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Season 3 BONUS episode: Talking Split with Sammy Mac (Albury-Wodonga Banidts women HC)
43 Plays18 days ago
Special 1v1 episode witth Sammy Mac, HC of the Albury Wodonga Bandits women's team. We deep dive into salaries, recruiting, NBL1 East awards and the future of the league.
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:39
Speaker
Welcome back
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:40
Speaker
to another episode of East Got Game where we give you the X's, the O's and the insights from the NBL One East. Thanks for joining us tonight live on YouTube and Instagram.
00:00:53
Speaker
And remember, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow us on Instagram and Facebook at East Got Game, or you can continue to find out episodes on your preferred streaming platforms.
00:01:05
Speaker
On this week's episode, it is a bonus episode where we're going to talk ah to one of the more reputable coaches in NBL One East, just about trying to learn a little bit more of what it's like, really like to be a head coach of an NBL One team.
00:01:22
Speaker
This person is probably name dropped on every second episode of East Scott game for one reason or another. So it's going to be no surprise who we've got today. Certainly one of the most outstanding coaches in NBL one, ah they particularly in the women's competition and someone who's, you know, I think we've said on the pod a couple of times it's maybe been overlooked for coach of the year.
00:01:45
Speaker
uh but they just say they're happy to be nominated let's bring them on stage now it's sammy mack from the albury wodonga bandits am i right in saying that you're happy to be nominated sammy absolutely i'm just lucky to be included with those amazing coaches um i'll say that every single chance i get because you know the east has some pretty phenomenal coaches so for a bit of an average Joe from down good old Albury. Like, I'm pretty lucky to be considered up amongst them.
Sammy Mack's Achievements and Insights
00:02:17
Speaker
Well, average Joe, I'm not too sure about that. I think you're a household name down at the hideout and you've you've qualified with the first Aubrey team to make the NBL1 Nationals, the very first one in Melbourne. you've made ah Then you stepped up to head coach the last couple of seasons and have made the finals both times.
00:02:36
Speaker
And now we should congratulate you for being signed for another two seasons. Well done. Yeah, thank you. um Yeah, like I've said plenty of times and you guys would have read and seen, like, it's an absolute honour for me um to be able to to lead um one of our two teams at this club.
00:02:54
Speaker
I've grown up around it, you know, 41 years old. Our club's 41 years old. Like, I've been there. I've seen it when it's been tough. seen it when it's been great. I've managed to play and now to be able to have ah an impact coaching.
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's awesome.
00:03:13
Speaker
And Lockie Everett on our Instagram Live says that you're also a very good media guinea pig.
00:03:21
Speaker
I love a chat. I love a yarn. So, yeah, absolutely. he's He's nailed that as a guinea pig.
00:03:29
Speaker
So ah let's let's just a recap. ah Yeah, we're hoping to provide some insights into what it takes to be a successful NBL1 coach in this episode and hopefully dispel some common myths that get thrown around, particularly online or even in the rumour mill about what it's like being an NBL1 coach. So are you ready to get stuck into it, Sammy?
00:03:54
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
Financial Realities and Team Strategies
00:03:55
Speaker
Let's do this. All right, so the first question we've got prepped is, are what is the most common fallacy about salaries and team budgets when preparing for an NBL one season?
00:04:09
Speaker
um that All we do is we've got big brown paper bags of money and we just hand them out to anyone. So we just try and buy championships.
00:04:21
Speaker
No, I shouldn't be facetious like that. um Well, I think, ah I don't know. think it does tie into what I just said. People seem to think that, you know, because you get really good players ah or that kind of stuff, you you must have oodles oodles of money and that's what you're you're doing to to build rosters.
00:04:46
Speaker
um And I don't think that's the case for the the bulk of the teams in the East. I think If you look at look at it Manly, they're basically Manly juniors. um If you look at um Canberra, they're Canberra locals or people who have a connection to Canberra and have been there for a while.
00:05:13
Speaker
You look at our team this year, We had um a squad 13. We brought Hannah over from New Zealand and then she left partway through the season. um But that was just like to give her an opportunity at the next level and see what it was like.
00:05:30
Speaker
um and then we had Bryn, Riley, Katie and the rest were all Albury locals so like nine of our 12 that finished the season were Albury locals I claim Molly Rice as a local because she's been here it's like squatters ruts um she's been here for so long so um I think you you look at Norths, like there's a lot that have been through the Norths juniors or at least part of the Sydney associations um that are around.
00:06:02
Speaker
um So, yeah, I think some people get paid. there's There's no denying that, but I think those people deserve to get paid as well.
00:06:12
Speaker
um Sometimes I question how much that you hear, but anyway. um But I don't think there's too many teams that are going crazy in pain compared to possibly some of the other conferences
00:06:30
Speaker
yeah i think that is that's true especially compared to some of the other conferences ah Yeah, but that I mean, probably South is probably the one that first comes to mind with ah how much NBL and WNBL talent they have, even just ah as we're preparing preparing for NBL 1 Nationals this weekend, going through some of those rosters and you the players involved in the final series is pretty outstanding. so But that doesn't come without a bit of coin.
00:07:02
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly right. And look, there's... There's a few places that um
00:07:09
Speaker
knowing a little bit, I absolutely envy what they're able to do. But also you have a look at them and has it actually translated to the results that that you're chasing? You know, I think that's where, you know, you look at North in 2023 when they went to nationals, they only had Jolene, basically.
00:07:31
Speaker
Everyone else, like, um I don't know what their... um budgets like but I would assume some people receive some money but I'm sure they're not like some of the teams in other conferences that are playing paying players you know almost a someone's yearly salary um to work a normal job to to play air in what I consider and I think a lot of people forget is a stepping stone to professional contracts
00:08:05
Speaker
And I think that's where where my kind of issue comes in is this is this isn't pros. We do get pros in, but it's not the pros pros.
00:08:16
Speaker
it's It's a stepping stone. So people shouldn't be asking for exorbitant amounts of money, if you know what i mean. I think it's probably fair to say there's diminishing returns as you get much higher budgets.
00:08:30
Speaker
You know, you said you brought in three players and you still went 15 and five kind of thing. yeah there's only so much you can improve from there by getting getting more players. And I think that's something people probably forget as well.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And I think, too, like, for me, a big, big philosophy for for us is continuity. um That's why in 2024, you know, we got Michaela back, we got um Unique back.
