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Season 2 Episode 8: Character building with the EGG OG Philip Dopud
103 Plays7 months ago
In their biggest episode yet, Lachy and Squin attack Round 6 of NBL1 East with two big games reviews, a sprinkle of news and a Mother's Day inspired 'Jersey of the Week'.
Games covered:
Newcastle Falcons vs. Manly-Waringah Sea Eagles (W)
Maitland Mustangs vs. Hills Hornets (M)
The very special guest this week has supported and celebrated EGG since it's infancy. He is known for his multiple nicknames and the love for his local chicken shop. This week's guest is Philip Dopud from the Illawarra Hawks.
00:00:00-00:02:47 Intro
00:02:47-00:11:21 Women's results and ladder
00:11:22-00:20:26 Men's results and ladder
00:20:26-00:22:51 Round 7 games to watch
00:22:51-00:44:33 Newcastle Falcons vs. Manly-Waringah Sea Eagles (W)
00:44:33-01:08:53 Maitland Mustangs vs. Hills Hornets (M)
01:08:54-01:17:00 News and Gossip
01:17:00-01:18:13 - Jersey of the Week
01:18:13-01:23:21 Round 6 Allstar 5 Women
01:23:21-01:28:27 Round 6 Allstar 5 Men
01:28:54-02:14:18 Interview with Philip Dopud
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Birthday Anecdote
00:00:12
Speaker
of East Got Game, an unofficial podcast about the NBA One East season for 2024. My name's Jacinta, and with me as always is our co-host extraordinaire, birthday boy, back in his home soil, it's Locky France. Happy belated birthday, Locky, you're a whole year older. Are you feeling it just yet? I am now, but that's just because I got home late yesterday.
00:00:38
Speaker
Uh, thank you, Squint. Yes. Uh, yes. Birthday was yesterday. It was, uh, it was a lot of fun. So mark that everyone in your calendar, April 12th, he's lost his birthday. Oh, May 12th. Don't mark April 12th. Please mark May 12th. I'm still living in April. How bad's that? May 12th, Lucky Francis birthday. And it will be known as nothing more than that. So you've reached the age though, where late nights are going to be more and more intolerable.
00:01:07
Speaker
I mean, that's been the case for several years already. Don't worry about that. Well, I've reached the age where my feet are too weak to wear Sabrina's and I have to do feet exercises.
00:01:18
Speaker
That sucks. Yeah, I don't have the strength to wear something like Sabrina's that aren't supportive enough. So I've reached that age. But that does mean you're still getting out on court. Correct. You're still in my net burners for now. They still do a good job. But you're right. I'm still getting out on court. That's a really nice, positive way
Game Highlights: Comets vs. Sutherland
00:01:36
Speaker
to look at it. So we have just wrapped up round six of NBA One East. And again, another very entertaining round. Did you get around to any of the games this week, Lockie?
00:01:46
Speaker
I was fortunate enough to be calling Comets versus Sutherland. So Comets men with a big win despite missing Bawali, Bales and O.B. Chay and Trolaudur against the Sutherland side missing Adrian Cabrera.
00:02:03
Speaker
uh, Comet's taking advantage of their opportunity and then Sutherland women getting a win up in a match that uh, swung on fouls almost. Comet's got a little bit of foul trouble and Sutherland got a little bit of foul trouble and then Comet's got a little bit more foul trouble and that's when Sutherland pulled away. Just a very good win by Comet's men. Anthony Mundine III and Johnny Sinogorta, it's combining for 45.
00:02:26
Speaker
I think Anthony mundane shot seven of 11 from three. You got two guys there who combined for 13 points a game average, putting up 45 between them. And you need someone to step up and those two certainly did. They certainly have a lot of depth in that men's roster. Certainly do. All right. So this week you were in charge of the women's competition.
00:02:48
Speaker
What did it look like? Well, of course, there was, uh, the big matchup between Manly and Newcastle on Sunday, but we'll start at the top, uh, with Norse versus Penrith and it was Norse getting a 78-68 win over Penrith despite 39 and six from Talia Tupac and 17 and 18 from Mia Hyde off of Penrith.
Women's Match Highlights and Key Performances
00:03:10
Speaker
Uh, Caitlin Martin and Emily Simons leading the way, giving that 10 point win.
00:03:18
Speaker
Aubrey Woodonga traveled up to Bankstown and picked up a 92-73 win and in something that will shock no one on her 43rd birthday, Lauren Jackson, 33 points, 16 rebounds and three assists. And Michaela Pivik, 20 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, as Aubrey Woodonga picked up a 92-73 win, Azalea Oluwapu with 24 and 10 for Bankstown.
00:03:45
Speaker
Earl Warren hosted the Hornsby Koringi Spiders and had four starters in double figures on their way to an 83-58 win over the Spiders. Georgia Ordorf leading the way with 21 points in 20 minutes. Hills traveled up to Maitland and secured a 72-56 win with four of their five starters finishing in double figures. Emma Carey leading the way with 19-9 and I mean four or five starters in double figures, but then Cassandra Pentney with eight as well. So doing it by committee, the Hills Hornets.
00:04:17
Speaker
Inner West hosted Manly, but it was the Sea Eagles that got a 72-54 win, and they were able to sit some starters for some long periods in that win as they had a game on Sunday. Josie Baldwin leading the way with 16 points and seven rebounds. PR Gabriel with a double-double for Inner West.
00:04:36
Speaker
Central Coast hosted Canberra and Christina Moore's 23 and seven plus double doubles for Michaela Donkins and Leilani Mitchell helped them to a 92-79 win over the Nationals who were led by Lizzie Tonks with 26 points and seven assists.
00:04:53
Speaker
Newcastle face COE in the battle of the Juffamans and it was Ila and the Falcons getting the win over Keira and COE 73-64, Mcconnell Munger, 20 points, nine rebounds, seven assists. On the other side, Manik Bhuongi, 22 points, 11 rebounds for COE. There's a very short-handed COE team drafting in players I don't think have even trained with them yet. Comets hosted Sutherland, as I mentioned.
00:05:22
Speaker
and it was Sutherland getting the win 75-61 after leading by just two at halftime. Vanessa Penoosa is back to haunt her old club with 18 points, eight rebounds, six assists and Olivia White, 17 points and seven rebounds for the Sutherland Sharks and Davida Dale, nine points eight rebounds but again those six steals averaging still six steals a game for the season.
00:05:50
Speaker
Moving on to Sunday, all we were donger, this time taking on Penrith, you're up 117 to 59 and LJ once again, 37 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, Ashhannon 21 and 10 and Michaela Pivik, 20 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists as it seems she goes close to a triple double every single game.
00:06:13
Speaker
Comets headed up to the brick pit to take on Hornsby Corringi and this time they did get the win 84-65. Janine Camp with a big 20 points and 23 rebounds to atone for a tough night out against the Sharks the previous day as Comets split the week one and one.
00:06:34
Speaker
Norse traveled down to the snake pit to take on Illawarra and again Emily Simons at the heart of the action with 17 points and Matty O'Hare with 18 on this occasion as Norse picked up their second narrow victory I guess you could say of the week with a 67-58 win over Illawarra but as long as they keep winning everything's fine.
00:06:54
Speaker
Inner West took on COE on the Sunday at Auburn Basketball Center and COE on their second game of the weekend, big game, a big 83-46 win. Jade Crook, 25 points, eight rebounds in 28 minutes. Will that be her big breakout game? She took 12 of 17 from two-point range. Monique Bivongi again, big performance, 21 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, a steal, and four blocks in that big 37-point win.
00:07:24
Speaker
And of course the game of the weekend, someone's O had to go and it was Newcastle going down in overtime to Manly Waringa 73, 78.
00:07:35
Speaker
Despite 32 points, nine rebounds and three assists from Nicole Munger and a 17.10 rebound double-double from Isla Jufferman. That was the Seagulls getting the win courtesy of 15 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists from Alex Delaney, whilst Josie Ballman continues her recent good form with 19 points. And of course, Zoe Miller playing at Newcastle Basketball Stadium is enough to cause Newcastle fans nightmares as she finished with 16 points and seven rebounds.
00:08:04
Speaker
So another big weekend and in only a 14 week season, as we turn to the latter, it's getting close to almost being able to lock some teams into playoff spots.
League Standings and Playoff Speculations
00:08:15
Speaker
We've got Aubrey Madonga at nine and 0 and Manly at seven and 0. And Aubrey Madonga actually have a double header next weekend up in Canberra. So that could be 11 and 0 by next week. And that's almost enough to guarantee at least the top eight spot, even though they'll definitely be gunning for top spot.
00:08:33
Speaker
Then Newcastle and North, both eight and one and with near enough to identical percentage, it would be rounded to three or four decimal places. They're both on 124.2% and eight and one. Central Coast at six and two sitting in fifth and then a big log jam of teams at four and four. Centre of Excellence, Hills and Sutherland all at four and four. Illawar at four and five. Maitland at three and five in tenth.
00:09:02
Speaker
Then Canberra and Comets, both at three and six, starting to four behind the pack, Bankstown two and six, Penrith two and seven, and Hornsby and Inner West, both at one and nine. So some little clusters of teams starting to form. The top four I'd say, and then Central Coast, sort of on an island by themselves in fifth,
00:09:28
Speaker
And then that big group down from six to 11th or 12th at this stage, all looking to a, now the spot in the top eight. I want to get your skates on if you are, if you're on the outside looking in at the moment, because the season is passing us by very, very quickly.
00:09:46
Speaker
You think it's going quick. How many rounds do we have actually? Because I was like, oh, wow, we're only at round six. Well, we only have 14. And now when you say we only have 14, we're almost at halfway. And yes, that does make it feel a lot quicker. Yeah, there's the one round where it's just the Canberra VCOE double header on one weekend and then the rest of the round the next weekend. So eight rounds over nine weeks more or less after this.
00:10:13
Speaker
wow no time to waste and i can't remember if we spoke about in our preview episodes how many games teams ultimately need to win to guarantee a spot in the top eight do you remember
00:10:25
Speaker
I don't know, but I would say it would have to be, I think 12 or 13 would probably do it. I mean, you wouldn't want to get caught on 12 in a tiebreaker, but I think 13 would just about cover all possibilities. I don't know the exact maths, but you think in a 20 game season, half the teams make it. If you can be three games over 500, you'd be dead unlucky to miss finals. I'm not even sure if it's mathematically possible.
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, I couldn't remember. I think I guessed in my head before I asked you 12 or 13 but I wasn't sure if I was getting confused with the WMBL season as well because I remember it was 12 or 13 that teams had to get as well. I mean, we could be in a spot where
00:11:10
Speaker
You know, eighth is on 12 wins, but ninth is only on nine or 10 or something like that. We shall see, but there's certainly three or four teams flying at the top who can almost, you know, almost bank a final spot at this stage. And two of the four teams flying at the tops have a bird as a mascot. So there you go. Maybe that's the secret to success. Possibly. All right. I was in charge of the men's competition this week.
00:11:36
Speaker
And it looks a little like this. Starting off with the Central Coast Crusaders at home, hosting the Canberra Gunners, going down 67-97. Not a great scoring outfit for the Crusaders, only notching 67 points. Leading all scorers for the game was Glen Morrison, the Brindabella Beacon, with 21 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, shooting at 58% overall.
00:12:02
Speaker
Then we headed slightly north when Newcastle hosted the Centre of Excellence at home. Newcastle losing that one 53-76 and a fairly even spread of scores over the COEs roster but leading all scorers was Ryan Beasty from Newcastle with 15-8.
00:12:23
Speaker
Then we headed into the city where the Sydney Comets hosted the Sutherland Sharks. Cometsmen getting up 86 to 66, despite missing the likes of Bewale Bales, Obie Chay, and Choluduk, as you mentioned before. Mundine just lighting it up, 23, 5 and 5. And for the Sharkies, it was Amir with 15 and 2. So a bit of a quiet one there for the Sharkies this week.
00:12:53
Speaker
Then Norse Bears were in the Bear Cave against Penrith and they snatched a 10 point win, 96 to 86. Leading all scorers for the game was Mandrel Worthy from the Norse Bears with 29 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. So really doing a little bit of everything.
00:13:11
Speaker
and a shout out to Brody Schwarzer from Penrith who also had 26 and 4. Then Bankstown Bruins at home against the Aubrey-Wodong Bandits, which looked like a pretty tight competition initially, but the Bankstown Bruins went down 84 to 106 in the end.
00:13:30
Speaker
Leading all scorers was Lachlan Cummings with 24 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals. Then we head down to the south coast where Illawarra hosted the Hornsby Keringi Spiders in another 10 point win in overtime.
00:13:47
Speaker
101 to 91. So Illawarra Hawks winning that overtime period 17 to seven, which was really interesting given that Hornspeed did all the hard work to come back to force it in overtime, winning the fourth quarter 25 to eight. And so Illawarra able to get on top of them in overtime. Leading all scorers in that game was Riley Abercrombie from the Hawks with 32, 5, 4, and 3 steals.
00:14:16
Speaker
Maitland Mustangs are at home in front of what looks like nearly a sold out, if not a sold out home crowd and they suffered their first loss of the season going down 86-101 against the Hills Hornets. The two big names in the Hills Hornets were on fire this game with Ishmael Sanders having 29, 6 and 7 and CB having 27, 7 and 4.
00:14:43
Speaker
Inner West Bulls were at their at home at ELS Hall Park and not at Auburn for this particular game on the Saturday. They hosted the Manly-Waringa Sea Eagles and just went down by three 79 to 82. Leading all scorers for that game was Mason Bragg with 24 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals playing the full 40 minutes. Then Newcastle backed up again at home and this time they hosted Manly
00:15:14
Speaker
And they managed to snatch a big win over Manly 68 to 66 with Ryan Beasty top scoring in the game with 16 points coupled with 12 rebounds and four assists. Then Panaras found their way back at home. And this time they hosted the Aubrey-Wodonga Bandits and another relatively close competition. Unfortunately, the Panaras Panthers losing this one 94 to 109.
