{"id":606158,"date":"2026-04-14T11:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606158\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T11:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:49:10","slug":"wnba-draft-2026-aussie-duo-saffron-shiels-and-manuela-puoch-chosen-as-dallas-wings-select-azzi-fudd-with-top-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606158\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA draft 2026: Aussie duo Saffron Shiels and Manuela Puoch chosen as Dallas Wings select Azzi Fudd with top pick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Rising stars Saffron Shiels and Manuela Puoch have been chosen in the WNBA draft, continuing the mass influx of Australians to the top women&#8217;s basketball league in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Shiels was selected 26th overall by her Opals coach Sandy Brondello and the Toronto Tempo on Tuesday morning (AEST).<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Townsville Fire guard was not the only Australian drafted, as Southside Melbourne Flyers forward Puoch was chosen 41st overall by the New York Liberty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Puoch had been a key contributor off the bench during her breakout campaign last season, averaging 4.4 points and 1.3 rebounds per game, while also helping Australia to a silver medal at the 2025 FIBA U19 Women&#8217;s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Manuela Puoch prepares to receive the basketball\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a7cfa0afad3481b943dc7c3b335c4491.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Manuela Puoch will join the New York Liberty after being selected with the 41st pick in the WNBA draft. (Getty Images: Graham Denholm)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The 19-year-old&#8217;s selection comes after her sister, Nyadiew Puoch, was picked up by the Portland Fire in the competition&#8217;s expansion draft on April 4.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">At the Liberty, she will be joined by Perth Lynx&#8217;s Anneli Maley, who signed a training camp contract, and Opal Bec Allan, who agreed to a reported deal of $US350,000 ($A494,000) in New York.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Shiels will be the third Australian on the Tempo&#8217;s roster, with Opal Kristy Wallace and Southside Melbourne&#8217;s Maddy Rocci also securing contracts with the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">A representative of Australia on both senior and junior levels, Shiels was part of the Fire&#8217;s WNBL-winning team but did not take the court last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">She had played for Townsville in the two seasons prior, averaging 5.4 points, three rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in the 2024\/2025 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The 20-year-old is also the daughter of Peter Shiels, a former rugby league player with Penrith, Western Suburbs, Western Reds and Newcastle in the 1990s and 2000s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The No.1 draft pick on the night went to the Dallas Wings, and they chose Azzi Fudd from the University of Connecticut after she had a stellar season, which made her the favourite for the top selection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Guard Olivia Miles (Minnesota Lynx) was selected as pick No.2, with Awa Fam (Seattle Storm), Lauren Betts (Washington Mystics) and Gabriela Jaquez (Chicago Sky) rounding off the top five.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Elsewhere, Adelaide Lightning forward Steph Talbot inked a new deal with the competition&#8217;s reigning champions, the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rising stars Saffron Shiels and Manuela Puoch have been chosen in the WNBA draft, continuing the mass influx&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,2134,726,4019,294964,4017,294965,85,294963],"class_list":{"0":"post-606158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-azzi-fudd","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-dallas-wings","13":"tag-manuela-puoch","14":"tag-paige-bueckers","15":"tag-saffron-shiels","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-wnba-draft-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}