00:08:59
Speaker
Like, particularly for me, last year being a first-year coach, I wanted people who I knew, um Obviously, this year was different because of circumstance, you know, Unique being over in Russia, us not having the luxury of the greatest of all time being there to help us out, where our tallest player was going to be Claudia Hocking, who's 17 at the time and only would have been in her second year. So um we had to go down the route of getting a ah
00:09:32
Speaker
an unknown big obviously you scout it and do that stuff but um an unknown from who brin was turned out to be amazing um and then the same with you know katie i didn't i watched katie a little bit when she was playing in the west but didn't know who katie was so you've got an unknown of like how she's going to assimilate into into our group. um Same with with Riley, you know, she's had a good um south season down in in Launceston.
00:10:07
Speaker
um And, you know, you have your conversations with them, um do your due diligence, um and you can do all that and you still don't know how they're going to assimilate with the group. Yeah.
00:10:21
Speaker
So yeah, they're bringing in lots of players and particularly some teams that have the turnover of bringing new ones and and like three, four, maybe five new ones in a season that has a significant impact.
00:10:35
Speaker
um With the locals, they have to learn that new person, how they go. You as a coach has to learn how how they play and they have to learn how the coach and everyone else plays. So yeah, unless you've got them here for like a proper pre-season,
00:10:52
Speaker
Like we get our players two weeks. I think Bryn turned up the day. no Katie turned up the day before our first game against Canberra this year. Bryn was the day before Katie.
00:11:03
Speaker
So then you're spending the first half of the season assimilating them in and getting to learn each other. And then you start to play.
00:11:13
Speaker
And that kind of reminds me a little bit as well when we talk talked to Coach Miko from the Crusaders men's team this season about how instead of bringing players in and kind of continuously making the local talent and the core group fit around the new people,
00:11:32
Speaker
it should be the other way around. It should be the new people coming in need to start to, like you said, assimilate to systems, the culture, the team dynamic of the existing core group. um So is that also in the forefront of your mind when you're going out recruiting?
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. um It's really funny you bring that up. That's been a huge conversation for us this year now that we've got a second year under the belt of, you know, Claudia, Tamika, Alira. We, excuse me, we got Kajana in this year for the ah first time.
00:12:06
Speaker
And so we've now got this group that's going to be hopefully with us for for a little while. And it's, we now focus in on on them and then add the pieces to complement them.
00:12:18
Speaker
you know your professionals are going to be a pretty high standard but we want them to come in and see these young ones they're on a string like they've got this down pat they're doing this doing that and they're going right i just need to jump in and do what they're doing instead of coming in and seeing a group of young kids that see these professionals and just shrinking to their shell like a turtle and go oh my goodness they're they're amazing. i'm I'm just going to sit back.
00:12:49
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? Like we want them, our young ones to be leaders from the start and um set the tone for for
Recruitment Philosophy and Process
00:12:57
Speaker
the the imports. Absolutely.
00:13:02
Speaker
And that kind of ah was a lovely segue into our second question that we had prepared about your personal approach to recruiting. So aside from what you've just mentioned, what other things do you consider when it comes to recruiting?
00:13:17
Speaker
uh look it's we've got i don't know we've got a model of how we we like to play i guess style um but we're always looking at it's uh monkey see monkey do isn't it we sort of look at what what people have done i think because we um How do I put it?
00:13:41
Speaker
You know, we've been big since we came into the East. And I think it was something that we always had to do when we were in Siebel, have, you know, the the bigger players. And then we came to the East and the teams were probably a little bit smaller.
00:13:57
Speaker
um And so, you know, you look at 2022, we had Unique we had and we had Molly. and we have molly um So they were they were bigger.
00:14:10
Speaker
um Then you look at 2023, we weren't as big. We had only Ash Hannan until we got Mallory later on. And you look at the teams that went and won the East in 2023.
00:14:24
Speaker
was Norths, who their tallest player was Sarah Schicker, um who's, what, maybe six foot six foot one okay, instead of having a big, big at, like, six foot five um We went back down that route last year with Loz coming back and having Ash, so we had 6'5", and Unique at six two um But then you look at who beat us, and you've got Isla Jufferman, so Newcastle was kind of similar, having Juffman's as a big...
00:14:59
Speaker
um and then you you sort of look at manly what they did they went and got um brooke um flowers who was a big there was me heidi at um penrith who was a big um so teams i guess started a copycat in a way with us or try and keep up but then this year look at manly they went right back to where they were their bread and butter that across the line, defensive juggernaut, everyone's able to drive and pitch and and play off that, um which is similar to what the COE is.
00:15:39
Speaker
um So, yeah, now we sit back and sort of go is our model the right model or do we now need to sort of go, geez, I really like the way um Manly Northern COE are going about it. So, yeah,
00:15:57
Speaker
It's always evolving, but at the the very crux of it is we like to pick people on who they are. You know, we have Rob and i sit down and we usually have a good our two hour, two-hour chat with with prospective players and just go through it. We've got our ah list of questions that we sit down and we take down notes and listen to what they've got to say, who they are as people, what their their interests outside of,
00:16:27
Speaker
of basketball is um because, you know, coming to Albury, like, I'll tell you now, it's the best place on earth. It's God's country, but also that can be tough for some people who haven't been here.
00:16:38
Speaker
You know, we're three hours from Melbourne. We're five hours from Sydney, and it's not cheap for a flight to Albury from Sydney or to Brisbane. um So you do kind of get locked in here.
00:16:54
Speaker
Um, so yeah, we, we try to make sure that, you know, they're going to be settled in. um we go and talk to past coaches, talk to people who know them. Um, fortunately Rob, he's friends with every person in basketball in Australia. And I think around the world, um, I fortunately know a few people, so we can go and knock on some doors and sort of find out, you know, does what they're telling us in our phone calls correlate with what other people are saying. So, um,
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah, and it's really, i don't know, it's it's ah it's a hard one at the moment because how our squad's evolving from the local base as well, um because our young locals are now getting that experience and they're starting to move on up and and we see some really, really big potential in them. So then does that change our and mindset um on the direction that we go as well?
00:17:50
Speaker
So yeah, always evolving. Keep me on my toes. So how many prospective players would you talk to over the course of an off season? Oh, I've got a whiteboard with bunch of names already, um, in different positions.
00:18:10
Speaker
Um, and we'll, we'll talk to a few, um Really, it comes down to we'll put them on the whiteboard. We'll cut up the tape and and have a look at that. And I'll send that out to Rob, um my Shane, my youth league coach, um Witty, one of my other um assistant coaches and a couple of other people behind the scenes and get them to have a look because I'll have a look and you know how it is.