00:15:44
Speaker
Brody Schwartzer had another great game with 24-4, 5 assists and 5 steals, but William Hickey led all scorers with 31, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. Hornsby got to have a Sunday home game at the Brick Pit and they hosted the Sydney Comets and again just going down by a fraction, this time losing 71-75.
00:16:12
Speaker
Another game where the scoring was fairly evenly spread with Anthony Mundine able to top score for the Comets again with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals. Illawarra doubled up at home and this time they hosted the North Bears going down 71 to 87 at the snake pit.
00:16:35
Speaker
Leading all scorers for the game was number six from Illawarra, Matthew Friesen, with 28 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. And finally, the Inner West Bulls had another home game. This time was played at Auburn Basketball Centre on the Sunday and they hosted the COE, losing that 178 to 88.
00:16:59
Speaker
Alexander Higgin's titcher from the inner west bulls led all scorers with 23 points, which included 50% from the 3 point line. Looking now to the men's ladder, the men's competition has a new top dog with the Canberra Gunners in first position, now on 8 wins and 1 loss.
00:17:18
Speaker
Maitland Mustangs are now at second with 7 and 1. Aubrey-Wadonga Bandits are in third with 7 and 2. Manly-Waringa Seagulls are in fourth with 5 and 2. And the Inner West Bulls are in fifth with 7 and 3. Then we've got a pretty similar looking log jam here in the men's competition, like you mentioned, for the women's locker.
00:17:42
Speaker
We've got Centre of Excellence in six, Hill's Hornets in seventh, Northspares in eights. They've all played, well, Centre of Excellence and Hill's Hornets are locked at five and three. Then we've got North and Sydney on five and four. Then we've got Bankstown coming in at 10th at four and four. Then we've got Sutherland at 11 with three and five, Crusaders with three and five in 12th, and Newcastle with three and six.
00:18:10
Speaker
and rounding out the ladder is Penrith Panthers in 14th with 1-8 as the same with Illora Hawks in 15th and Hornsby Corringite with 0-10. That first win is coming though soon Hornsby so you just hang in there a little bit longer. Feels a bit like last season they just keep going so close not being able to get it and well eventually they did get one last season so here's hoping.
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. They unfortunately last season missed. They lost a lot of games by fractions, you know, single digit numbers, overtime situations, but they did hold on to get a win for the season. So hoping that this team will be able to do the same. But yeah, it's looking perhaps not as clear cut as some of the women in the top four, but definitely starting to get a little bit muddy in this middle area from about
00:19:06
Speaker
Fifth to say ninth, all looking fairly even. Yeah. And you look who is playing each other next week, Comets versus Bankstown, Sutherland versus COE, Central Coast versus Newcastle.
Upcoming Matches Preview
00:19:21
Speaker
You know, it's a big chance for some of these teams to take a win off teams that they're directly fighting for position with. Yeah, that's a really good point because Gunners play Aubrey as well.
00:19:34
Speaker
And the way that Hills are rolling at the moment, they play Manly Warringa and I think that could be a really crucial win for Hills to go up another step in the ladder. Certainly could. Yeah, looking tantalizing at this stage. I'll tell you what, I'm excited to call Sutherland COE next week. Oh yeah, that would have to be one of the games to look forward to next round. Well, we actually didn't get COE come to town last season.
00:20:03
Speaker
They were one of the teams we only played away. Interesting. So not only is it going to be a nice close game and entertaining game to watch, but also very much so to call because you'll be in charge of the men's competition next episode. What other games were you interested in? What would perhaps be your preferred game of the week?
00:20:26
Speaker
Oh, I don't think you can go too far past, you know, Canberra versus Aubrey Wodonga in the Seabull series. But as you said, that Manly Hills game could be an absolute blockbuster as well. Yeah, I think, yeah, Canberra Aubrey Wodonga gives, I mean, if Aubrey get up, they'll both be at eight and two. So, all to play for and, you know,
00:20:47
Speaker
Canberra only one loss away from, you know, Maitland jumping back to the top of the table. So all to play for right at the top, even though we're only at the midway point of the season. And for me, looking after the women's competition next week, a little bit tricky. I would say Maitland are playing Penrith and that's going to be a really important game for Maitland to get back into the winner's circle.
00:21:13
Speaker
But however, Penrith have been playing really well in the last couple of rounds. So it could be an opportunity for them to snatch you in and go up another place in the ladder. Otherwise it would be Newcastle, Falcons and Crusaders as well in the women's competition. Crusaders in fifth, Falcons in third. Um, good opportunity for crew to build some momentum and um, definitely. Yes. I think, yeah. I mean, Newcastle central coast, the F3 Derby, it's always, uh,
00:21:44
Speaker
It's always an exciting matchup, but I think this week we'll get one of the best men's and women's.
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. A lot to play. High stakes for both of them. You mentioned Penrith. I mean, we mentioned at the start of the season that Talia Tupaya is going to keep them in games by herself. Well, that was before they had Mia Heider, who can rack up double doubles for fun, it seems. Penrith, they didn't go out and get a 6.5. They went out and got a 6.2, 6.3, who they know
00:22:16
Speaker
can dominate in certain situations and i think that's a really good that's a really it was a really smart signing for them and now they've got two two legitimate stars of the league yeah definitely so all eyes on that game as well perhaps next week um but we are still yet to chop up round six so what was the game that you covered this week Lockie?
00:22:40
Speaker
There was only one thing for it. I wanted to go the lazy route and just pick common subtle because I was there. But when I commentate, I often find myself having to rewatch the game anyway, because I'm always so stuck in the moment when I'm commentating. So I, um, I treated myself to five minutes extra basketball and watched the overtime thriller between Newcastle and Manly Waringa, which, uh, as I mentioned earlier, saw
00:23:07
Speaker
Manly get up 78-73 in an absolute blockbuster of a game. I mean, you can tell why these two teams are near the top of the table and in the end it just came down to overtime and Manly had the momentum through the fourth quarter. First thing that came to mind when I watched this game after thinking about it after the game was
00:23:33
Speaker
I say it about turnovers. I say it about points in the paint. And I'm going to say it about back to backs. Not all back to backs are created equal. Manly played Inner West on the Saturday. None of their starters played more than 27 minutes in that game. Newcastle in their win over COE. All of their starters played 32 minutes or more. And Nicole Munger played the full 40 minutes. So whilst they were both on their second game of the weekend,
00:24:02
Speaker
the Newcastle team definitely had a lot more miles in their legs coming into that game. We'll start at the start rather than jump straight into what happened when, you know, that took over. Newcastle, as you'd expect with Isla Jufferman's in the lineup, ultra focused on finding her early. I think they wanted to exploit the hype mismatch with Bowman, Josie Bowman, to the point where
00:24:30
Speaker
When one subbed out, the other subbed out and Brooke Flowers came in. Not about the level of either player, just matchup based. Not trying to buy minutes with Jufferman's off court because Brooke Flowers is too good for that. Jufferman's obviously, we know how good she is, but she's still going up even against someone like Borman who's shorter than her or she gets in there against Delaney who is
00:24:50
Speaker
not as, it's taller than Bolman, but still not as tall as Isla. They've still got veteran strength. I've said this before about Manly. They are, A, more than the sum of their parts on defense, but there were also a lot of very good defenders individually in that team. Manly did run a bit of time, Bolman and Flowers together. That's mean they are playing, still playing without Kim Hodge, who's still out injured. So Kim Dickinson, sorry. And they're still winning. Josie Bolman,
00:25:16
Speaker
Great in the pick and roll. Juffamans only had a short rest in the first quarter. Looked like once they saw flowers, what flowers was doing, they kind of wanted, Newcastle kind of wanted Juffamans to take on flowers. I think maybe the size, the actual like size and strength of Juffamans because flowers is tall, but
00:25:35
Speaker
She's not a big body in the manner of some other players. Nicole Munger scoring in a variety of ways as she always does. When they're not finding Juffamans, they're looking, Munger's trying to create for herself or they're trying to run sets to get Munger open. It was a close start for the game as we expected.
00:25:53
Speaker
Munger had nine points in the first, Josie Ballman had six in the first. What I wrote down is with these front court rotations, you can either, especially when you've got two players, two bigs, who are so different in the form of Ballman and Flowers. It's the same at Sutherland with Liv White or Hannah Kleiner. You can either tolerate the change or you can embrace it.
00:26:19
Speaker
And you can have your offense set up to actually play to both players strengths, or you can kind of like be a, I guess we'll run something for this different style of player. And that's how mainly are getting the best out of both players. They're not running plays for ballroom that they run for flowers. They're not running and vice versa. You know, when flowers is in, flowers is, you know, deep in the paint.
00:26:46
Speaker
They're throwing it up high. And I mean, Alex Delaney's got basketball IQ that is immeasurable. Of course she does. Look who her parents are. Moving to the second quarter, Newcastle bringing those young players in, Matilda Burns.
00:27:02
Speaker
Hannah Chicken, I guess Isla's not from Newcastle, she's been a COE, but she still had that same, a bit of that same effect, and they call it the Wagga effect in sport. And Kyra, I mean, I talked to Kyra Evans about it, in Newcastle, you go up against
00:27:25
Speaker
senior players from a much younger age. And they're also a big enough association to have a lot of good senior players to go up against. So, you know, just a country association that doesn't have a lot of, oh, I'm playing Premier League reps on a Wednesday night at the age of 14. Well, at Newcastle you might be, but you're also going up against very good players. And it's, I think it's doing a lot to help them develop players. They come in and they just look ready to go.
00:27:52
Speaker
And Hannah Chicken came in, she did a really good job. I think I write it down every week, or I think it when I watch them play, Hannah Chicken plays beyond her years, plays bigger than she is, smarter than she is, for the most part. We'll get to that later. Newcastle in the second quarter, still focused on Juffamans, but they weren't as ultra-focused. I mean, obviously great to get deep touch in the paint, but they didn't, you know, make it a non-negotiable kind of thing.
00:28:20
Speaker
They were able to find other players. I mean, that's when they got a role on. They got up to an eight point lead. Isla Jofferman's took an accidental elbow or knock or something.
00:28:31
Speaker
maybe across the bridge or the nose or to the eye, because her eyes were watering, but she wasn't crying. I think it was just the knock made her eyes water and she went off. And at that point, Newcastle were up 37-29. Alex Delaney was dealing for Manly Waringa, finding players, cutting to the basket, making the right decision, but all credit to Newcastle. They managed to maintain the lead. They still led by six at halftime, even after Jofferman's had to come out unexpectedly. It was 43-37 Newcastle at halftime. It was looking
00:29:01
Speaker
A bit like one of those games where Newcastle would be good enough to keep them at arm's length. In the third quarter, it mainly was still good, but the... I mean, Newcastle led throughout, but you could see a bit in the legs for Newcastle after their starters had to play such big men as the previous night compared to what
00:29:24
Speaker
Manly Warringa had to do. I wrote it down. The effect of a back-to-back, Jofferman's coming back from injury as well on a second game of a back-to-back. Maybe doesn't have the legs under, I mean, but she was still, she was, it's also a very physical game in there. Manly took it to her and she performed admirably. I think she shot eight of 18 for the afternoon. Could have finished some better, but I think that's probably a critique you could have of most players, because Newcastle shot 42% from two-point range.
00:29:54
Speaker
Nichols was only 2 or 14. Juffamans was 8 of 18. Kate Kingham, tough day out, 0-5 from the field. Having her out there, though, always is a threat. You still have to close out on it. She could be having the worst shooting night of her life and she could catch fire at any point. But even when other players weren't
00:30:17
Speaker
Making shots, Newcastle always having a calm longer to fall back on. Making space for herself, hitting mid-rangers. Three wasn't really falling that much. Sorry, the three wasn't really falling that much for anybody. Um, especially as the game progressed for Newcastle. I think they were 0 of four in the third from deep and then one of seven in the fourth slash overtime. So one of 11 from three point range to finish out the game.
00:30:47
Speaker
Something I found a bit interesting is when Isla Jofferman's subbed out midway through the third with her third foul, that chicken didn't sub in. So they ran a bit smaller, but they maintained the lead. They were a bit off kilter. It was late in the third, I went and looked at the previous day stats and saw the minutes and I was like, all right, this is starting to make a little bit of sense. So I see it to the point where maybe players aren't quite as
00:31:15
Speaker
I'm not saying enthusiastically, but with as much energy. And at the end of the third quarter, 55-47, Newcastle let it though. They kept building it. At one point, I think it was out to a 12-point advantage for Newcastle. Certainly in the box seat, with eight minutes to play, it was 60-48. So Munga hit a jump shot, a three-pointer with 9.20 to play.
00:31:39
Speaker
That was their first three point attempt of the final quarter, and it would be the only one that would hit from deep for the remainder of the game. Fourth quarter, Falcons, that would have drawn Brooke Flowers out onto the perimeter a couple of times. Obviously, any time they could do that was great. They still had Bowman out on court. Delaney can play probably one through five in this league.
00:32:04
Speaker
If they ever had Ballman and Flowers on court together, yeah, it's a lot more difficult to take advantage of anything, even if you draw Flowers out to the perimeter. Munger working as she always does. Finish with 32, but only five of those points came after she hit that three. Manly able to prevent her from scoring. Juffman's got a fourth foul just trying to barrel through Jersey Ballman and Alex Delaney and the paint. They just double teamed her.
00:32:33
Speaker
wasn't trying to barrel through it was trying to like split defenders from a standing start, just couldn't move them out of the way. And I initially thought it was just a travel. It was that perky jerky between the three of them in there.
