Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)
Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard continues to evolve into a standout all-round player and not just a renowned shooter as she leads Warwick Senators into NBL1 West preliminary final ahead of challenging herself with WNBL move to Geelong Venom.
Clinch Hoycard has found quite the home for herself in Perth since finishing up in college at the University of Hawaii with the Kalgoorlie-native settling at the Warwick Senators in the NBL1 West and the Perth Lynx in the WNBL.
That has included being part of the NBL1 West and National Finals championships with the Senators in 2022 and two grand final appearances in the WNBL, but she has been wanting to step out of her comfort zone.
The first step in that was spending the 2024 NBL1 North season at the Southern Districts Spartans. Now for the upcoming WNBL season, it will be her first time playing somewhere other than the Lynx and for a coach other than Ryan Petrik.
Before she makes that drive across to Geelong though, Clinch Hoycard is fully focused on taking the Senators as far as they can go this NBL1 West season.
Despite the absence of Robbi Ryan, Emma Gandini and Kiara Waite, Chloe Forster's unsuccessful return, and even two-time MVP and captain Stacey Barr only shooting 4/20, Warwick made a brilliant start to their finals series.
They beat the Perth Redbacks last Friday night to advance straight to this Saturday night's preliminary final back at Warwick Stadium against the Mandurah Magic with Clinch Hoycard leading from the front.
She did provide what she's renowned for with shooting with 4/9 from downtown for 22 points, but it was the 17 rebounds, four steals and two assists along with her leadership, defence and hustle that showed why the 26-year-old is at the peak of her powers right now.
More importantly, she was proud of her team for defying the odds to get one win at home from a spot in next Saturday's grand final at RAC Arena.
"Even in the changeroom after the game, Bobby (coach Brad Robbins) just said that he doesn’t know how you girls do it sometimes but you always find a way to get it done," Clinch Hoycard said.
"We've had so many close games during the season especially a lot of them at the start of the season and we just seem to find a way to win most of them.
"That's one thing that's really special about our group and we've had a lot of those close last quarters, and we don't shy away from it and figure out how to get it done."
Stunning win over the Redbacks
Clinch Hoycard and her Senators teammates and coaching staff had heard the rumblings that despite finishing the regular season in second position, they were largely being written off with the injuries to back court trio Gandini, Ryan and Forster.
However, that only served as motivation to keep the doubters quiet. When that group still includes the likes of Nat Burton, Stacey Barr and Kyana Weir, it should be no surprise they now get to host a preliminary final against the Magic.
"Honestly since people have gone down in our team and have been injured, a lot of people have just counted us out completely," Clinch Hoycard said.
"As much as when we have our full team I don’t think anyone can beat us, when players have gone down we still have a pretty decent team.
"We still have Stacey who is a two-time MVP, we still have Nat who is an Olympian and our juniors are fantastic. Ky has stepped up in such a big way since Chloe and Robbi have gone down, and I think at the end of the day we just believe in ourselves.
"We stick to the plan, we execute things and we try and give effort. At the end of the day, I guess hard work does beat talent sometimes. We all played our role and did what we needed to do, we locked in and we got it done."
Growing all-round game all the time
Clinch Hoycard has had a tremendous all-round season with the Senators in 2025 with the best scoring numbers of her entire career with 16.0 points a game while shooting 43 per cent from the field and 41 from downtown on a huge volume going 72/174.
She has also had 9.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.7 steals while playing the most minutes of her career with 33.9 per game.
The faith that Senators coaches, and Perth Wildcats NBL championship winners, Brad Robbins and Paul Rogers have put in her to do more things and have more responsibility is ultimately what she credits with her growth.
"I don’t want to jinx myself because I would like to only keep getting better too, but I think I need to give a lot of credit for that to Bobby and Paul Rogers, our coaches at Warwick," Clinch Hoycard said.
"Also Coops (Andrew Cooper) as well who I do indies with each week and he's fantastic, and gives me a lot of confidence as do Brad and Paul.
"I do miss a lot of our NBL1 pre-season because of WNBL and I always feel a bit guilty when I rock up just before the season starts, but coming back to Warwick this year I noticed all the new young kids and I was a bit nervous about getting to know them all.
"Rogey is new to me as well and it's my first time working with him but when I asked Bob if it was OK for me to run a certain thing, he told me he had faith in me to run whatever I like.