00:18:44
Speaker
When you're looking for something, you see it and you go, yeah that's the person that's awesome but then someone else looks at it and they go yeah that's cool but did you see this like they're doing this and they're doing that um so for me many many eyes um help us a lot and they'll come back with you know dot points of what they think is good they think is bad and then we'll sit down and maybe have a couple of beers um correlate and hash it out and
00:19:15
Speaker
Then we come up to it and we've got our final list and then we have a few more beers. We put the blindfold on, we start throwing darts and see which name gets the most darts on it. And away we go. Well, better hope you've got a darts.
00:19:31
Speaker
I'm terrible. I'm terrible, but it's worked out all right so far.
00:19:38
Speaker
How soon can you start to approach players as well for the next season? Is there a bit of a grace period? ah Obviously, you have to work around um seasons and competitions going on in the off-season of NBL1, which is typically the on-season for a lot of professional leagues. When when do you start conversations?
00:20:02
Speaker
Well, obviously, if you're happy with the incumbents, you start that as soon as you can. Um, and then, um, you know, I, for me, I always do a check in it sort of quarter, halfway, three quarters, and then in the exit interview to see what their thoughts are. And we log it down and see, um, if attitudes are ah changing or like negatively or positively. Um, and then we, we look at it from there.
00:20:33
Speaker
um i think you're always on the lookout aren't you always on the lookout and if someone pops up the early bird gets the worm so you you just you can't sort of sit back and go i'll wait for their season to finish because you never know who's already started talking to them because mean if you if you make finals then half the competition's not in finals. So they're starting to think about next year already. So if you're not on that game, you could could miss out.
00:21:07
Speaker
um But the the big the big one is the off-season or on-season, whichever one they want to call it, the player wants to call it, you know.
00:21:19
Speaker
um There's a lot that you want to talk to, and it just depends on where they ah get signed, you know. Bryn's just signed over in, uh, with Caledonia, the gladiators in Scotland playing in the super league over there.
00:21:35
Speaker
Um, so then you've got to look at when that season finishes and how that correlates to meeting your, your 40% requirement of NBL one East, you know, so, um, uh, yeah, that makes, that makes things tricky. I think, um,
00:21:54
Speaker
Lauren, who's going to be on tonight, you know, that she'd be a really good one to talk to given with Davida. You know, they had her signed this year to team up with Jada and she's, um you know, they go all the way through to mid to late May, which then puts you yeah in trouble.
00:22:12
Speaker
So, yeah, basically start talking to them whenever and then you go from there, basically.
00:22:25
Speaker
We had a comment on Instagram live a little while ago, hopefully the person's still watching from Eve's Shema just saying they found your selection process interesting and they really like it about ah prioritizing the the person rather than the player and the skill set, making sure that they are willing to be part of the the system and the culture are first. So props to you for that. And just for the listeners sake as well, when you mentioned Lauren, we did invite Lauren Curtin from Bankstown Bruins to join us for this chat as well, but i unfortunately was unable to make it this time, but we certainly would love to have her on ESCOT game again.
00:23:07
Speaker
us If not soon, certainly next season because I'm sure she's going to get booked for the head coaching gig again. We were just really rooting for both of those Bankstown teams this year too. they it have to have on They're mad if they don't give her the gig again. like What she did with the young group is phenomenal in the first half of the year.
00:23:31
Speaker
And then, you know, that run into finals, if If Charlotte doesn't go down, things are completely different. Hey, things are ah very, very different in terms of that. I think they'd, they lost to to Newcastle, wasn't it?
00:23:46
Speaker
o Yeah. I think they, if they had Charlotte, they knock off Newcastle. Well, they already did in the regular season. Well, that's exactly right. That's that's what I, yeah. And then, and then that changes the Manly and, and that, that game to get into the grand final, like,
00:24:05
Speaker
The what-ifs of basketball, hey. It's too many. Too many to count. Way too many. Joaquin, do you want to shoot the next one? i you you You did mention Bryn going to Great Britain. How much does the start time of NBL 1 East affect your recruiting of overseas
Season Timing and Structure Debate
00:24:26
Speaker
players? Would you like to see a start a little bit later like North does?
00:24:28
Speaker
Yeah. No, because, like, I'm already bored and getting fidgety about the season and starting, and we've only been finished for, what, three weeks, four weeks? um felt them My wife's probably not happy to hear me say that. but Yeah, no, I was going to say. Yeah. um But, like, it would be amazing, wouldn't it? Like, all of Europe's finished by the time that um by the time they're finished. You know, obviously it's the shorter season, so meeting the minimum requirements is a bit different. But...
00:25:01
Speaker
You know, if you can have a player, they finish in Europe in at the start of May and your season starts at the start of May and, you know, you've got a good local group, you could then turn around and go, right, I've signed player X, have a month off and then come in just for the end of, you know, like rejuvenate yourself and then come in for the the back half of the season.
00:25:27
Speaker
similar to like a a Sutherland last year, you know, or even this year, Lauren Nicholson comes in the back end of the season, an absolute jet, who's a great addition to any team.
00:25:40
Speaker
And your season goes from here to here. Like, you know, that probably wasn't a good representation. don't know. But, you know, you know what I'm talking about. You go from like um possibly not making finals to making finals and you've got all this momentum against teams that have been grinding it out for,
00:25:57
Speaker
for 20 games, you know. um Yeah, the later start time would be good, but at the end of the day, i just like us, particularly with the East, I'd really like us to try and, don't know, try and see if we can condense it down into a couple of less weekends, maybe.
00:26:24
Speaker
um You know, we already go... up to to sydney we do we do five road trips um and double head them each time um i don't know why i don't know if if there's a way that they could um get a team to come down and play here and then play again on the sunday you know what i mean or they play say a ah game in canberra on on saturday night and then they come to us on sunday and go home
00:26:57
Speaker
You know, we've got, i think it was last year, we played Central Coast on the Saturday night, drive up there, and then we have to play Manly on the Sunday.
00:27:12
Speaker
You know, that's a tough road trip, but teams get to come down and play against us, and that's their only game. ah Like, it's it's a long road trip for people who don't do it all the time, but it it's pretty easy.
00:27:27
Speaker
at the end of the day when you think about it and because they only do it once some of them are coming down on the friday night so they get a nice old old rest and they're primed it's almost like a home game um and then you get to go out and have fun on the saturday night in albury what a night out um but yes i would like to see the east condensed down a little i think um so that we can possibly either start a little bit later um And I guess it all depends on this national scene and and how they want to do that as well, isn't it? It's kind of dictated by that. But yeah, I don't know.
00:28:06
Speaker
It can definitely be reworked, I guess, ah because, you know, North only started the 1st of May this year. So East had already been through three rounds and Easter at least before North had even started. And I know that North had fewer teams and they only had 13 rounds, but East only had 15.