00:32:46
Speaker
I thought it was just going to be a travel, and it ended up being an offensive foul call. Brooke Flowers just able to take advantage, just got a couple of catches in the paint, and with no Isla there, they just put it way up high. Even if Flowers missed it first, she was able to clean up and get the second, and Matilda Burns came into the game for Isla. The latter stages of the second game of a back-to-back, it's getting tight, manly catching up.
00:33:11
Speaker
I've got to give credit to both teams in the fourth. I won't give credit to our offense because I think there were four or five turnovers in the space of six possessions between both teams. I don't think a single point came from them. And they were all light ball turnovers. But it wasn't the teams getting the steal, messing up. It was just great transition defense. It was like, you get into a desperate situation and you know every basket is out of count and dead set.
00:33:39
Speaker
They look like Tori Lewis getting back on defense. They look like hundred-meter sprinters. There's no quarter-ars, none given. Fair play to Manly. They chipped away at it. Zoe Miller. Sorry Newcastle fans for bringing up Zoe Miller going off in the- well, not off. Zoe Miller going well in the fourth quarter of a game again at Newcastle Stadium, unless she's in the 2022 finals. She was one of six from deep, but that one,
00:34:04
Speaker
was with 2.43 to play in the fourth to get it back to 64.61 to Newcastle. So cut the lead in half. Shortly after Kingham fouled out scrapping for a loose ball with Zoe Miller. Miller got to the floor first. Kingham reached in and just hit her on the shoulder on the way through it.
00:34:23
Speaker
just a pity that it was on her fifth vow. Newcastle laid on, throwing, I think they threw two or three defenders at Alex Delaney as soon as she had a passing lane to Bolman, got it to her, tied the game.
00:34:37
Speaker
Then they took the lead. So Newcastle in the dying minutes on the dice stages in the final minute. Who do they turn to? The cold monger. Just too, too good when a team needed to do the most. Got to the ball, got to the rack, laid at home. 66 apiece. Manly did have a chance to win it. And the pass, I think it was, it was Delaney on the left wing
00:35:02
Speaker
Henderson cut baseline, Delaney bounced past it, it just didn't get up. Henderson just had to reach at the knees and fumbled it out of bounds. It was just, would have been a tough finish, I think, but it would have been, it would have been a chance. Manly almost had a chance to win it in regulation and Newcastle just had a three quarter court heave. Cause they were, they couldn't advance. Well, they were out of time outs after that was dropped out of bounds. So that was unfortunate, but we headed into overtime and I think everybody,
00:35:32
Speaker
maybe accept the players and the coaches. Everybody in the stadium, in the stands, was very happy for the five extra minutes of basketball. I know I was. Newcastle, again, first possession of overtime, throw it into Jofferman's, is patient, hooks at home, 68-66.
Overtime Thriller: Newcastle vs. Manly Waringa
00:35:48
Speaker
Second offense, get the stop, second offensive possession of overtime. I went from screaming at Isla Jofferman to put the ball in the basket, to applauding her patience in the space of about four seconds.
00:36:02
Speaker
Cause she got the ball and she might've been about maybe half a meter further out than she was in the previous possession. She doesn't even back down the defender, dribbles all the way back up to the elbow, passes it back out to Munger. Munger gives it to, to chicken in the corner whilst Jufferman's reset gets the feed from chicken, drops it home.
00:36:26
Speaker
just to play beyond her years, just, just smart. I absolutely loved it. I think it was, it was the play that impressed me most from Isla all game, just the way she, she recognized the situation and she went in there and, you know, reset her position and got there. And I think at that stage, I actually said to myself, how the hell to merely win this game? Because if they could keep getting the ball in there, um,
00:36:52
Speaker
Yeah, it didn't look good for Manly, but Fowl started racking up. Chicken got her fourth, Miller went to the line, got one of two. It was the story of the afternoon, was one of two at the line, I think. In Newcastle, five of 10 at the line for the game, and 16 of 27 for Manly Waringa. But then Manly managed to completely shut down Munger and Nichols and forced a shot clock violation. And then Annie Henderson,
00:37:19
Speaker
Chicken caught between a rock and a high play. She's on four fouls. Henderson, like, you don't want to commit because you got four fouls, but in that situation, every basket is just so, so vital that you sort of, you're almost compelled to go for the block. And by the time she made the decision, Henderson was pastor and Annie Henderson got the end one and Hannah Chicken unfortunately fouled out, which was an unfair way for the game to end or
00:37:46
Speaker
It's really for the weekend to end for Hannah Cheeky. She had 11 points. She was five of six from two point range. She was, if she was finishing just, well, yeah, five of six, just about every opportunity she got in close, she finished. I wrote down, where's the feed to Isla Jofferman's in the late stages? Just a bit too much dribbling. I wrote it down, but then a couple of possessions later,
00:38:10
Speaker
Josie Ballman was able to get from position on Ireland and just tip the ball away for a turnover. And that's almost where it ended. But then next time Joffens did get a catch, Munger ended up at the line because she dished it off to Munger and Munger got to the line. But in the end, it came down to in the final couple, in the final few possessions were mainly good enough at the free throw line. And I'm not sure it would have been good enough for Nathan Kerwin in isolation, but it was good enough to get them the points they needed to
00:38:41
Speaker
get over the line. Miller went one of two again. Miller went two of two at the line. Delaney went one of two at the line. That actually made it 78, 71. And then Sophie Brennan just got a two point layup with the siren going off in the background. So it was actually, it was 78, 71. And just that last basket trimmed the margin to five. But
00:39:04
Speaker
Hey, with those two teams and how close is it to the top of the table, three-way splits, four-way splits could happen. And those two points could mean something at the end of this, at the end of the season. Yeah, 78-73, manly Waringa as they have for most of the season, doing it.
00:39:22
Speaker
without Kim Dickinson, Kim Hodge, who's still out in a boot. That was the game. We look at the, look at the stats. I said early in manga 32 and nine, Juffman 17 and 10, but yes, their shooting percentage, I think it tailed off throughout the game. It started at 61% and it dropped literally in every quarter. Whereas Manly Warringo bounced back from a pretty, pretty mediocre third quarter shooting to shoot 64% in the fourth quarter. So,
00:39:52
Speaker
definitely diverging fortunes as the game continued. And that shows out in the way that Manly were able to reel the Falcons in. That, yeah, that is, I mean, as I mentioned earlier, it just wasn't Kate Kingham's day. Munger was three of nine. Brie Delaney and Zoe Miller, two of 12 between them. Even Ali's Delaney not shooting it that well either. Two of nine. Yeah, it was 16% for
00:40:22
Speaker
Manly Warringa and 22% for Newcastle. And as I mentioned earlier, that streak of one of 11 from deep to finish the game could have been very, very different if either team could shoot, could have shot better from deep. Manly in regulation only let it, they let it early for the first few minutes and then 20 seconds.
00:40:49
Speaker
of regulation between the second, third and fourth quarter. And that was all in the final minute of regulation. But nonetheless, Manly Waringa escaped with the win. We saw it in Comet Sutherland men that with two players out. Now, Locky Lonergan has a ridiculously difficult decision to make, but I'm sure it's a headache that he likes to have, because he's now got about eight players that have shown they can be primary scoring options. And Manly Waringa have had, you know, a player like Bolman step up and
00:41:18
Speaker
in Kim Hodges absence and show that she is, you know, she can play 25, 30 minutes a night. So a luxury of a headache to have for coach Nathan Kerwin. Yeah, I always believe as well that star team is always going to beat a team of stars, as they say. Well, what if your team, what if your star team is also a team of stars?
00:41:41
Speaker
Well, I mean, it still means that they have to be able to prioritize good teamwork and good team concepts over their individual performances, which is where it can really fall down for some teams, including some current teams in the East in the men's and women's competition. I feel like that is their Achilles heel, rather than utilizing their entire
00:42:04
Speaker
I mean, that just comes down to really, really good coaching as well. And not necessarily abiding by those kinds of coaching rules of our so-and-so is our best score. They've got to get 20 plus shots up a game. But when you've got your players one to nine that can all score and all have those strengths, why wouldn't you use them? Exactly. Just run with whoever's hot on the night. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:42:33
Speaker
I'm just trying to find when Manly and Newcastle play each other again. So round 11, so there suddenly that last Sophie Brennan basket is could be a two-way, you could just be a head-to-head series effect, not just a three or four-way tie if Newcastle and Manly do face each other again. And we mentioned it on the call on Saturday night is, I've been at games where a team's been up by 11 and called a time out.
00:43:01
Speaker
and everybody's wondering why. The opposition coach is blowing up, the fans are like, oh, they're just running up the score. And it's like, no, three months ago, they lost to this team by 12. They need to get this, they need this last basket with the last possession of the game.
00:43:14
Speaker
All right, so I'm looking forward to when they match up again in round 11. As you mentioned, we only have 14 rounds. So I think it's a bit of a serendipitous time that they meet again, given they've met in round six. They're going to meet in round 11, which by then we're expecting some teams to really tear away and stay at the top. So this could be a very interesting game for both Manly and Newcastle to cement their position going into finals.
00:43:41
Speaker
Certainly could. I mean, manly Warringa, they've got in the next few weeks, they've got Hills and then the Spirit Bridge Stauch against Norse. Maitland at Maitland. That's never easy. Albury-Wodonga, Penrith, Bankstown, and then back to Newcastle. So few potential, potential banana skins for the undefeated Sea Eagles. Well, hopefully they have Honey Badger back sooner rather than later.
00:44:08
Speaker
Yeah, she might be coming in just at the right time. Very good. Well, I'm glad that was an entertaining game and really lived up to the expectation. Certainly did. All right. So I covered a couple of high flies of the men's competition being Maitland Mustangs versus the Hills Hornets. So as we previously mentioned, this was Maitland's first loss of the season.
00:44:33
Speaker
And so when I saw that, I had to investigate. It's always interesting when I'm like, what happened? Because Maitland went down 86 to 101, 15 point loss in regular time. Not one of the exciting overtime games of the round, but nonetheless, still an exciting game.
00:44:51
Speaker
If you were to watch this game without a scoreboard, you probably wouldn't have expected the margin to be 15. But like I mentioned as well, full house there at the Maitland Federation Center, especially lots of kids in the crowd. Um, so really good turnout for the men's game, which is pretty cool. The game was called by Caleb Fogarty, of course, again at play by play, doing a great job. And he had Lachlan Beavis doing the color. Really?
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah, which I thought was great because, you know, Lachlan Beavis himself being a Maitland junior, New South Wales representative, part of this team not too long ago and has now turned his hand to coaching. So I thought that was a really nice pairing for the commentary for this game.
00:45:38
Speaker
It was an atypical start to a men's game and perhaps I'm saying that more because part of the men's game I saw the day before was up here in NBA One North and a very typical start to that game where, you know, fast paced, we go down one end, we get a quick shot.
00:45:54
Speaker
We go down the other end, we get a quick shot. We go down one end, we get a quick shot until like each team kind of get that frenetic nervous energy out and then start to actually play with some team concepts. Not everyone's so eager to get the first score just so our nerves can settle. This game was a little bit atypical. There were a lot of fouls called early in this game.
00:46:14
Speaker
There were actually quite a few fouls called in the game in general, so a lot of the star players were Maitland unfortunately finding themselves in foul trouble at times. Notably, Billy Parsons had two offensive fouls in the first two and a half minutes of the game, which is a shame because
00:46:33
Speaker
Weirdly offensive fouls always come with some kind of stigma, which is hard to explain unless you are a basketball person. You understand what that means, right? The plus side is that he was being aggressive very early and I really like that this Maitland team compared to last season have become collectively a lot more aggressive.
00:46:52
Speaker
And they're putting a lot more trust in each other and they're supporting each other a lot more by being in the right receiver spots and floor spots in the event that the person going to score doesn't have a clear shot. So they're definitely looking like a more naturally united, trusted team in each other's abilities and there isn't that
00:47:16
Speaker
natural kind of go-to of like, oh, the shot clock's winding down, get it to Will, we'll just do something. Oh, we're down by 10, we'll just do something. There isn't that anymore. It's nice. And you know, of course, Will Cranston-Lown's always going to play his best and always going to be a scoring threat. On this particular game, he was still a threat, but he just didn't produce as much as he liked, but he still didn't have a bad game. I think he's just
00:47:41
Speaker
setting a very high standard for himself now. So a quiet game for him this week was 13 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and a steal. He was 5 from 18, which was 27.78% overall. But I really had to feel for the guy because they were all great shots. They were all his regular kind of shots, great counter moves. They just kept bouncing out.
00:48:04
Speaker
It was one of those games where a couple of the early shots were in and then they bounce out, they bounce out, they rim around. The rings on both ends of the court actually looked a little bit loose. So you know sometimes how you see a shot go up and it'll bounce off the ring and the ring almost seems to shake a little bit rather than absorb a lot of its own shock. The rings looked a little bit like that for both ends, particularly the end that was in front of the hills bench.
00:48:34
Speaker
So both teams kind of had to suffer through that at some stage of the game. But yeah, sorry, I was going back to the foul. So sorry, Christian Little has three. Billy Parsons ended up with four. Milburn ended up with three. Clifford ended up having four.
00:48:50
Speaker
But the same for Heels as well. Liam Moss, CB, Murmoy Sia, he had four as well. And I'm gonna say this in the nicest possible way. I feel like the quick officiating, and it was a little bit trigger happy this game, and I think it really influenced the flow of the game.
00:49:09
Speaker
Yeah like I mentioned a lot of fouls called really early and a lot of them shooting fouls so Maitland's first like three to five points were actually from free throws. Yes I feel like that really influenced the game both teams getting very frustrated. I don't feel like it was particularly more physical than any other game.
