I lost a little bit of that culture growing up but it’s been really special to be involved with the Indigenous All-Stars so I can now learn and reconnect more with it and I’m learning about it more each day which is awesome,” Dallas told ESPN in October 2025.
“It was amazing to come together, learn about all the girls and their cultures and what it means to each other then represent our families and where we’re from.”
She added: “I think Ninny would be proud of my resilience and determination to stick with it and get through an ACL injury as a teenager”.
Back to 2026, and Dallas is well adjusted to her new team and very much in her element. One of her core strategies on the court is to have her eyes on the prize. As mentioned in the popular basketball newsletter, The Pick and Roll, in January this year, Dallas said: “I like to make sure I’m living in the moment, and just focusing on the game. So I think I block out the outside noise and just focus on the game”.
The final game for Adelaide Lightning will be against Southside Flyers (Round 17) on Sunday, February 8, at SA State Basketball Centre. We can’t wait to see Dallas make her mark on the court.
Photo: WNBL Official Website with additional design by Missing Perspectives