00:28:26
Speaker
So that's not yeah a big difference. Exactly right. And that's where I feel like sometimes when a team's only coming down to play, us on one weekend, like you can condense that down there somehow. Like whether it's – I know we've got COE in Canberra, but is it you come down and maybe you play COE and then on to us, and then when you've got to go to Canberra, you play Illawarra and and that other Canberra-based team because they're only like two hours or three hours away, um something like that.
00:29:00
Speaker
um I just feel like there's possibly – some double headers that could be had and uh central coast and manly they're not even close to each other I mean, understanding that i like Maitland, Newcastle in a doubleheader makes sense. yeah Maybe central Central Coast and Hornsby makes a bit more sense than Central Coast and Manly.
00:29:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's funny you talk you say that, Squin, because actually talking to the Manly players at Warratah League Grand Final, they had to leave home at 6.15am to get up to Central Coast, which as the crow flies is very close. It was 9am tip, but as the crow flies, very close.
00:29:40
Speaker
But actually driving there is a real pain. Yeah, and you never know with traffic up there. It's crazy. Leaving at 6.15 in the morning. You better off taking a ferry to Palm Beach or something.
00:29:53
Speaker
I've done that. I've done that. Leaving at 6.15 for a 9 o'clock game, that's thats brutal. um It's like leaving at 6.15 for a 5.30 game in the afternoon.
00:30:08
Speaker
ah Welcome to our world. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:15
Speaker
uh lucky yeah you got next thank thank you for mentioning Sutherland last season I like that very much uh but what what is your opinion on the uh current way the NBL one East Awards are decided because i know there's been a lot of talk around the league about this controversial isn't it um um
00:30:39
Speaker
oh that how do i answer this without getting in trouble off my club and other people um i think it can be tweaked i think there's some some changes that can be made um i for the to put it on record i think coach of the year this year was perfect um you know manly averaged 84.6 points per game and only gave up 65.
00:31:11
Speaker
um Best defense, one of the best offenses, um and 18-2 record. So you're based on that.
00:31:22
Speaker
The best coach got coach of the hands down. um I think, um you know, Katie Jones was on with you guys the other week as well. The right person got...
00:31:34
Speaker
um got mvp in nicole munger she's the absolute standard for for our competition and and very deserving of three-time mvp led two statistical statistical categories um that's pretty unreal um so yeah um and that's not being disrespectful to taylor words because she absolutely phenomenal mate like um You know, the way she grew into the season was, mate, that was really good to watch. It sucked from a coaching point of view, but it was really, really good to watch. And the way she's lacing the threes, watch out nationals, like everyone's in trouble there.
00:32:16
Speaker
um But I do question the way the um MVP voting is done, um you know, so Coaches do 3-2-1 after each game.
00:32:33
Speaker
There's no real criteria around that. So
00:32:38
Speaker
I could turn around and go and pluck one of my players out and just go, right, Katie, I don't care if you have 2.6 turnovers and zero rebounds and fail out in 15 minutes.
00:32:52
Speaker
I'm giving you three votes because you're my you're my person. I mean, I'd like to think that there's a lot more integrity in the game, that people wouldn't do that, but it's still open to to that kind of situation.
00:33:08
Speaker
um You know, I also think, too, you look at a team like a North where they've got a lot of contributors across the board, um or you look at us, you know, we had...
00:33:24
Speaker
Katie at 25, 6 and 5. We had Riley at 22, 7 and 3, I think it was. um And then you've got Bryn at 18 and 12 or something.
00:33:40
Speaker
Like, that's three people that are just taking points off each other. Like, we... I don't know how how you can can fix it up on teams that are stacked. Like, you look at...
00:33:54
Speaker
newcastle they are meg jefferson and then they've got nicole munger as well you know there were games where meg had really good games and nicole was a little bit bit um lower but did impact the game but does meg deserve the three does um nicole deserve the three um yeah i don't know how you fix it like do we get the referees to to do similar to a Brownlow in the AFL, the referees put in a 3-2-1 as well.
00:34:24
Speaker
Coaches do it, but also the referees. um
00:34:30
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm not sure how how to fix it, but I feel like there does need to be something that but that fixes it. Or do do we have everyone do the 3-2-1s
00:34:48
Speaker
And even the referees do the 3-2-1s. And then similar to the other awards, you get a list of people and they're ranked in order of votes. And then you do a 3-2-1 from there, if you know what I mean. I do know of leagues that do that.
00:35:06
Speaker
So, yeah, you get your 3-2-1 and then you can vote from the top 10. my My biggest
Voting Systems and Fairness
00:35:11
Speaker
gripe with a 3-2-1 is... So opening day of the season... Penrith beat Sutherland 55-46 Jordan Vasquez has 14-17 imagine she got the three votes because everyone else basically may not they may as well not have been there A whole team scores 55 and their player gets three points Riley Lopper scores 55 points on her own and she can only get the same amount of votes
00:35:37
Speaker
that a player in this 55-46 game got. So i that's my biggest gripe is that it treats all game, all best performances the same regardless of how good their performance was.
00:35:49
Speaker
Yeah. And then, you know, I look at it, you know, Unique finally got her MVP this year in the North, which is phenomenal. But you go back and you kind of look at...
00:36:02
Speaker
um A player like Unique who has such a significant impact on the game, but she only comes through and plays 12 of 20 games. But then she's playing with a ah Lauren Jackson and stuff like that. So Unique could feasibly get 36 votes from from me and probably be worthy of the MVP.
00:36:27
Speaker
But then she's not going to because she hasn't played... she hasn' a play She's played enough games to qualify, but compared to someone else who plays 20 games and is only maybe the second best player on the court, they get 40. Do you know what I mean? So that ties in with your weightings of where that stuff is.
00:36:47
Speaker
And I think the subjectivity of the 3-2-1s as well, like for the NBL1 North Women's Grand Final, we have a three-game series. And as commentators, we were asked to do 3-2-1 votes for the first two games. Mm-hmm.
00:37:03
Speaker
ah And it was just interesting between us how we were deciding to give our votes as commentators based on ah statistics, but also we could see from a different perspective who was having such a big a bigger impact on the game in a sense of michaela ken and her leadership um and her energy and the way that she was playing with such kind of desperation to kind of keep logan in touch in that first game when they lost to spartans by nearly 20 points like to me that deserves some votes even though she was on the losing team but to others they might just say oh she only had 18 and four
00:37:46
Speaker
compared to someone else that had, I think, France and had like 31 and 15. You know what i mean? So, yeah, there's always that kind of, it's a little bit too subjective almost. But I like that idea of having shortlist and then voting off the shortlist.