00:49:31
Speaker
And I wonder if they had just let that go just a little bit more. If we would have had either a different result or the shape of the game would have been a little bit different. Just let them play out a little bit. Yeah both teams getting a little bit chippy with each other. I think though that was a little bit of a boil over of frustration from some of the other referee calls. Both coaches just blowing up. So the first quarter like I said for Maitland,
00:49:56
Speaker
Got to the line quite a few times. And their first few points were from free throws. Billy Parsons, like I mentioned, got two offensive fouls in the first two and a half minutes. So he had to be subbed off. And Hills took a little while to get going though. It ended up being with CB getting a nice layup in the post. And then very quickly they got a steal and another quick layup. Hills were already very much back into it. They didn't let Maitland get away too far away.
00:50:24
Speaker
some really nice matchups in this game. I was hoping CB was going to match up with James Hunter or Matt Gray but it turns out that they put Billy Parsons on CB which in hindsight is probably a better choice in terms of foot speed and then then it frees up Matt Gray and James Hunter to go and guard someone else and maybe freeze them up then to go and chase some rebounds as well. And another nice matchup was Ish Sanders and Christian Little.
00:50:51
Speaker
But Christian Little had that interview coming into this season saying how he wants to focus on his defense. Tell you what can he defend? Man, he only had two steals, but his intensity, his quickness, his ability to be right up in someone's face without overplaying and he's solid. He's a solid guy. Yeah. I was, I really liked how he played defense.
00:51:15
Speaker
Yeah, I hope he can turn it up another little notch because he could potentially be a defensive player of the year nomination. Big call, I know, big call. And then what was interesting is that Hill started to play a little bit of zone. So they were switching it up between man and zone. I think they were going back into a zone after a score perhaps or vice versa. But that zone really started to rattle Maitland early.
00:51:41
Speaker
and so Heels recognised that and ended up going back to that zone throughout the game. What I really liked about the Heels zone and Maitland zone when they played it a bit later, but the Heels zone, it wasn't a lazy zone, it was still a very active 2-3 zone. The two guards at the top were extending out between the elbow and the three-point line, sometimes even pushing the ball quite past the three-point line. But what was really good is that they had really good second line of rotations in that zone and sometimes
00:52:10
Speaker
doubling down on a post-catch. He also got a lot of really great young players who I actually haven't seen play before, I don't think, because I think they're coming up from Youth League. So the likes of Campbell Green, Jamie Monroe, Mitchell Smith, they were all really great additions. Very quick, very good role players as well, not getting intimidated by playing
00:52:33
Speaker
upper rank in NBA one East, but also not shying away from contributing as much as I can. The person I was most impressed with in Hills was Joe Patmore. Such a good player, does everything, great decision-making in the crunch. He had 17 points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals. He shot eight from 11 overall, just a really solid consistent player. And he just made some really good plays. And his defense as well was really, really good.
00:53:03
Speaker
I gotta say, after I had a winch a couple of episodes ago about the standard of defence in the league, where I was like, listen, this is semi-pro, you need to at least be playing defence in the backcourt. This game, lots of defence in the backcourt, consistently for the game, defence in the backcourt, unless there were, even sometimes when they were falling back into a zone, there was still defence in the backcourt.
00:53:27
Speaker
A lot of turning, channeling, good intensity. So big ticks for both teams for that defensive intensity. So I thought there were a couple of tech fouls and they were very early tech fouls in the first and it really set the tone for the rest of the game and perhaps not in a good way. But both CB and Daniel Milburn ended up getting tech fouls in the first quarter because they were trash talking each other.
00:53:50
Speaker
the threat of getting a tech for trash talking was felt by the players because it continued through the whole game and if not got worse by the fourth. Coming into the second quarter, Maitland had 10 turnovers by the eight minute mark, which isn't really like them. I think that is reflective of how intense and how active Hill's defense was. And I don't think Maitland were expecting that either. So perhaps that rattled them a little bit.
00:54:19
Speaker
Um, they weren't getting away with the things that they're probably used to coupled with a couple of mental lapses on defensive transition for Maitland. And then this is when their shots really started to bounce around and bounce off and be on target and just pop out the whole glad rap on the rings kind of thing. That's when Maitland probably started to face their first hurdle, but then they kind of replied.
00:54:43
Speaker
coming into the halftime by upping their own defensive pressure, channeling, turning in the backcourt as well. And then that turned into a couple of quick scores on the other end. And so they made a pretty decent run by
00:54:58
Speaker
halftime like it didn't feel like all was lost but for hills uh in this second quarter they continued to play this 2-3 zone and what was really good was that they were turning 2-3 zone into some good stops and when they would run they would actually run as a pack
00:55:14
Speaker
So they weren't just relying on the guards at the top to go and make the score. There were at least four of them running back in transition together. So a couple of stops and runs was really good. Like I mentioned, they were doubling down or trapping on the post-catch and they were up by 22 points at six minutes. And like I said, with Maitland, whose shots just kept bobbling out, he always just made everything. They got the role on everything, which put them up by 25 at four and a half minutes.
00:55:44
Speaker
I was really impressed as well. I mentioned a lot of young players for Hills learning their role and being very good at sticking to their role in the team. And their team basketball from Hills was really sound. So a lot of quick ball movement, a lot of quick decision-making. No one's really holding on for it too long. They had a really nice flow to their half court offense. As I mentioned before, Maitland then started to make a late run when they upped their defensive pressure and started running as a pack in reply.
00:56:11
Speaker
But a big momentum killer happened at two minutes and eight seconds where Hills went up for a transition basket. One Maitland player came in and fouled and the other slapped the ball. So they got called for goaltending and one foul. Absolute momentum killer for them. So by halftime, it was 40 to 58 in favor of Hills and Ish Sanders had 22 points in the first half.
00:56:34
Speaker
Something that I picked up on, perhaps a little bit too late in the game, now we're rolling into the third, was I was hoping that the Times' Campbell Green from Hills, who's a young centre, he has experience of playing for Australia as a junior. I think he played at the Under-17 Men's World Cup in 2018, next to the likes of a young Luke Travers and Juanis Waka Leboulik. Pretty good company to keep.
00:57:02
Speaker
But I thought that the times when Campbell Green was guarding James Hunter, I'd be pumping it into Hunter. Exploit that. You've got size, you've got skill set, you've got the physicality. Just get the ball to Hunter and try and exploit that, that match up a little bit more. But we didn't see too much of that. Hunter relatively quiet as well. He played 23 minutes.
00:57:25
Speaker
and he had 8 points and 6 rebounds but he shot at 50% which was really good. In the third shots finally started to drop for Maitland and they ended up trying a 2-3 zone. So this third quarter Maitland ended up winning 29-18 so certainly clawing their way back.
00:57:42
Speaker
A lot of second chance points and they tweaked their zone offense a little bit more so they had a lot more high post action in the zone. So instead of their high post player going to either elbow, they ended up just catching it in the middle of the free throw line and going to work from there.
00:58:00
Speaker
which surprisingly worked a lot. They're all men and taking up a lot more space and sometimes that particular spot in a zone offense can be a little bit awkward for a post-entry, but it worked really well for them. They had Parsons, Hunter, Gray getting some rippin' goes from that spot.
00:58:19
Speaker
I also have to give a bit of a shout out to Luca Vey. He played 21 minutes. He had eight points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals, shot three from five. I forgot he was only 20. He plays with a lot more maturity than a 20 year old. He also just was a great role player and coming in, knowing his job, doing his job, going off again. He was really consistent.
00:58:43
Speaker
For Hills in the third, yeah, they played zone and they ended up playing zone off a score, off a miss or a turnover or a dead ball, they were going back and playing man to man, still continuing to extend the defense in the back court, but otherwise nothing really significant in the third from Hills.
00:59:00
Speaker
So by three-quarter time it was 69 to 76 in favor still of Hills. Will Cranston-Lown going into the fourth was still aggressive on offense but just got so unlucky. Just still couldn't get some to drop and sometimes it just takes one and that person's okay. His were all on target and they just couldn't drop.
00:59:21
Speaker
Maitland up again, Maitland again up to their on-ball defense and even pushing hills way beyond the three-point line. So sometimes it would really kind of stop Maitland's half-court offense and chew up a lot more time on the shock clock. But Maitland kind of let themselves down a couple of times where hills would drive to get around that extended pressure and be let down by a really slow rotation in the second line of defense.
00:59:51
Speaker
particularly in this quarter there was an incident where Josh Clifford was just watching his man and not watching the ball.
00:59:59
Speaker
drive happens and he's way too late and he commits another foul. Then Maitland's decision-making starts to go a little bit wayward in the fourth. Obviously very desperate to chip away at the lead, time's running out, you want to get some shots, but I think some particular players decided to play hero ball a little bit too much and taking three-pointers way too early in their offense.
01:00:22
Speaker
because the thing that was working for them that got them their momentum in the second and started to get their fight back in the third was all their defense and second chance points. So you just got to stick to that and then just keep focusing on finishing and getting good shots. By the time these particular people in Maitland were taking way too many shots and playing hero ball, it just killed it for the rest of the team. A particular person seen as a star in that team and left on the court to play
01:00:50
Speaker
But if that were me, I'd be pulling their arse off and having a bit of a talking to. But that's just me. I don't get in the politics of coaching anymore. In the fourth quarter for Hills, Pat Moore banked a three at the seven minute mark, which was a much needed score from Hills because they were a little bit quiet from then on. And that was over a hand. So that was probably another dagger in Maitland's back.
01:01:14
Speaker
And by seven minutes, they still held on to an eight point lead. They switched up their D in the fourth and played mostly man, but it was just their really sound team concepts and receiver spots that made them quite hard to beat in that fourth quarter. And that was, again, from a lot of those young players just being in the right spot at the right time.
01:01:35
Speaker
So Hills ended up with 25 assists for this game, which I was really impressed with. And Maitland still had 19 with Christian Little having six. But before I get into some of those stats, I will just say it was a really, really great game. High intensity. I love the defense in the backcourt, like I mentioned. I like the variation between zone and man, just keeping it really, really simple. I know this is probably going to hurt Coach Boyle, but they just got unlucky. Fowls were 18 apiece.
01:02:05
Speaker
Like I said earlier, a lot of it could have just been played through, just let the game flow. And, um, Maitland, yeah, just got unlucky with their shots on their home court. Just kept bouncing out, go tighten those rings or something. They still shot, didn't shoot too badly.
01:02:21
Speaker
Overall, Maitland shot 45.95%, Hills shooting at 52.56%. However, Maitland just struggling from the three point line and again, maybe coming down to decision making a little bit in the stretch. They only had three from 19, which is 15.79%. Whereas Hills had 10 from 29, so 10 more three point attempts, which is pretty massive.
01:02:45
Speaker
and they shot at 34.48, just shy of double or just a little bit more than double. But yeah, I already mentioned, yeah, the assists were great from hills 25 to 19, 19 still good. Maitland surprisingly won the rebound count though, 44 to 33.
01:03:04
Speaker
And they got to the free throw line 21 times. They shot 15 from 21, which isn't too bad. 71.43% overall. And Hill's only got to the line 11 times. Very nitpicky with statistics. I don't think anything was really significant in those statistics to say, oh yeah, that's definitely why Hill's won that game, other than perhaps the assists.
01:03:29
Speaker
But it was really just down to making shots at the right time, decision making and tightening those rings. Yeah. I mean, we mentioned as much during the Southern comments game and it was because Southern were leaving so many points at the line. I think that was sub 50% for free throws at one point. I'm talking like six of 13 or something. And just saying that even a couple
01:03:53
Speaker
You get those baskets and it just changes the dynamic of how you have to play down the stretch. If you're down by six instead of 12. You don't even think about playing hero ball. No, absolutely not.
01:04:12
Speaker
A real sign of immaturity when you're in that situation, you can feel your team building momentum to try and chip away to lead. And that's when you tuck the ball under your ring and shoot poor decision-making, like very poor three-point attempts. And you know what? For players who want to reach the next level, coaches are going to see that. The older you get and the higher the level you play, it's more and more about smarts and mental toughness.
01:04:37
Speaker
than it is about your athleticism and your skill set. You've got to still have that maturity to back it up. Something to take with a grain of salt perhaps, but coaches are watching that. If you're scouting that game, the particular player who probably made some poorer decisions from the three-point line in the stretch, and look, I don't know, maybe he was told to do that. I don't know that was what
01:05:01
Speaker
Coach Ball said, hey, anytime you touch it, it's going up. Maybe he said that, but it just wasn't, just wasn't working. And I mean, you could very easily goat them on, right? If they're shooting poorly and it's a player who likes to trash talk, you very much just get under their skin in that sense. But it's, I'm really glad I watched that game. I really like how much Maitland have improved in playing together compared to last season.
01:05:26
Speaker
I really like how consistently they are playing now with intensity at both ends of the court, because that was one of my gripes from last season. And this Hills team really liking the look of this Hills team. Considering it's a very different roster from last season, a lot of new talent coming up from Youth League, they have really great chemistry already. And you can tell that they're all buying into Coach Potter's concepts. Hills men's a bit of a dark horse, I think this season.
01:05:53
Speaker
Yeah. Is it, was it the kind of performance you could see them putting together three times in a row in finals against big name opposition? I mean, at the moment, they're probably, they're five and three. So they're probably not likely to be, you know, home team playing, you know, the eight seed in the first round kind of thing. You're going to have to do it the hard way. Yeah. I think I'll have to watch another game of theirs where
01:06:22
Speaker
they are put under a little bit more adversity to see how they handle it. And then I'd be able to make that judgment call, I think.
01:06:29
Speaker
Because while there were a couple of adversities in this game that they handled pretty well, it was just bad luck for Maitland. Hills weren't really put under too much of the pump that they couldn't overcome it. Like it wasn't like Maitland all of a sudden started making all of their shots and they're like, oh, wow, crap. Now we're down by five points. How are we going to get out of it as Hills? Maitland was just so unlucky. I mean, if it's, if it's 75 a piece with five minutes to go against Manly next week and they pull that one out.