"He gave me the green light to try anything so once he said that and I knew he believed in me, that's when I had the confidence to try things and grow my game," she added.
"Even when I told him that I liked bringing the ball up the floor, he told me to go for that and even as bad as it was with some of our injuries, it's allowed me to open up my game a lot more.
"I've taken on more of the playmaking and Bobby is the ultimate supportive coach, and Rogey is the ultimate hype man and gives me a lot of confidence so a lot of my growth comes down to them."
Home preliminary finals for both teams
Not only will Clinch Hoycard and her Senators team be at home on Saturday night in a preliminary final, but the Warwick men will also be in action straight after with a grand final spot on the line against the Rockingham Flames.
There already was a near capacity crowd at Warwick Stadium for the Senators women when they beat the Redbacks in the qualifying final, but now to have both teams hosting a preliminary final, Clinch Hoycard is looking forward to being part of it.
"It's going to be a fantastic night and I think even a lot of people were shocked at how just our girls packed out the stadium last week," Clinch Hoycard said.
"If one team can do that, then I think our two home teams is going to make it a huge night. We're really excited and the possibility that both of us getting wins and going to the grand final is also really, really cool from a club perspective.
"It shows how much of a good club Warwick is, they look after their players and they build great teams and hopefully we can both get there. It would be fantastic."
The special Warwick environment
Even though Clinch Hoycard did try something different in the NBL1 North at the Spartans in 2024 and is about to head to Geelong for the 2025/26 WNBL season, she couldn’t see herself ever playing in the NBL1 West anywhere but the Senators.
Warwick has become her basketball home having settled in Perth back in 2020 after her time in college and it's the team, club and all-round community environment that she feels just can't be topped.
"I don’t think I can picture myself playing for anyone else in Perth to be completely honest," Clinch Hoycard said.
"They've got a great community and you look at the people in the office where I do some work as well, and a lot of them have been around since I first came to Warwick.
"You look at our team and we have a core group that has been around for years and as a club, we don't have much turnover or players wanting to leave.
"We have a very close-knit community that stay each year too and that always helps with building relationships, and building good connections and all of that just makes playing basketball there a hell of a lot easier. It's a great club, it's a great family club and one big community that is fun to be part of."
Decision to join Geelong Venom
Having played her first six WNBL seasons at the Perth Lynx, the 2025/26 campaign will be a new one for Clinch Hoycard too when she joins the newly rebranded Geelong Venom.
She will always be thankful to the opportunities presented to her at the Lynx and by coach Ryan Petrik, but she just felt this was the perfect time to challenge herself to try something new and Geelong felt like the perfect place to do just that.
"I'm a big believer in getting outside of your comfort zone and I've played with Perth for five years now and it would have been really, really cool to stay at Perth and be a one club player," Clinch Hoycard said.
"But I wanted to get out and try something different and I think Ryan would have wanted me back, I don't 100 per cent know, but I felt something inside of me that was saying I needed to try something different.
"I've only ever been coached by Ryan as well in the WNBL and I want to find out what it's like to be coached by someone else. I just want to experience what it's like playing with a different group and a new system, and I needed a change.
"It was still a hard decision because Perth is now my home and it's as close as I can get to Kalgoorlie where all my family is, but I still hope to come back to play NBL1 so I'm just going over to Geelong for the next five, six months and I'm really excited about it.
"I love Geelong as a place too and it's almost like a country version of Melbourne so even though it was a bit of a hard decision, it has felt like the right decision right from the start and Chris my new coach has already made me feel very welcome."
Being part of a club finding their feet
What instantly attracted Clinch Hoycard to joining Geelong was how much she enjoyed watching them play in their inaugural WNBL season even if they did battle a horror injury run as it rolled on.
She thought it looked like a system she'd enjoy playing in and that Chris Lucas would be a coach she'd like playing under, and that Geelong would be a city she enjoyed living in having lived in Kalgoorlie and Perth most of her life.
"You even look at them last year when it was their first year and there weren’t any games where they were completely blown out in," Clinch Hoycard said.
"They stayed with every team and for a first year team to do that especially being the super young team that they were, that was really impressive. They honestly were fun to watch and that was one thing that drew me to them and I'm excited about it.
"They've got a completely new identity now too and I'm excited to get over there and to be part of it, and hopefully build on what they've already built, and make this season even better."