00:38:01
Speaker
I feel like that was, I feel like that was kind of in play before the NBL won, before NBL won and before Championship League when it was at Waratah ABA.
00:38:13
Speaker
I think that's what we used to do. going I think you'll remember too, Lachie, back in 2022 in the grand final.
00:38:25
Speaker
So us versus Southert. Unique got MVP. But Unique was awesome. But Brodie Theodore was phenomenal.
00:38:38
Speaker
Do you know what i mean So there's there's all that that subjectivity and and all that kind of stuff around there, um which again comes into... I mean, the amount of people's and players' names that I heard talked about for 3-2-1 up and down the bench, because I think we both had votes as commentators and so many other people. Yeah, excuse me, Sammy.
00:38:58
Speaker
was there too. Yeah. I was more talking about Sutherland. I knew that Lucky would definitely remember. Yes. No, I do definitely remember. Yeah, I know. I was just fighting you off.
00:39:09
Speaker
So, yeah. I mean, the amount of people that got votes, Quinn, in that game is ridiculous. Yeah. I think Brody was definitely talked about. Casey Ardern was talked about.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah, do what do we give Brody a i'm sorry told I'm pretty sure we did, but I remember we definitely talked about it because, like you said, Sammy, the impact she had in terms of setting the tone, hitting some threes at the the right time, like perfect role player. Defensively, yeah.
00:39:38
Speaker
Yeah, defensively was outstanding. We definitely talked about I'm pretty sure we gave her at least a couple and i think i was surprised that um i thought she kind of had it in the bag that people would see it a similar way but i mean love that unique was also yeah absolutely i mean and like sorry you go lucky i i just had i had two grand finals on the weekend where the top scorer in both games by a fair margin got beaten ruby perkins had 38 in the grand final
00:40:09
Speaker
and lost johnny whitler was splashing threes for fun for central coast waves scored 23 they lost neither neither gets neither gets final grand final mvp so yeah and and that's kind of like the grand final you know like taylor was was awesome and blew the game open to start with like shooting the threes but for for me and a couple other people that were watching it was the the work of Zoe Miller by getting into the scenes and that early on creating those kickout passes and and collapsing the defense to get Taylor those shots. like
00:40:48
Speaker
Funnily enough, it wasn't 3-2-1 for that grand final. we just had one't it We just had one pick. and we write And it was between the two commentators. We had to come up with one person. Oh, wow.
00:41:00
Speaker
So you only got one vote between two. Yep. Right. Yeah. And if you listen to the commentary in that the third quarter when Zoe is going mental, I'm saying Taylor's in the box seat for the MVP, but Zoe Miller definitely got the two votes locked up at this stage.
00:41:16
Speaker
And then later in fourth quarter, someone comes over and just asks, who's your MVP? And i'm like, I just get, oh, okay. Flip a coin. Yeah.
00:41:28
Speaker
um Yeah, and then I guess like my, the other one, and I've talked to you about this, just in the all-star voting.
00:41:40
Speaker
um I think, I don't know how, ah think it needs to be changed. um You know, ah had the the issue last year where I had two centres, Lauren and Unique, and You only get one vote for, you only get to nominate a guard, a forward and centre.
00:42:07
Speaker
I'm not going to leave you Unique off the ballot paper for Lauren. I'm not going to leave Lauren off for Unique. So I had to go and put one of them as a forward. And look, you can turn around and say that Loz is a forward, but in our league, she's a centre.
00:42:21
Speaker
unique's the centre as well. um So then we, you get into those tricky areas as well. I guess it kind of happened this year too with Riley being nominated as a forward as well, you know, but I'll be honest, I'm not going to leave Riley off my ballot paper.
00:42:41
Speaker
um
00:42:44
Speaker
So yeah, I think we need to look at, I think it should just be you get to nominate two three three players and then it gets voted on from there.
00:42:56
Speaker
man I don't know. What do you guys think? I mean, you're not you're not the first coach to, you know, slot a player down or up a spot. I know teams in youth league, I've seen them do it forever. Yeah.
00:43:07
Speaker
yeah I mean, as I said, when the award came out, put the players in the positions. If the league doesn't vet what the players, what they think the players' positions are, dare people not to vote for them.
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I appreciate the coaches this year voting for Riley as a forward though. Like props to them. That's awesome. Good acknowledgement for her. But, you know, but then it also impacts um a player like Abby Curtin, who was nominated as, i think she was nominated as a centre, you know.
00:43:39
Speaker
And so, like, that's tough. It's tough for Bryn, you know, and she's a true centre. um ah Jada Rice is a true centre.
00:43:51
Speaker
Sataya is just an athletic beast and could probably be nominated for all all three positions. um So, yeah, I don't know.
00:44:04
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I think there might need to be... take the positions out of it possibly. I don't know. Yeah. yeah I think like, i ah you know, I'm probably going a bit rogue here, but I also don't really like the positions either.
00:44:23
Speaker
um Because I remember, I think the inaugural season at NBL One East, didn't Lauren Nicholson make the all-star five as a forward? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Yeah.
00:44:35
Speaker
To me, and when i read when I think of All-Star 5, I just want the best five players of the season. I feel like what I liked this year with NBL One East is that they kind of gave us this drip feed of the top five people who had the most votes with MVP. Yeah, I like that. would prefer that.
00:44:53
Speaker
I would prefer that over an All-Star 5 that is based on position. Or I would just prefer, like, All-Star 5 to kind of be named, i don't know, kind of be renamed like NBL 1A starting five or something because All-Star 5 reads to me the best five players, but so many people are going to miss out because of position.
00:45:15
Speaker
But if you make it as like your ultimate starting five where you had to put people in position, I think maybe that wording would change it a little bit. But i I would almost prefer the top five MVP votes over an All-Star 5.
00:45:31
Speaker
Why can't we have a first team and a second team like the North does? And and I think South do as well, don't they? Yeah. Yeah, they do. yeah but And they have like 400 people nominated for all their awards in South.
00:45:44
Speaker
Probably because they have like 400 teams. They have like 19 teams this season or something. Everyone that registers gets a nomination. Yeah. And why not? Why do the teams have to tell you who you can vote for?
00:45:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly right. You're putting in the effort. Yeah. Yeah. um but I think we can definitely have a first and second team. I think the West does it as well. I think that that's, what especially with where our league's at right now and the the the quality of players that are coming into it on the men's and women's side, to see some people get left out, I feel like is doing them an an injustice.