01:06:57
Speaker
that might tell us just how good they are yeah i think so i think so i think we'll only know
01:07:03
Speaker
within the next couple of rounds. That's a fun little stretch for Hills. You know, play Maitland, play Manly. It really shows. It'll tell them a lot about themselves as well. That's right. And hopefully they're able to keep a lot of this core young group for next year and keep building around a solid foundation. I think a lot of the young players who have come up for Hills this season are also Hills juniors.
01:07:30
Speaker
So, possibility of creating their own dynasty there. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I've seen a lot of them around Youth League and even maybe on the bench getting minutes here or there in MBL1 last year. But yeah, it's good to see. We're actually, we're talking at comments about Campbell Green.
01:07:46
Speaker
We're actually saying some nice things about him, coincidentally, because my co-commentator at Comets is Freddie Jensen, who's won two Youth League championships with Comets. So if you want to talk about Youth League men's basketball with someone, he's probably the go-to. He'd be well and truly across it. And that was that game.
01:08:05
Speaker
Hopefully Maitland, you know, Maitland are obviously going to be disappointed with the loss, given that they've had such a strong start to the season. But, you know, my philosophy is that it's good to get a loss early, test your weak areas and make sure that they're kind of ironed out coming into finals time. It'd be interesting to see what Coach Boyle thinks are the main areas of improvement from that game. I'm sure he sees it very differently from my amateur eyes.
01:08:28
Speaker
But for me, I was like, Oh, you just got a bit unlucky. And maybe it's just the mental game of being able to handle things when they're not going your way. Rolling onto news and gossip for MBL One East round six. Have you got anything lucky? I've got four new players in the league. Four? Okay. Tell me about them. Well, actually, sorry. I think a couple of newbies and a player movement.
01:08:55
Speaker
The player movement, I know, but the other three, I don't know. Maybe start with them. Well, you already mentioned one of them who's, uh, Pavé and Mama Sia at Hills. He had 13 points, I think, first up this weekend. Yeah, that's not a name that I've come across before. No, played at, uh, Lincoln University, um, played in the NZNBL, uh, for Atago and Manawatu, uh, listed as a 6-3 point guard. So, and already showing you out in the win for,
01:09:26
Speaker
his new club. Yeah, he was really impressive, actually. I quite liked how he played. And then, um, you also mentioned, there's actually a second week here, but I forgot to mention him last week is, uh, Matt Frierson at Illawarra. He's, uh, already coming out and showing himself to be a, uh, a big, big signing for Illawarra. Uh, he had a 2020 odd on the weekend. He's, uh, played in Germany. Uh, he went to Citadel, which is a, uh,
01:09:53
Speaker
a military college. So not the army academy, but a military college nonetheless. He's from Laurel, Maryland. He's played in Germany and in Brazil and is now playing for Illawarra. Been around the world and found himself in the snake pit. Very much so. And then on the women's side, Courtney Murphy is playing for Hornsby. So Courtney Murphy is from Queensland.
01:10:20
Speaker
She played a college ball at Seattle U where a lot of Aussies have been over the years. And she also plays AFLW. And so she was playing for the Lions and she's just been, oh, she was traded in December to the Giants. So now she's in Sydney and her name popped up on the Hornsby roster on the weekend. Well, damn. Yeah.
01:10:45
Speaker
Welcome to the East, Courtney. So there's some three pretty decent additions to MB01 East for one round. Yeah. And then, of course, the player movement, seeing as he's up at your old club or still your club, I'll leave that one to you.
01:11:03
Speaker
I mean, they'll always have a piece in my heart, weren't they, the Crusaders? Yeah, this one I found interesting locky because I saw the announcement on Instagram, which is, you know, my reliable news source. Yeah, Callum McDonald, who was someone from NBL One South, as we mentioned in our preview episode, played for the Melbourne Tigers, had signed with Aubrey Wodonga Bandit's men. And I saw that he's now signed with the Central Coast Crusaders. And that kind of...
01:11:32
Speaker
made me realize that I don't think I had seen him suit up for all real season. That was exactly my thought. I was like, hang on there.
01:11:42
Speaker
Not too sure what the full story is between the move. I mean, I know that Crusaders probably need another consistent big to help out time again in an undersized William Bates. So he's going to be a great addition because it doesn't look like some of the other tall players in crew are actually playing that traditional five spot. So I think Callan will slot in nicely. And not too sure exactly why he's not with Aubrey anymore, but sometimes these things just don't work out and
01:12:11
Speaker
people have a mutual breakup and go their separate ways. A conscious uncoupling. Yes, yes. Perfect, perfect use of conscious uncoupling. Yes, ticks. I love that. That was the only news and gossip I have. I'm sure that I would have missed some though. So if anyone out there has any, oh, it looks like you've got your hand up. What do you got for me? Opal squad. Oh my gosh. Yeah, the opal squad.
01:12:40
Speaker
So they're going to China and then China are coming out to Melbourne. So this is basically a reciprocal trip for that big basketball showcase that we have in Melbourne in July. Oh, of course. I remember when that was advertised and I immediately was like, no, I'm poor. I can't go. And I put my phone down and I've forgotten about it ever since.
01:13:04
Speaker
Yes. So it, I'm sorry, the tour to China will be May 26th to June 3rd. And it features three MBL one East members, two players and a coach. So Lauren Nicholson and Lauren Jackson, uh, the two players and Renee Gallop will be an assistant coach. So North well, I'd say Sutherland are going to be without one of their stars, but
01:13:32
Speaker
We haven't had her this season yet, so it's pretty much business as usual for the Sharks, but for North and Aubrey Wodonga, we've seen two vital pieces on that weekend. So what are the dates again? May which? May 26th to June 3rd are the games. So Aubrey Wodonga Bandits play Paneroth on the 25th and they play The Crusaders on June 1st and Manly on June 2nd.
01:14:02
Speaker
And the Sharks have Newcastle on May 25th and Bankstown on June 1st, and then Central Coast on June 2nd. But I'm not sure if Nicholson would have even been ready to come back and play by then anyway. But nonetheless, they'll be off in China.
01:14:23
Speaker
looking to further stake their claim for an Olympic berth. Of course, with the WNBA players not available, you know, it's a chance for the next 12 up. Interesting that the squad was announced before the last WNBA cuts were made though. Cause you have to imagine that someone like Atwell or Shelley who were among, who will cut after this squad was announced, whether they would have been a shout of getting into the squad.
01:14:50
Speaker
But what a great opportunity for MBL One East to be represented with a coach and two players. And while LJ is away, it's an opportunity for a couple of teams to really test Aubrey. It's also an opportunity for Aubrey with Dongar because if LJ goes to the Olympics, they'll be without her around finals time, I would think so. When does unique Thompson actually start playing?
01:15:19
Speaker
I actually don't know. Well, she had to get here soon. She wants to qualify for finals, though. And I have been told that she'll make it because she'll be playing at least 11 games. So that means she'll be here next weekend because they only have 11 games left in the regular season to play. Well, well, well. They've already played nine. How the tables have turned. No, not really. How the turntables. How the turntables. That's great timing. So she's going to come in just as LJ, just before LJ leaves.
01:15:49
Speaker
Oh, that Sammy Mac is a smart bloke. He is. It's all over it. And, uh, finally, I just want to shout out, um, lots of college graduation ceremonies over in the States this week. All our New South Wales players who were graduating college would have walked across the stage this week. I saw Beck Dalinger and Tatiana Beaumont. So Beck Dalinger, uh, former Norse player.
01:16:14
Speaker
Tatiana Beaumont from Penrith. I saw both of them posting their graduation photos. I'm sure there were plenty of others I didn't see, but congratulations to one and all on completing your college journey. So grown up. I know, right? You just grow up before your eyes, don't they? All right. Now, the more important segment of the episode,
01:16:39
Speaker
Jersey of the Week. I can see what you have in the background, which makes me very excited, but please tell our audience. Okay, so of course, Mother's Day. Yesterday, I had to share my birthday with Mother's Day, which meant that the pub was packed with families. Oh my goodness. They stamped families.
01:17:00
Speaker
Once a decade, I got to share my birthday with Mother's Day, but so bad. So of course, I picked one of the mothers in MBL1 East for my Jersey of the Week. This is a Leilani Mitchell jersey for the Sydney Uni Flames from season 2014-15. So her first stint with the Flames.
01:17:21
Speaker
Because she played a season, Flames made the preliminary final after they beat Penny Taylor's Dandenong Rangers in the semi. So Penny Taylor stepped on Paris Johnson's foot and rolled her ankle, and after that, Flames rolled home. And then, so that was the season she played, and then she came back two seasons later and led the Flames to the championship.
01:17:44
Speaker
Yes, Leilani Mitchell 2014-15 and yes, a belated Happy Mother's Day to all the MBL1 East Mothers out there. That is the perfect jersey for this weekend and for Jersey of the Week. Now before we head into our athlete interview for this week, we are heading into our All-Star five for round six and lucky you covered the women's competition. Was it tough picking a five this week as it has been the other week?
01:18:14
Speaker
As per usual, Squint, the first few spots pick themselves and the last one or two is an absolute battle to find. And I mentioned, uh, a lot of the players during my recap of the scores. Um, so it was like Jade Crook, 25. Jeanine Camp had 20 and 23, one game. Mia Heider, 17 and 18, and then 20 in another game. Alex Delaney always having a triple double.
01:18:43
Speaker
in one game, but then sitting for large parts of the first game. So, you know, a few players that had one good game or, you know, two, maybe had two solid games, but were outdone by other players. But it's just, you know, a lot, always, as always, a lot of players. And yeah, as I said, I think I mentioned most of them during the, during the round recap and a lot of players that, a lot of teams that just play team ball and don't always get
01:19:13
Speaker
a lot of big stat lines like North share it around. Emily Simons had two really good games this weekend, but North share it around and that's how they get the wins.
Lauren Jackson's Birthday Performances
01:19:23
Speaker
We'll start with, I think I'll just start with the most obvious one. Lauren Jackson celebrating her birthday with 33 points, 16 rebounds, three assists and a block in a win over Bankstown. And then following that up on my birthday,
01:19:40
Speaker
with 37 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, a steal, and three blocks in a 117-59 win over Penrith. And she was joined by teammate Michaela Pivock with 20 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, and two steals in the win over Bankstown, and then 20 points, eight rebounds, 11 assists, a steal, and a block in the win over Penrith. So, averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 8.5 assists for the weekend.
01:20:09
Speaker
It's a...
01:20:10
Speaker
Pretty good. Didn't get the win in both games, but was dragged her team through, kept them in contention throughout their second game of the weekend. Nicole Munger, 20 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, and a couple of steals in a close 73-64 win over COE, played the full 40 minutes, and then had 32 points, nine rebounds, three assists, and a steal in a 73-78 overtime loss to Manly after playing 40 minutes the previous day.
01:20:39
Speaker
Fourth, I said it over time and again this season. She's going to keep her team in games so much, so often. Talia two-player, 39 points, six rebounds, two assists, three steals and two blocks. Well over half her team scoring in a 78-68 defeat to North and then 16 points, three rebounds, five assists and a steal in a tough loss to Aubrey Wodongo where, you know, did everything she could in an overmatch team.
Rising Stars and Key Player Performances
01:21:07
Speaker
And finally,
01:21:09
Speaker
The Young Gun, Monique Babongi, 22 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block in COEs, 64-73 lost to Newcastle, but then followed that up with 21 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, a steal, and four blocks in an 83-46 win over Inner West. So Monique, a couple of appearances recently in the All-Star Five. She's really elevating herself as a leader in a COE team that is struggling with injuries at the moment.
01:21:38
Speaker
I think they dressed six or seven only on Saturday against Newcastle and maybe the same on Sunday.
COE's Injury Challenges and New Talent
01:21:44
Speaker
You're right. They really are struggling with injuries at the moment. And those that are injured are the more senior and experienced players of the program too. So both Sienna, Sophie Taylor, that's a big three that's missing out from that team. I think Bonnie as well.
01:22:01
Speaker
You're right, actually Bonnie was out as well this weekend. So that's a big chunk and that's why I was surprised when the likes of yourself and a couple others messaged me about Isla playing against Kira because I didn't realise that Kira had already gone to COE and here she is suiting up. They might have said pack your bags early. Yeah, how soon can you get here? Because she wasn't the only new name. Hina Lomo, who is the daughter of former NRL player Andrew Lomo.
01:22:30
Speaker
She's a new addition as well. She is a new addition. Um, I did notice her name on the list. It's always weirdly exciting to me to see all the new COE athletes coming in.
Young Talents in MBL
01:22:40
Speaker
It's like new young talent that we can follow their career and be like, Hey, remember that time we saw them play at the shark tank and they dropped 25 and now they're playing WNBA. I would go to those, like when Bank Sound used to play Youth League at 10 AM.
01:22:57
Speaker
I would go watch Bankstown Youth League Women at 10 a.m. because it meant getting an extra game in each week. And people were like, why do you do that? And then you see some of the players. It's like, well, I was watching Keanu Davis White and Tasman Haynes in MBL. They're now in MBL 1 and Roofing. I was watching them back when they could barely get a minute off the bench in Youth League. I mean, actually, to be fair, both of them pretty much stepped into Youth League and balled out from the day they got there. But some others, yeah.
01:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's, that's part of the fun sometimes. Um, I had, I think I've said this a couple of times over a Scott game where we have a short list for our all-star five, but then my short list ends up being three quarters of an A4 page. Um, that might be a reflection of me being so finicky and I'll wear that. Uh, but some of the honorable mentions, like there were a lot of.
01:23:52
Speaker
big numbers and great shooting percentages in round six for the men's competition.
Men's Round Six and All-Star Selections
01:23:57
Speaker
So some of those that get honorable mentions includes the new addition to the Aubrey Wodonga Bandits Mitchell Dance. He had 28 points, five rebounds and five assists and shot at 50% against the Panthers. Also Anthony Mundine versus the Sutherland Sharks that we already mentioned. He had the 23, five and five.
