There's no doubt in my mind where I want to be playing: Jonassen on playing for Heat

Given the possible restrictions that could be in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, home-grown stars like Mooney and Jonassen will be in demand if international players aren’t available for the season. Jonassen said that the group is wanting to stick together and is hopeful of signing a deal shortly with Heat.

“There's no doubt in my mind where I want to be playing,” she said.

“Queensland and Brisbane is home for me and hopefully I can keep it that way. Given the amount of people off contract for us, there was discussion leading into the end of last season about wanting to keep quite a few of that core group together.”

“With this COVID-19 stuff going on, it's obviously thrown a bit of a spanner in the works given you don't really know what your international set-up might look like. In terms of our domestic group, we've got a really strong core group there and hopefully they can stick with the Heat and hopefully go all the way and potentially do a three-peat.”

ALSO READ: World Cup high leaves Annabel Sutherland wanting more

Apart from Mooney and Jonassen, the likes of Laura and Grace Harris and Sammy-J Johnson are likely to be in high priority list for Heat. With Kirby Short having retired after the last season, the defending champion will have a new captain, who will have large shoes to fill given Short’s leadership has played a key role in the team’s success.

“It's definitely not going to be easy (to win a third title), whatever the team looks like,” said Jonassen. “But I'm hopeful that we'll keep a really good squad together and if we have to bring new people in, I'm sure they'll be able to fit in with what we're trying to create at the Heat.”

The Australian allrounder also had to deal with the postponement of her marriage plans due to the pandemic. She was to get hitched with her fiancée Sarah Gooderham but that and their honeymoon to Hawaii has to wait now.

“It's pretty sad, but I've had a few friends pop around at various times today and had a few gifts from them,” Jonassen said.

“So that was nice to know that people were thinking of us. We had planned and put so much effort into having the day that we wanted, that we were going to make sure that we could still have that day. It will just be further down the track than we initially planned for.”