00:46:22
Speaker
um and And it's also doing the the fans and the clubs an injustice. You know, like for us, it's, it's a big thing to get people into that those award nominations.
00:46:33
Speaker
You know, like our fans really want to see that. And the amount of people that were pumped to see Katie in that trickle in of like who the MVP is, and they're like, oh, man, Katie's down the final three. Like she's a real big chance, blah, blah, blah. um You know, seeing Riley and and um Katie make the the all-star five the people saying, hey, that's continued a ah pretty stellar run for us in terms of um members of of the All-Star 5 since we came into the East. You know, I think you're right, Lauren Nicholson was a forward in 2022 because it was Vanessa Panousis, I, Yamada,
00:47:13
Speaker
um Lauren, Lauren and Unique. That was the All-Star 5, if I remember right. um Yeah. um So, yeah, like we we need to make sure that these people who who are bloody good players get the recognition that they i deserve.
00:47:35
Speaker
Yeah, and I think I wonder, I have to check if... um how the voting works in the North as well because sometimes as well when we do the 3-2-1, we always take into account if they won or lost the game, whereas up here in North they had the first and second team and Ash Island made the first team despite the Caps coming last in the competition.
00:47:57
Speaker
So I think that also, however they're voting, kind of helps bridge that gap too, that just because you're coming last in the competition and that them placing last isn't reflective. Like they had lots of close games, but Ash Island was outstanding the whole season regardless of her opponent. And even though they came last, I thought it was really cool that she could still make all-star first team.
00:48:20
Speaker
Yeah. And I look at last year, like, Penrith weren't amazing, but Mia Hardy was phenomenal when she she got to them. Like, her season was unreal. And she misses out on ah and an acknowledgement where she probably could have been ah second team, like, worthy person.
00:48:39
Speaker
um You know, this year, Abby Curtin, she's stiff to not even get into the All-Star Five. She then could be a second team.
00:48:50
Speaker
kind of person piper anderson a second team potential player um on teams that didn't make finals so
00:49:01
Speaker
been especially with centers like it's just one position one spot for the entire league that's tough yeah yeah absolutely yeah Not that we have many centers in the East though.
00:49:15
Speaker
But as long as they're going to be, as long they're going to have a spot for the center and you've got to nominate a player there instead of just saying even guards and bigs kind of thing. That's exactly right. Next season I might nominate um one of my guards as a center.
00:49:30
Speaker
If they keep it the same. Yeah, we'll see what happens.
00:49:36
Speaker
So going back, reflecting on your 2025 season, what were some of your personal triumphs as an NBL1 coach? It can be ah so that a specific moment or it can be a generalisation.
00:49:48
Speaker
Well, I mentioned it earlier um in terms of our roster make-up, to have nine locals on our team um playing and for Kajana,
00:50:02
Speaker
what kajana Claudia, Alira, Caitlin and Tamika, for five of them to be all under 20 and getting to play and contribute, um I think that was that's a massive thing for for myself and for our club.
00:50:21
Speaker
um I know when I played... A long time ago, um i was not very good, but our club had a focus on playing young locals because we'd kind of gone down the road of buying people in um and it wasn't working out. were just spending lots of money and not getting the results like what you said, Lockie.
00:50:42
Speaker
um And so the club turned around and said, you know what, we're going to focus on playing young locals and see how that goes. And... um the The fans just love it.
00:50:55
Speaker
The amount of people talking this year saying it was so good to see so many Aubrey people playing in our squad. um That's what we want. um And to be successful doing that, that's I think that's a real highlight for me this year.
00:51:12
Speaker
um
00:51:15
Speaker
Generalisation, I'm just stoked that we were competitive again. wasn't wasn't that um In a way, I wasn't a one-hit wonder. Just rolled out there with, like, an all-star team last year, went twenty you know choked in the finals. And then I think it's good to know that I'm not a bad regular season coach. I'm just a shit finals coach. Oh, yeah.
00:51:39
Speaker
sorry for swimming but you can't food co you can't sugarcoat it but um no it was just good to to know that like what we're doing is um down here is a competitive brand of basketball within our our conference and you know we we learned some some areas that we um need to improve in like winning finals
00:52:05
Speaker
And talking about all those locals, like you mentioned Caitlin, who I think is from Wagga Wagga. Yes. So what what is the actual, does Aubrey Wodonga have much of a relationship with the clubs in the Riverina?
00:52:17
Speaker
Or is it just if the player's good enough, they're going to come to Aubrey? Yeah, it's interesting. I think by virtue of like the basketball New South Wales stuff, and I think some of the...
00:52:30
Speaker
SPP with the satellite spots. I think it's easier for player like Caitlin where there might not be too many that make the ah SPP kind of group.
00:52:43
Speaker
She was coming down and training with our groups down here. Then she I think she may have played some Aubrey Cougars rep basketball as well towards the end because there wasn't enough in in Wagga.
00:52:55
Speaker
Similar to Tamika. So Tamika's from Griffiths. um and she was traveling down from griffith so last year she was completing year 12 and she would finish year 12 um at she'd leave at maybe 2 30 on from school jump in the car and drive down here on tuesday and thursday night to train and then jump in the car and drive back home um that was her her commitment level to play our nbl1 and youth league um So, yeah, they kind of just come down by virtue of of that. They've got the connections to some people. They play some junior rep for us in the high years when they don't have enough back home.
00:53:36
Speaker
And now, fortunately, Caitlin and Tameka are both doing a teaching degree um at CSU here in Aubrey. um So we'll have them for a little while, I think, which is good.
00:53:48
Speaker
Yeah, I just saw CSU's team for Uni Nationals. Caitlin, Tamika, Malik Jenkins from Penrith. There's a few in there. Yeah, absolutely. Bella Fielder, who played for us, was a championship player in 2022. Yeah.
00:54:04
Speaker
um So, yeah, there's we've we've got a few feww in there and it's good. And I'd urge lots of people to come to Albury and do the teaching degree or one of the allied health because we've got a great NBL1 program that would be more than happy to accommodate you guys.
00:54:20
Speaker
Well, I think that's a bit why... Yeah, allied health professionals. Yeah. that's a bit of why Port Macquarie is um seeing some basketball growth is the establishment of the CSU campus up there. Yeah, absolutely.
00:54:32
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, um what was the question again? I can't remember what you're saying. Oh, you were talking about Katie and like being from out of town. Yeah, absolutely. And I think you got to see um Kajana play, possibly play or at JPL finals.
00:54:49
Speaker
I did. I watched her play twice. Yeah, yep big future for that kid. I'm i'm excited to see how she goes because once her state stuff and everything finished this year, she was phenomenal for us, you know, for 16-year-old.