01:24:18
Speaker
And also his teammate, Johnny Sinogorak in the same game had 22 points and eight rebounds, both of them shooting above 55% overall. Sean Montague had a great game against the Bruins. He had 22 and five. Our boy CB versus Maitland Mustangs. He had 27 points, seven rebounds for assists and shot at a very healthy 68.75% overall.
01:24:47
Speaker
Then we had Harper and Bragg for the manly wearing a seagulls, getting it done against the Bulls, scoring 46 points between them. So yeah, it was a really, really tricky task. And the way that I worked it out was honestly who had the most points, who I felt like was the most consistent over the weekend. And I did give one person.
01:25:07
Speaker
a bit of a shout out to make the five because they could perform consistently well in both games of round six despite their team losing both games. So I was like, stuff it. You know what? This is our podcast. I can pick who I like. That's dangerous because if I can pick who I like.
01:25:28
Speaker
Oh, I should say I can, I can pick whoever I like, you know, not, uh, have to meet someone else's standards or measures. It's like, I'm just going to do it for this reason. Um, so I had first mandrel worthy from North spares. So versus the Panthers, he had 29 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two steals, and two blocks shooting at 52.38% overall.
01:25:56
Speaker
Then I had Ish Sanders from the Hills Hornets and in his game against the Maitland Mustangs he had 29 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals at 50% overall.
01:26:10
Speaker
And then from Illawarra, I had Riley Abercrombie in a game against Hornsby Keringa Spiders that went into overtime. He had 32 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals and shot at 66.67% overall. And then finally were two top performers that had double headers in round six. The first being Brody Schwartzer.
01:26:36
Speaker
So I included Brodie because this is the one where I'm like, you know what, a bit of an underdog of the league performed consistently well in both games and despite losing both games, I'm going to pop you in there, Brodie. So against Norths, he had 26 points and 4 rebounds, shooting at 69.23% overall.
01:26:57
Speaker
and then backed up against the Aubrey Wodonga Bandits at home with 24 points, four rebounds, five assists and five steals shooting at 50% overall. And this included five from nine from the arc. So I thought that was pretty worthy of an addition to the All-Star Five. And then perhaps I should have led with this one in the same way that you led with Lauren Jackson, but it's Devo Hickey.
01:27:25
Speaker
who, against the Bruins, he had another triple double with 14 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists, but he also added four steals and four blocks.
01:27:36
Speaker
He did have eight turnovers though, but that's okay. I think the rest, the four steals and the four blocks and the 14 assists probably make up for it. And he shot at 77.78% overall in that game. So just a massive improvement again from last season where he was probably taking the same amount of shots, but his percentage is just way better.
01:27:59
Speaker
Then against the Paneras Panthers the next day, he had 31 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists. So 3 assists shy of another triple double and shot at 69%. How can you not include him?
01:28:13
Speaker
That's no response to that. You just have to. You just have to. He makes them. Yeah. And that was my All Star Five for the men's competition in round six.
Athlete Interview: Phillip DePuche's Basketball Journey
01:28:25
Speaker
Quite a task. I'm expecting the women's to be the same next round, but I'm also hoping it will be a little bit more clear cut. Yes.
01:28:35
Speaker
Okay, now that the All-Star Five has been well and truly revealed, we're going to take a quick break before we head into our interview with this week's MBO1 East athlete. You're going to be up for a treat, I think, EGG listeners. It's a fun one.
01:28:52
Speaker
Okay, we are back from a much needed break and ready for our athlete interview for this week. This is someone who we were very pleased to hear in the infancy of e-scot game as a regular listener because A, we didn't think anyone was listening and B, someone was hyping us up down in South Coast. So we had to have this big sweaty boy as a guest on e-scot game season two. It's Phillip DePuche. How are you Phil?
01:29:20
Speaker
I am good. How are you? Thank you so much for having me. Oh, we were so generally excited to have you as a guest this season. When we were planning for season two, I'm pretty sure your name was first on the list of people we need to approach to be a guest. So the feeling's mutual. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I think even at the Blitz, you sent me a message and then I took a screenshot of it and I sent it straight to Freddie. I was like, we're on here.
01:29:48
Speaker
Was that the message to get you to be a guest? Yeah. As soon as it popped up on my phone, I took a screenshot. I think we just finished like doing the photos, like the media for NBL1 and I sent it straight to Freddie. What did he say? What did he say? Oh, I can't remember what he said. He said just like, oh yeah, like enjoy or something, something generic that Freddie would say. But I was obviously more excited. Oh, that's great. I mean, worthy of a screenshot, that's a compliment in its own right. So.
01:30:18
Speaker
As Gwen mentioned, you are from down Illawarra, down south. Is that where your basketball journey started at the Snake Pit? How did it all start? I think so a long time ago on a Saturday morning, funnily enough, I coached it now. So I'll coach like groups under 10s, under 12s. It's called, I think, HDP now. It used to be called Rookies. And that's where I got started. So I started off playing footsool, soccer,
01:30:46
Speaker
all, you know, the types of sports that immigrant dad would want you playing. And then when he realized, wow, my kid's a bit taller than everyone else, it's time for basketball. But then I think I was about seven, I would always go back crying to mum, telling her I didn't want to be there, but stuck through it until now. So we're looking, we're looking all right at the moment. That's been a common theme lately, hasn't it? Screen with guests. They didn't like it to start with.
01:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. Yeah, Bianca Dufimaya also was like, nah, basketball. And now she's, you know, it's certainly part of her life now. Yeah, yeah, I did not want to be there at all. I think I had to coach Jonathan Highgraves or Highgraves, I should say. He would be there with the rookies in the morning and he'd see me taller than everyone crying all the time.
01:31:34
Speaker
And everyone would tell him like, they won't be a player out of him, this and that, but then sort of stuck through it. And then I had him for my last three years of junior basketball and he's, he's the best. I've only got good things to say. So. So when, when did you realize that, you know, you could start making something out of basketball? Was it, was it early on in the pace? Um, no, not at all. Definitely a lot later. I think even.
01:32:05
Speaker
So like with things like going to college and all that, I never really looked at any of that or saw basketball really being a thing. I kind of just like kept growing and kept making teams. And I'll be honest, I think I made some country teams just cause I was the tallest kid there. Like you would look at it and at those tournaments, I wouldn't get much burn, like wasn't playing much, but, um, definitely a lot later down the line. Cause I just never looked at it as a possibility. And then.
01:32:30
Speaker
Like even last year playing NBL one, I thought I only really got a chance last year because we had a lot of injuries. You know, David wasn't playing, Waxy wasn't playing. Tim would only play home games. I think I had a pretty good game in North's. And then I started realizing like, Oh, I'm like getting pretty good at this. And even the year before youth league, like I started feeling youth league was pretty easy. And then especially this last,
01:32:57
Speaker
to be honest, only as recent as like the last NBL season. So I was training on with the Hawks for the year and sort of, at least I felt for myself, like, like I can really keep up with these guys. I didn't really feel out of place. And that's kind of when it like started clicking for me sort of that I should be working out more and like dedicating a lot more time to basketball, which I already was anyway, but that was kind of more just like a clear indicator because apart from that, I guess,
01:33:27
Speaker
then you could call it a bit of stupidity. Like I was sort of just working out every day and going to the gym and getting up shots, like two workouts a day. I guess you could look at it for no reason because I didn't really think or like see sort of a light at the end of the tunnel, but I just kept doing it anyway. Cause I liked basketball and that sort of led to where I am now.
01:33:49
Speaker
So maybe you mentioned that you were already going to the gym and doing extra sessions to improve your game on the weekend, but maybe changing your mindset a little bit and doing your cross training with a bit more intention compared to what you were doing before. Yeah, definitely. Especially, um, so last early last year, uh, we started going to the gym as like a group or a squad fan bill one with, um, Patty Lancaster. And that kind of just like improved a lot because I'd
01:34:19
Speaker
be the first to say I was lacking a lot like athletically moving left to right and like with my feet and that's definitely helped me a lot and sort of when I started developing that and then I started realizing I'm like wow I'm a lot taller than a lot of people but I'm also quicker than them then I sort of realized that yeah I do have physical tools as well that like it would be kind of silly to not see where I could go with playing basketball. So is Patti is he a personal trainer or
01:34:49
Speaker
Oh, the best. At Paddy Lancaster EP on Instagram, shameless plug. He is working at BayMed at the moment and he's got a degree in exercise physiology to my knowledge. I think even a master's, I could be wrong. But yeah, we do all of our strength and conditioning with him as it shows on him. I mean, that's Paddy, Paddy Shoulders Lancaster. Yes, he is certainly a fully grown human. Oh, yeah.
01:35:18
Speaker
Big time. That's another MBL one East athlete that does a little bit of strength and conditioning on the side, like Josie Bullman from Manly. She's also an SNC coach and posts a lot of videos for basketball specific workouts. So it's probably more actually, which probably just haven't met them online yet. I think that's so good for basketball in general around because looking back to my juniors, kind of things like, um, so down here, we've got Cortez Groves. He's got a facility.
01:35:48
Speaker
Lucas walkers open up good hoops and whatnot and like things like that. And like the idea of basketball specific training with a trainer that plays basketball kind of when I was coming up through juniors was sort of like a foreign idea. And you, that was sort of like a, oh, you go to college in the States and they've got that in the States, but you don't really do it here. And sort of in recent times that's grown a lot more, especially down here in Wollongong.
01:36:13
Speaker
and not as much as, I guess, for the Sydney guys. They've got their AUSA and whatnot, but that was all non-existent down here for a long time. I mean, just look at the comments. They turned that throwback store into their weight room. They wanted to start a program and said, if we're going to have a DSSC program, we better give the players
01:36:31
Speaker
a place to go and actually lift. And now they've got a whole weight room in there just for the, for the MBL1 teams or for the high performance program. Yeah. And that's, that's sort of where we've got, I think we're partnered with Bay Med. So we've got a physio that comes out and we can use their gym as we need and whatnot. And of course we've got Patti making sure we're doing things right and no one drops the weight on their head, which is good. No one drops the weight on their head.
01:36:54
Speaker
You'll have some guys struggling to like squat a hundred kilos, but Patty will curl it and put it back onto the bar to just make us all feel great about ourselves. He's the ultimate teammate, it sounds like. Oh yeah. The best. The best. I just want to rewind for a second. Cause you mentioned a name that I haven't heard for a long time. Cortez Groves. Is he still in Wollongong?
01:37:18
Speaker
Yeah, so he's based I think somewhere down Albion Parkway. So I used to work out with him before he opened his facility. We'd work out at the beaten park across the road from the snake pit they had a court. And even I think he's got a mural of like originally like with me there working out on the wall and whatnot. But yeah, he's still down in Wollongong running workouts and he was sort of
01:37:42
Speaker
If anything, sorry, I'll skip forward to the question about college. I asked him a long time ago, do you think it's worth going to college? Should I go or should I stay here and sort of explore what I have? And he was sort of the one, he was like, oh, well, what are your goals? I said, I think the NBL would be the most achievable. And he said, perfect, stay here then. But Cortez is still down here, he's great. He's all over the community now, junior teams, local comp teams, everything.
01:38:08
Speaker
I just assumed that he went back to the States after he finished up NBL. I didn't realize he was still in Wollongong. No, no, he's big time down here. Like every junior local comp team has got a team, Cortez Groves, no limits basketball. He'll still pop into the Hawks practices here and there. And yeah, no, he's still very much down in Wollongong. That's amazing. And now that he's got a facility with a mural of yourself, Lucky, I think we're going to have to take a trip down to Wollongong.
01:38:38
Speaker
Well, that's easy for me because I live in Cronulla. I don't know about you up there in Brisbane. I'm already looking for any excuses to go back and visit New South Wales. I might have to wait though until winter's finished because I'm going to soak up as much of this so-called Queensland winter as I possibly can. Especially if you're already in a hoodie fill and you're already in a jumper lockie. I've been drowning and more than gone.
01:39:04
Speaker
let alone like I need a raincoat and everything like I feel sorry we've just had uh Matt Friesen come down from Germany I think and it's we're meant to be like you know Sonny Wollongong any any of the other guys I've talked to like Gary Clark um Justin Robertson they're like oh yeah this is like pretty similar to Callie like it's by the coast and whatnot and so far he's just seen rain gloom and doom
01:39:28
Speaker
Like he was telling me about, let's go see the opera house. Let's go see there's something in there, man. Like, let's just stay at home while they're around these parts. I don't know what it's like in Germany. Yeah. Especially making a trip to Sydney, which is still, you know, it's not too far from Wollongong, but it's still a distance in the rain. I think he can just sit that one out, Matt, and just wait until it passes. Yeah. Hopefully a sunny day coming soon would be good. Yeah. And getting down to the beach, something you might not be used to. Yeah. I'm not sure if you can swim now that you mentioned it.
01:39:58
Speaker
Sorry. I mean, we've had one guest on who wanted to swim whilst playing in Australia. So. Oh really? Yeah. Andre Walford from Bankstown. He learned to swim while he was playing for Port Macquarie last year. Oh, fair enough. Oh, we're better else to learn. Good on him. But you're going back, you're talking about Cortez Groves, you know, good throwback to classic Hawkeys, NBL. Who were some of the Hawkeys you idolized growing up as a junior in Wollongong?
01:40:27
Speaker
Uh, two of them I can name right away would be Timmy Conrad and Oscar Foreman. So those two are pretty special, especially last year, suiting up with them and playing and practicing together. I think I've got a photo of like a smaller, chubbier version of myself and Timmy at one of the Hawks like holiday clinics. And then, um,
01:40:50
Speaker
I've got a photo from Christmas of me opening up my Oscar Foreman kit and shorts for Christmas present. So, um, yeah, those are definitely two of the ones that sort of suck out to me when I was younger, watching basketball, probably, um, like how they shot the ball and thought that was the most fascinating thing ever. So definitely them too. And of course, um, Tyson Demos, I've got a, I've got another one at home. Me and him, he probably doesn't even remember.