00:55:08
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, she got massive minutes in the ah game up in Manly. Yeah. Yeah. but Once we... um fine tune a few things. um Yeah. Very excited to see where she can go from there.
00:55:26
Speaker
Lock, you got next. I got next. Oh, I like this one because everyone has different opinions on it.
Future Aspirations for NBL1 East
00:55:34
Speaker
What are your hopes for NBL one East and how can the league improve?
00:55:39
Speaker
It's a very casting a wide net here. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
00:55:47
Speaker
Again, hope I don't get in trouble. um ah how
00:55:56
Speaker
How can it – what are my hopes? i hope that it just keeps growing the way that it has. i think what they've done over the last – this season – um And it sort of started last season. It really started to become a lot more, I think, professional.
00:56:16
Speaker
And we're starting to get up to a reasonable standard. And I like if we keep trending the way we are, I think we'll we'll start to have a really, really good product.
00:56:27
Speaker
um First thing is... Let's take the the lead from um the West and start playing a grand final in a proper stadium.
00:56:42
Speaker
Seeing Rack Arena last weekend packed out, like, that was phenomenal. I don't know what the the final attendance was for it, but that's amazing for a grand final and that's how it should be.
00:56:56
Speaker
um I would actually really like to...
00:57:02
Speaker
the the ticketing for the grand final changed. I don't like this ticket for the women's game, ticket for the men's game. ah I know that everywhere does it, but let's be different and let's celebrate the basketball that we have and give people the opportunity. Like $22 for the women's game, $22 for the men's game.
00:57:27
Speaker
Let's just make it 30 bucks and you get two games. It's simple as that, particularly in this economic climate. Like, you're kind of hamstringing yourself by saying, you want to watch two games, you've got to spend $44.
00:57:40
Speaker
um And if you've got a family, because from what I saw, there wasn't family tickets, there wasn't kids' tickets or or anything like that. You know, I'll probably get in trouble off my club, but our one home final, we put tickets at $25.
00:57:57
Speaker
So a family of four, it's $100 to go and watch the game. That's outrageous. We want to see people in the stands. Absolutely. i want to see people in the stands. I want to see it packed out.
00:58:09
Speaker
um And that's the way NBL 1A should be looking at it too. They should be turning around saying, right, we've got Manly and we've got the COE.
00:58:20
Speaker
Now, by virtue of it being the COE, yeah unfortunately, they don't have a huge fan base, but we've got Manly people. Let's... go and say manly we're going to give you a hundred tickets to give out to your association okay then tickets are going to be forty dollars for a family and you do that for the men like on the the men's side as well to illawarra and to to canberra but you want everyone to come and watch both games simple as that sell it as as
00:58:57
Speaker
what it is, a celebration of basketball.
00:59:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's certainly the NBL1 North and the NBL1 West grand finals ah were polar opposite in that sense where the West made a big spectacle of it. It was at the r RAC.
00:59:16
Speaker
They had side two sideline commentators. They had two different players. commentary teams for each game each a panel of three real big spectacle right nbl1 north we have panel of three commentators production value is outstanding with big voice media they're the best but then it's in karina where karina is i'm gonna say you know like terrible stadium is bigger than karina Hey, we used to play there. I love that joint.
00:59:48
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And Terrigal Stadium is cool because it's got the inbuilt grandstand. You can put a grandstand on court too. So it still creates some atmosphere for a local court. But Carina is kind of cool because it is very local, but it didn't have that spectacle and that feel of of yeah this is a grand final.
01:00:06
Speaker
And I guess to be spared fair to Spartans, they did have their men at men's and women's team the grand final split over two different locations. But I don't reckon they'd be able to fit many more people in there if both finals were at the one location. I would like to see some kind of standardisation when it comes to finals and stuff across the league too.
01:00:26
Speaker
Yeah, why couldn't they play it where the Bullets play? Bullets play at the the entertainment centre in Boondal, which is hike and probably expensive to rent.
01:00:38
Speaker
Then there is the new Bullets facility in South Bank, but there's no seating. because ah in the men's competition, the Brisbane Caps were playing Spartans and Brisbane Caps were supposed to host.
01:00:50
Speaker
But that Orkinflower is still under construction to the point where there there's literal sheets, bed sheets coming down and covering stuff. So they didn't want to have a grand final all there. So it had to be in Zilmi on neutral territory.
01:01:06
Speaker
um Yeah, I agree. I agree. got it's got it It can be a bit more of a spectacle and try and find ways to get people in the door, like you said, as a celebration. yeah um Sorry, I'm just getting my wife to fill up my water.
01:01:24
Speaker
On standby. She's a good egg. um Yeah, I agree. And, um you know, you've got the State Basketball Centre down for for the south. um that's always a good show like the south do it as well thank you very much um they um they had the same you know they got the panel of of commentators they had the sideline commentators and stuff like it's just production value is huge um so that's that's my one that's first one um i think the social media game for the east went to a
01:02:03
Speaker
huge level this year um a lot of people creating some really really good content the photographers are just next level hey like the work that they do with their their little video edits and their their pictures like they they really need a massive hat on the back because without them doing that we don't get to showcase what we're doing to people that that you know, aren't in the east.
01:02:31
Speaker
So yeah, I think that's that's massive. um We kind of spoke about it beforehand. Maybe we could get actual information updated a bit quicker um regarding what's going on and and that kind of stuff. But I think that's a across the board for the NBL1 kind of thing, just that transfer of info.
01:02:55
Speaker
um
01:02:58
Speaker
I don't really know how else it could improve. I mean, we said before, like in terms of the schedule, possibly trying to shrink that down and and and creating a double-headed road trip down this way would be great um from a competitive standpoint and lightening the load for for some people not having to play as many weeks, possibly in their off-season.
01:03:28
Speaker
um that's about it for me i think see any the other ones no that's a good spread because we've already talked about as well uh you know how the awards are allocated the schedule we've talked about um as well in early in in this episode so that still counts as overall improvements to the league i think and they're all things that don't involve needing to have more money Because typically, I think on the surface, when we talk about how do we improve a league, the anish one of the kind of easier responses, I guess, understandably, is like, oh, get better players. Okay, but to recruit players, you've got to kind of have that financial backing to attract the players kind of thing.
01:04:14
Speaker
um So all of the improvements that you've mentioned at least don't require money yeah We've got great players anyway. yeah I don't think we need to go and load up and add way too many more. We've got phenomenal players, especially like young local but New South Wales like juniors from Metro own country.