01:41:17
Speaker
me chunky as hell, my rebels fought adidas kicks and it's signed by him. Just me looking chunky next to him at one of the Hawks clinics or something like that. Did you go to a lot of Hawks games growing up? Growing up, to be honest, not really, not really, not to be, um, not to ruin the parade, but, um, not many Hawks games. I think I'd go here and there maybe twice a year.
01:41:42
Speaker
didn't really know much about watching all of the NBL until recently, sort of got into it the last three, four years that I started watching more basketball. Sort of the same time dad bought NBA league pass, I was like, okay, let me watch more NBL. And I think that NBL is way more entertaining. But yeah, not too many Hawks games as a kid, definitely more now, especially, oopsie, someone's gone.
01:42:08
Speaker
Definitely worn out, especially since the Hawks would send me to them, give me a ticket to come and watch. So if it's free, it's for me, so I'll be there. But I definitely watch them on the telly, but not too many going in person as a young'un.
01:42:22
Speaker
But the Hawks camp still would have been pretty cool because at least then kids have an idea of the pathway in Wollongong. Like you mentioned, the choice not to go to college rather than just to stay and follow the pathway and you've got a NBL team at home sounds a lot more sensible. And Tyson Demos as well being an Illawarra boy born and bred and also follow that pathway. So it sometimes makes it a bit more achievable when you can see that right in front of you.
01:42:50
Speaker
And on that, Tyson Deimos being a Wollongong boy, shout out to, I think it was one of his aunties or something to do with his auntie. She was my, when I was getting my P's, she was my driving test person and she gave me my license on my first go. So shout out to her. She just spoke to me about basketball the whole time and barely looked at the road. So massive shout out to her. You found a way to develop rapport with your driving tester. You're in.
01:43:17
Speaker
The lube hole. The lube hole. The Filawara. They love me. No, I'm joking. Filawara. You did mention before you recorded that you have quite a few nicknames. I'm guessing Filawara is one of them. Yeah. Filawara has come around recently. Um, we've got Filawara. I used to get sweet chili Philly a lot. That came around 16 juniors. Then of course, Kiwi, um, gardener that we had a couple of years ago started calling me Vanilli. So Philly, Vanilli.
01:43:46
Speaker
I'm not sure how racially motivated that was. Um, and then that turned into Philly cheesesteak as like the food and that got turned into Philly cheese, then just cheese. And then, um, I think those are like the main ones I could think of at the moment, but they're definitely, definitely a couple. I like the, the way of the almost Cockney slang of starting something big as Philly cheesesteak Philly cheese, cheese. Perfect. Yeah.
01:44:14
Speaker
Cause it went from Philly cheesesteak to just cheesesteak. And then everyone was like, oh, well.
01:44:20
Speaker
pay cheese. So we'll take it. Yelling out cheesesteak when you're making it through as well sounds really peculiar. That's a pretty good array of nicknames actually. That is a lead. That is a long list. So I thought those pages of basketball reference where they just add in every nickname that a player's ever been given and it just like turns into like three columns. That's going to be you one day. I don't have a mint page. Like I remember talking to Harry, I was like,
01:44:50
Speaker
You know, everyone like, do you like your nickname? You know, they, we were calling her, it was always her my H and there was like nothing apart from that. And I'm like, well, that's a bit boring, right? You know what I mean? Let's expand our games here. Like, uh, but definitely came from my basketball reference page. Yeah. You've come up through representing New South Wales country coming through Illawarra and Illawarra big program in New South Wales country, always competitive. Uh, what, what is it that you think makes the club so, so competitive?
01:45:20
Speaker
To be honest, I think boring answer, I give it to the size of the area. So obviously comparing to places like, I guess, nearby Mossvale, Golden, why we're a bigger club than those guys is we're just a big area. And often you'll see a bunch of people from those clubs come to Wun Gong because they know we've got a bigger facility. They know the types of eyes that can be around and things like that. And then just other than that, I guess, on the same page that
01:45:50
Speaker
the players are coming in because they want to play for a bigger club, then we'll get bigger coaches that are sort of, I guess I can say better at doing their job coaching to sort of develop the talent and make the teams as good as they are. And I think that's just been sort of the biggest driving force. And of course, having an NBL one club locally,
01:46:09
Speaker
if anything, just gets more kids through the door, sort of starting their juniors career from like, like I did age of seven and staying all the way through. Cause they know there is something at the ultimate end that they can watch locally. We, I mean, I've talked to people from Newcastle and they say, some of them say that it's good that it's, it's a big enough club to have a lot of really good players, but it's also small enough to have. Oh, when you're young, you get more opportunities to play against older players in local comp because it's still,
01:46:39
Speaker
It's still not as big as some other cities. Did you get to play against big names when you were younger than you would have, say, playing Metro? For sure. As a junior, we had TAPcamp and NITP. So Harry Morris and I came up through all of juniors together. Even at TAPcamp, I remember we slept through a session in the morning. We still made NITP and then that would be the Wednesday morning every day.
01:47:07
Speaker
We had that with, oh, every week, sorry. We had that with Locky Dent, Angus Glover, and Kyle Zunich for a bit. And that was hell. Like you'd come in and they'd just kick our ass every morning. Like we were both pretty still chubby, couldn't really move, didn't know what we were doing. And then they just come in. They've already made Australian teams by that time, state teams, signing contracts to play in places that we've never even heard of. And they just kick our ass.
01:47:37
Speaker
Good learning experience though. Character building. I mean, you mentioned how good it is having an MBL1 team locally. Is there a specific strategy for how you keep juniors at the MBL1 club? Not really, to be honest. I think it just comes down to who decides to go to college, who doesn't. I mean, at least from what I can see from the juniors now,
01:48:02
Speaker
because nbl one down here is very new. Even before nbl one became a thing with war at our league, we didn't even have a team for that. So kind of for me coming up, like youth league was the end. And then I remember having conversations of, okay, well, what are you going to do after youth league? Like, then you're kind of just done. Um, so definitely in recent times that's come up and all the juniors are saying like, Oh, I can't wait to play nbl one. I want to be able to play nbl one one day.
01:48:30
Speaker
And I think that's just kind of just it being there is enough for the juniors to sort of come to the games, see, see the crowd that at least our club can pull and how loud it gets in there and how passionate they are for our team kind of just makes them want to be a part of that and represent that. I mean, Squin has firsthand experience being part of a club that didn't have a senior team because it's from Central Coast. And just, um, if you look at the,
01:48:59
Speaker
the players, some of the surrounding clubs have had in the times, it's just, you know, the number of players that just had to leave Central Coast back in like 2013, 2014 was just insane. Yeah. So I think just, just with the East sort of.
01:49:14
Speaker
Being creative and being mainstreamed how it is is plenty to get our juniors to want to come out and play. Even the ones that do plan on going to college, they still strive to at least get a year in before they fly out. And even they give you tears about how their college won, let them come back and play and be all one. So.
01:49:34
Speaker
I think just having it and them coming to the games and seeing the atmosphere that we can create and how special it is for the people in our community that come down to watch is just enough for them to say, yeah, I want to do it here.
01:49:47
Speaker
It was really surprising back then that Illawarra didn't have a Waratah team because like we already spoke about, one of the most dominant New South Wales country clubs next to Newcastle, especially when I was growing up, I always disliked playing Illawarra because I was always so good.
01:50:06
Speaker
Um, and then I think once upon a time, you know, before MBL one and Waratah, there was Siebel and I think Illawarra used to actually have a Siebel team for a short period of time too, when they had Shelley Hammond's playing and his name was John Phillips, I think as well stretching my memory now. So I was really surprised that Illawarra didn't have a Waratah team at all. Um, do you know much about why they didn't have a team?
01:50:32
Speaker
To be honest, I think it was just our playing group was just never really seen as strong enough. So that with having players as good as the Glovers, Zuni, Stance, that sort of came with them leaving in turn, which obviously no one was angry at them for sort of their pursuing their careers, getting paid well, doing their thing. But then sort of our elite, elite croc would be leaving. And that made the rest of the club sort of struggle and then
01:51:02
Speaker
maybe the ones that still would play weren't good enough to have that team. And that's kind of where it fell apart. So in the year before NBL1 started, we did have a Waratah team. And I think we got belted by 30 every game and then COVID shut down the season, thank God. But I think, yeah, just part of it was we just couldn't put together a good enough crop to sort of compete and warrant the com fees and things like that. And it's obviously, you know, for any,
01:51:31
Speaker
regional club, it's a lot harder, you know, if you're, you know, Hills or Hornsby and you're struggling for players, you can just call up a guy who's maybe eighth or ninth on the bench at North's and bring him over or someone from Manly or someone from anywhere in Metro. It's not the same travel commitment or moving commitment as getting, bringing players down to Illawarra. Yeah, not at all. Because when you look around Sydney clubs, like a lot of players will bounce around like North's Comets, sort of that kind of area, but then
01:52:01
Speaker
If you look down here, we sort of have like Mossvale, Golden, Shoalhaven. And even like for a player to be down there that our club already doesn't know about, doesn't really exist. It's like at this level. So they probably already have been playing for us during the like last couple of years, 18s of their junior career. So yeah, it's a lot harder to find, especially
01:52:25
Speaker
If they do come down here, then we need to house them and things like that. Obviously not complaining if you want to come down to Wollongong, be my guest. It's lovely. Do you know what you would have perhaps done if there wasn't an MBL1 team and you'd finished Youth League? No, no clue to be honest. I think even after my first year of Youth League, I remember talking to our president at the time.
01:52:49
Speaker
And he was like, Oh yeah, mate, in two, three years, you know, nbl one's going to be this, we'll have nbl one down here. Like, don't worry about it. And I was like, yeah, cool. Whatever, man. Like, we don't even have a war it's our team and our youth league team was in, we only had a two teams in diff two for the longest time. So whatever you say, mate. But then I guess in my favor, it's sort of perfectly fallen down in front of me.
01:53:13
Speaker
Tell us a little bit more about the connection between your MBL1 program and the MBL program with the Hawks.
01:53:20
Speaker
To be completely honest, there isn't that much of a connection. The officers are next door to each other. They've got their stuff in a shed out the back in the snake pit. We share the locker room if it overlaps with the season lengths. But apart from that, as far as getting NBL1 guys to come in and practice, so we had the double-headed on the weekend and we had Matt Campbell up at the bar watching both games, I guess.
01:53:49
Speaker
You can't really get that. And in most other clubs, having the gym of NBL club come and watch. I mean, in the off season, I know we were having a couple of scrimmages. We'd come in for some open gym, a couple of the NBL one guys and a couple of the NBL guys. And we'd just play some hoops for about an hour and a half. And that's about it, really. So how did your opportunity to train with the Hawks or at least be in the extended squad last season come about?
01:54:18
Speaker
I couldn't tell you exactly how. I don't know what the coaches were thinking. Still a bit baffled. But I can tell you I was sitting getting a haircut and my phone got a few text messages and I thought, okay, let me check this out. And lo and behold,
01:54:35
Speaker
Sean Rodger reached out and asked if I wanted to come in for a couple of their preseason sessions a week when it was just sort of come in for a couple of numbers so the boys can do some three and three, four and four. And kind of from there, it just led on from, yeah, can you come to this day as well? And then the actual preseason started, then it was, okay, well, can you come full time? Can you come to as many of these as you can? And then that sort of just shifted into, yeah, we want you here for the year.
01:55:04
Speaker
Is that a regular thing that the NBL club will turn to the NBL one team for extra bodies before looking further afield? Um, I don't think so, to be completely honest. Um, in the past, the, obviously I've been around the stadium. I've seen some of the extra bodies. It would be a couple of kids from Sydney that maybe the assistant coaches knew, but it would rarely be anyone. And if it was anyone, they just stick to the numbers they had.
01:55:32
Speaker
So I think that was sort of like a new thing they were doing and I mean, I'm not complaining at all. So you're obviously impressed in those first couple of sessions if they invited you to be a full-time train on squad member. Do you remember much about your performance? Oh, I don't know what they were watching, but I must have done something right. Like I can, yeah. If anything, just the one that blares out to me was
01:55:58
Speaker
very early in the pre-season, something was happening, I tried to take someone off the dribble, didn't work out in my favour, and then I got chewed out, like, just do what you're good at, let them attract defence, they'll kick it out and you just shoot it. We were playing, you know, first of three, regular training, drill type of stuff, nailed two in a row, and then coach turns to me and looks at my face and he goes, see, I've watched you play, I know what you do.
01:56:24
Speaker
I was like, okay, fair enough. Maybe they know more about basketball than I do. Um, what were some of your biggest surprises, uh, or biggest takeaways from that time with the Illawarra Hawks? Um, biggest surprises sort of how it ran behind the scenes and how everyone was. So for the most part, like local guys that have been there right away was like Tyler, Sam Greider and Wani, I think.
01:56:54
Speaker
Like they'd been around Wollongong, even Blanchfield as well. So like, Todie's first stint in Wollongong, I remember walking past him in the mall. And like, I looked back at him to make sure that was him. And he looked back at me too. And I was like, should I not be looking at you? Sorry, Todie. And then sort of to come like in a few years later, I guess, if anything, I'd say that I came in as a fan, if anything, because that's the local club. That's sort of what you look up to as a junior. And that was sort of the biggest surprise, how it all runs, how
01:57:24
Speaker
how much goes into it behind the scenes, what everyone's doing, the film sessions, the extras, how everyone was sort of as an individual, not just like, oh, there's this guy that has missed a shot and ruined my night as a fan, but now knowing them as an individual. And I guess the biggest takeaway was just being able to learn from so many good players day in, day out.
01:57:46
Speaker
Like I'd be talking a lot to Gary, Sam, Mason, just about like why they make these decisions or what I can improve on or what to help with. And then even.
01:58:01
Speaker
Even at the start of the season when the whole group game came in, it would be rare that sort of myself and some of the other guys would jump in for a run at practice. But just even being able to be exposed to that and watch it and sort of what it takes to be at that level was invaluable. So you mentioned being told to shoot in chain training with the Hawks and you are known
01:58:24
Speaker
As a stretch four, and you also mentioned earlier, you got in the gym with Patty and got to work on some things. What do you see as your strengths and areas of improvement? Uh, strengths definitely still shooting the ball, uh, spacing of the floor. Um, I think I've been pretty good around the room this year, getting downhill, things like that. I remember Freddie and I played a three on three tournament.
01:58:48
Speaker
And as you know, three and three is way more physical with the bumps and whatnot. And there's this guy, probably double the size width-wise as me. And I bumped him, finished straight over him, and I could just see Freddy with his eyes wide open. And he goes, damn Phil, like, are you okay? I'm like, what do you mean? And he goes, nah, man, you 12 months ago, you're flying off him like a balloon.
01:59:07
Speaker
So definitely that sort of getting stronger and whatnot, but then it was being a presence around the rim like I'm long I've got long limbs. I've got to use them I think I'm still leading the league in blocks shameless plug not to toot my own horn, but I'm Ali something so But yeah, definitely just being long around the rim and let it fly sort of piece of options You know, I'm happy with any shot to put up whether it's a floater a mid-range I work on everything. So whatever falls for me. I'm happy to let it fly
01:59:38
Speaker
And sometimes the example you used about being able to take the bump and still make the finish, sometimes it's not always having that physical strength, but also just the mental strength and the mental patience, knowing that the bumps coming and just consciously being able to absorb it in the moment, but still staying focused on that finish. Yeah, for sure. Because for a while, I guess.
02:00:03
Speaker
I know for sure from top age 16s until top age 18s I was launching skyhooks from everywhere you could imagine. From the elbow, from the
02:00:14
Speaker
Free throw line from the short corner baseline everywhere. They'd go in to my credit again to my own horn But that was sort of like I was afraid of the contact Sort of being young guy and sort of the fat I had on me had really just started stretching out and I was real scrawny So that sort of was like now I'm getting used to you know, I've got some arms I have a bit of a shoulder now, you know, I can look for contacts rather than avoid it with the types of finishes I get to
02:00:43
Speaker
And especially having the length that you have, just being able to hold off that defender, those extra couple of centimeters or being able to finish or secure the ball or creating space for yourself is such a great asset to have. Yeah. I remember as a coach, as young as, I think I was like 10 and he'd just right away tell us, you can't teach height amongst from above everything. So, and I've got plenty of it. There's about 213 centimeters of me. So I,
02:01:12
Speaker
better use them well before coach loses his mind. What did Jono Hargrove think of your Sky Hooks when you were a junior? Oh he loved them. He absolutely loved them. Even if anything
02:01:27
Speaker
In one of my last years of juniors, he was the one teaching me to get into like a post fade and a post turnaround and whatnot. So he loved it. And then even, I remember the starting big on our state team at the time, we were playing them, I think from Bathurst. We were playing somewhere. I hit him with the fake. He bit for it, turned sky hooked and Johnny just turns around to the bench and he goes, that was filthy. Full pun intended. So I think he loved it.
02:01:57
Speaker
You're going to give yourself another nickname if you don't watch out. Oh, I feel he's been there for a long time. We're talking a bit about Freddy and he was actually the one who said we just had to have you on. Um, so obviously you two are pretty good mates. Uh, do you have any stories about Freddy's time in Illora that you would be able to share to the wider public? I have infinitely more stories that I cannot share that I could share.
02:02:25
Speaker
But I guess one, it's not even as much to do with him. So he'd always ring me if you needed help with anything as good friends do. I think one day he locked himself out of his apartment, classic bloke, good on your Freddy. I've never done that, me personally, but Freddy's not as smart as I am. And he left his keys locked inside his home and he rang me. He knew I lived close to sort of where he's a real estate agent is.
02:02:52
Speaker
And he goes, I'm going to send you over there. Can you grab my keys? Just say it's for Freddy. Come back over. I'm thinking, all right, man, no worries. I got you. Like, whatever you need. I start heading over. My phone dies. That's a problem. I get to the front door of the place. I'm looking on the thing. It's maybe 10 past five. They're trading hours until 5 p.m. I'm like, Freddy, what are you doing to me, man? Like, why are you jipping me, sending me out here? So I knock on the door. I wait maybe like a minute or two. No one comes. I leave. I get back into the car.
02:03:22
Speaker
go home, charge my phone to ring him. As soon as I get on the phone with Freddy, he goes, oh, yeah, the guy came around the corner and he was like, he was going to call your name, but you disappeared. But he's actually in there, so you need to go back. So then I went back, dropped him off his keys and I let Freddy in his house. So that was one that sort of came to me right away. But I guess there's just there's just too many to name and share. But I guess I can just say that NBL season as a whole wouldn't have been as good if
02:03:50
Speaker
He wasn't there. NBA One season, his whole time in Wollongong, to be honest, had a ball with Freddie and definitely one of my good friends. Oh, that's still a good story. I hope that he paid you back for that. He did him a solid. Sort of. He got me a book when he left, The Inner Game of Tennis. Great read. Definitely me doing a lot of solids and Freddie forgetting things. Moving things into his apartment was a fun time, but yeah, that's about all I can say on that.
02:04:20
Speaker
Well, he's giving you a departing gift. That's a pretty nice sign of a positive bromance. Yeah, but it made me feel so guilty because it was around Christmas time as well and I didn't have anything. And he just got me after one of the Hawks games, walked me to his car and he like handed me over the gift and the card, great card, wrote a lovely message. But I just, the guilt kind of just assumed me because I never got him back with anything. What a stitch up.
02:04:45
Speaker
Yeah, but to be fair, he did have my presence for a year, so that should have been plenty. And the universe is balanced once again. Yeah, like he said, it was Freddie that told us during his interview that you were a fan of AJG. But how did you actually come across us initially? Like, how did you find AJG? For sure, Instagram. I can't remember through someone's page, like I saw something. I think it would have been very early in
02:05:12
Speaker
the first season, you were talking about sort of season predictions and anything that's to do with like myself or the team I'm playing for, my ears are perked straight up. Like I want all the gossip, I want all the drama, like let me hear it. So I had a listener that I thought, oh, this is great, like how cool is this like a program about the league you're playing in? And I just thought it was cool ever since then.
02:05:35
Speaker
Oh, that's awesome. I think our news and gossip section has been lacking a bit this season, not by fault of trying, just because there hasn't been a lot going on, I don't think. So if you want to, you can be the NBA One East gossip girl, if you like. Get me on for 15 minutes with the bright pink mic and I'll break all the news. Everything you want to know from around the league. Who's dating who and what's going on.
02:06:01
Speaker
This is one of our standard questions as well that we like to finish up interviews with. So tell us more about who Phil is off the court. Oh, I don't have a lot of life when I'm not playing basketball anymore, to be honest. It's just a lot of basketball working here and there, coaching a couple of kids, spending time around my partner.
02:06:21
Speaker
But that's, that's all it really is. To be honest, sort of the same guy you see on the court sort of transfers off it. And I guess how I am now talking is how I am most of the time. So not too much different. Don't do anything too unique. Used to play the games on the PlayStation and whatnot, but now can't be bothered. I'm getting too old for that. Way too old. Certainly the oldest guest that we've ever had on EGG. Yeah, withering away with age. I am.
02:06:47
Speaker
I mean, we should really be talking about your retirement rather than your birth into the MBL with the Hawks. Hawks, if you're listening, I'm only 21. Because you did mention earlier in the interview that you have that full circle moment of coaching the kids on a Saturday where it all started for you. But what do you, what's your other job? Oh, so I'm just working part time at Chemist's warehouse at the moment. So that was also kind of funny.
02:07:12
Speaker
We'd come into, obviously for the length of the NBL season, I wasn't working and I was just coaching sort of to get around. But then there was obviously the chemist's warehouse logo on the court floor. And that was kind of like a joke Freddie and I had at each other like, oh, look man, back to work. And then funnily enough, I did end up back to work. So there's another full circle moment for the better or worse. You just run in that town, aren't you? Filawara.
02:07:43
Speaker
Well, listen, I got chronic dry eyes, so if you can get me some eye drops and bulk things, that would be really appreciated. Isle 8 on your left. I have to remember that because I never remember where they are. So I have to remember Isle 8. To be fair, that's just that my one. So in Wollongong, there's the chemist next to Coles in the shopping center, but there's one across the road as well. And I had to run into that one and someone asked her something and they're like, oh, you know, where can I find this? And I told her it was in Isle 9, which is where it is in our shop.
02:08:13
Speaker
And then I saw her looking around pretty confused. And then I start looking at the aisles and I'm like, this place only goes to six aisles. I apologize, Madame, but I'm going back to where I've come from.
02:08:24
Speaker
So that's a new problem now, you can find it. And I would like to learn a lot more about your... You've listed this as your favourite food on the MBL1 and MBL1 East player profiles, which Locky and I both are big fans of this season. And you've listed your favourite food as Chico's? The holy temple of Wollongong. If you're from Wollongong, you know. Have you never met a Chico's squint? No! Oh my goodness. Have you been knocking?
02:08:50
Speaker
Both of you got to give me, give me the download. Large Canadian burger is all you need. There used to be two of them in Wun Gong. There was one open right across from the Win Entertainment Center. That one has recently, unfortunately closed. However, there's still one in Fig- Rest in peace.
02:09:08
Speaker
but there's still one in Fig Tree, so maybe like not even 10 minutes away, and it's just the best. As you can imagine, Chico sells chicken. Good, big, hearty chicken burgers, about $12. You can get a chicken burger about the size of your car seat, so.
02:09:23
Speaker
Amazing. See the one, the one across the road from the entertainment center is the one I would go to because the only reason I go to Wollongong is to go to a win stadium or win entertainment center or the snake pit. So. Yeah. And in all truth, I have not been to Chico's since they've closed that one down. However, I will make a trip to Fictory soon, but it's the best. You go to the beach in Wollongong hot day, finish it off with Chico's. Nothing's better.
02:09:50
Speaker
oh yes yes when you know being on the uh central coast i would love doing that the routine of even have a sunday scrimmage
02:10:00
Speaker
And then just be absolutely starving, but go for a really quick swim and whatever. But then there used to be a burger shop years ago in Wombrel that used to do really good schnitzel burgers and a sweet chili one. They used to cook onions on the grill and then put the sweet chili sauce with it. So it all kind of married together, pop that on a burger with a good schnitzel. Yes. I feel that. I feel that in my bones. Even when it was still open, um, while we were practicing at the WEC.
02:10:27
Speaker
You'd finish up getting absolutely shredded by Sam and Gary and Toddy and probably lead to his hit too many threes in my head. And you just walk straight out to Chico's, sit in front of the stadium, shout it down, Canadian burger, chicken, chips, gravy, cheese, stop playing. And that'll, that'll bring life. That'll bring balance back to life. Oh, Locky, what was your order when he used to go to Chico's?
02:10:51
Speaker
It has actually been so long that I don't remember my specific order because I've had no reason to go to the entertainment center or win stadium since the 2021. I've just been going to the snake pit when I've been going to Wollongong. So I've been going. I've been going to the North Wollongong Hotel and there are schnitzels the size of the plate. Great spot. Good party from North Gong after our Sunday game. Always a good reward.
02:11:22
Speaker
Um, I probably should have wrote it down more as like trolling is my hidden talent. Sort of like, so if you're having a bad day and if you come to me to talk about it, just know I will make it worse. So Freddie forgot his keys. I will let him know about it and I'll make sure that his like days now completely ruined. And he hasn't had the reassurance for what's happened. I don't know. Maybe.
02:11:45
Speaker
Freddy goes and he drops his food. I'm not going to reassure him. Don't worry. I'll get you another one. It's fine. No. Haha. Sucked in mate. And sort of, I'll just drag it through the mud and then, um, sort of instigating situations. Like if someone calls someone smelly, I'll like call it out. Like, Oh, did you hear he called you that? But then also with that, I need to balance it. So I'm also good at deescalating, but, um, yeah.
02:12:08
Speaker
sort of trolling is kind of my secret talent. That could also be misinterpreted with being a C-bomb, but I'll just take it as a charisma. And we trust that.
02:12:22
Speaker
You have already got a good sense of the person and your friendship before you start ruthlessly trolling. For sure. I remember a while ago, people would say, oh my God, this kid's so weird. Why is he not talking? And then I got very comfortable around them. It was, oh my God, this kid's so weird. Why won't he stop talking? Yeah. Once I get to know my victim, then
02:12:47
Speaker
We're on. You're getting trolled. And that's your, your love language is trolling. For sure. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm absolutely taking the mic out of them at least once or twice. A very unique sign of affection. We like that. Well, Phil, this has been probably the most fun we've had interviewing an athlete and we always have fun interviewing athletes, but this has truly been a lot of fun. My cheeks are hurting. You probably noticed a lot of the time I had to
02:13:13
Speaker
leave the microphone so I could laugh and not have to edit myself out later. But it's been really, really fun, probably a long time coming. And of course, you know, the biggest thanks to you for following Eastcott Games since the very start and jaying it up for us down in Wollongong. Yeah, really, really appreciate it.
02:13:44
Speaker
still blows our mind, but we'll always remember you as being definitely one of the first fans of EGG. An EGG OG at that to the basketball reference. Awesome. Thank you so much, Phil, for being such a great guest on EGG. And we look forward to seeing how your season with the Hawks pans out. We may have to get you back later in the season to maybe do some finals predictions if you don't see yourself there. My pleasure.