01:04:37
Speaker
there's The talent level is very high. And now that we've moved on from the Waratah mould and people are starting to understand the NBL1 level,
01:04:49
Speaker
um I think it's only going to get better and better and better. Yeah, I think there's ah there's a bit of a um
01:04:57
Speaker
kind of like a feeling that, you know, if it's ah if it's a young local player that's come up through the ranks, well, then they're not a big name, but that's just patently untrue. It's like just because, yeah you know, they went out and signed imports WNBL players, it doesn't mean that those young locals coming through still aren't ridiculously good players.
01:05:15
Speaker
Because you know who who was a young local coming through once? Lauren Nicholson. That's exactly right. No, 100. absolutely I couldn't agree more, Lachie. Like, and that's who people want to see, isn't it? Your WNBL players. And, you know, I think um we're getting into a really cool cycle with the college kids. You know, looking at Izzy Morgan come back and play this year for Norths. I think that was awesome, like that connection. um You know, yeah.
01:05:46
Speaker
Kitty Henderson's just finished. Like, do we see her possibly pop up in in the off-season at Manly? Millie Pryor? Like, they're legit stars from from college basketball that are going to come back. And if they they drop into the East, I hope they don't try and go play in the South and all that kind of stuff. Like, I want them in the East so that we can play against them and we get to watch them here instead of,
01:06:14
Speaker
on my tv like i've had to watch on my laptop for the last few years whilst they've been at college like we want those players playing here and i love that they go back to their home associations so um yeah fingers crossed that we can keep building on that too oh you know you never went over to the states and watched millie and izzy play at davidson no i didn't sorry lachie did you yeah i commentated one of their games Oh, my goodness. How lucky are you?
01:06:43
Speaker
yeah
01:06:47
Speaker
and I think, like, especially this season, we have dubbed it on East Scott Game as the homecoming season. We saw so many great players who started their career here, off and had a career in different ah different levels at different places and have come back. So, you know, you had Kadir coming back, Susie Wormsley, Isaiah Lee.
01:07:09
Speaker
You had both Devo and Bawali playing for Comets. I've probably missed a couple more, but that just was such a bolster for the league, seeing those kind of household names coming back for their home club. It just had a really nice, put a really nice touch to the season, I think.
01:07:27
Speaker
Yeah, the Cadiz one was awesome. The vibe around Bankstown was phenomenal. Like when we played there, that was cool. like good old bankstown stadium i still remember winning under 12 state champs there um and then walking back in and seeing it absolutely buzzing more than it was when we were winning the under 12 state champs like there wasn't that many people watching then which is disappointing but um to to watch um the fans really get around it in bankstown it was awesome and they were there
01:08:01
Speaker
you know, halfway through the women's game as well. And like when we played there, the women were struggling a bit because it was the young group. They hadn't got Shiloh and they hadn't got Juju in. um But you could see the people were starting to cotton on that there was something growing there, um building.
01:08:18
Speaker
And so, yeah, the vibe, it was awesome. It was really cool. um You know, the manly, the, there We only got to play there in that final, but you know with the new stand that they've got there, you can see there was and it was a bit hard because the men were playing in Norse as well, but you know Manly always has a really good crowd.
01:08:42
Speaker
They love to give you a fair ribbing, which is I absolutely love that. I feed off that. That's that's my favourite part. um Canberra, I think Canberra had an awesome crowd this year as well, um which is was really good. It's great to see the crowds building because, you know, there wasn't many there in 2022 when we went and played up in Sydney.
01:09:06
Speaker
Like, people didn't quite understand. and They only sort of turned up because Lauren was there um because then we went there in 2023 without Lauren and there wasn't many people at the Games. There was heaps last year.
01:09:18
Speaker
And then this year, it was great to see that there's heaps still there at the games. You know, Southall as well. Southall was, um unfortunately, the women had a tough year with injuries and unavailabilities and that kind of stuff. But there was still ah a bloody awesome crowd when we were up there.
01:09:35
Speaker
um And they got to see... us lose which was no good but anyway um that's probably always a treat for for some of the teams to see us lose um and newcastle i can't yeah newcastle and maitland maitland is right up there with um with the manly people for for parochial fans.
01:09:57
Speaker
I got called chicken legs, which is the first time in my life I've ever been called chicken legs. um But, yeah, but it's it was awesome. I love it, the the banter and how how into it they all are. um And that's what's really cool about the trajectory of of the East.
01:10:16
Speaker
And I think what we're doing right now with small improvements sends us to another another level. Do our de Maitland still play the cricket chirping over the away team player introductions?
01:10:28
Speaker
Yes. Love it. Yes. And it's I'm showing my age here, but I feel like I'm in the club when I'm there. So, so loud. Walk out of there with like ringing ears, man. it's um Yeah, it's hard.
01:10:41
Speaker
like I mean, my players don't listen to me in timeouts anyway, but I feel like I'm not getting my message across.
01:10:50
Speaker
And the last thing we really need to talk about with you, which was I think came to light a few days ago, they have announced the game times and the initial matchups for the NBL One Nationals that tips off on Friday.
01:11:10
Speaker
and ahead of releasing the schedule for day one, They've gone and put all of the six qualifying teams as particular seeds with no explanation of how these seeds are determined.
01:11:28
Speaker
For example, in the men's competition, the current NBL One East champion, the Canberra Gunners, is third seed, behind the team that they beat in the grand final, the Illawarra Hawks, who are second seed.
01:11:43
Speaker
ah In the women's competition, the Coburn Cougars from WA are first, followed by the Knox Raiders, low than logan sunar then then Waverly Falcons, who got knocked out in their qualifying final in NBL 1 South. They are ahead...
01:12:01
Speaker
of championship-winning teams Manly and Woodfield. Help us make sense of this, Sammy, because it doesn't make sense to me. I even, like, wrote down perhaps the scores that each team had in the grand final.
01:12:12
Speaker
that's That's not it either. So help help us make sense of this. i don't think we will make sense um of it. I think I was talking to you. i was talking to someone. um I don't think an East team has played a a central team in the – four years of the Nationals.
01:12:36
Speaker
Because I don't think North did in 2023. We didn't. we didn't we were meant to play West Adelaide, like we we mentioned earlier, and that got changed. um And I don't think Newcastle did last year either.
01:12:52
Speaker
So I find that, I don't know, it's really odd. But I went through and looked at each team's season, ah offense and defense points per game. um First seed, Coburn, I think they deserve it. 97.7 points per game offensively and only 66.6 points per game defensively. So that's epic.
01:13:13
Speaker
23-0 has to be
01:13:23
Speaker
Not bad.
01:13:26
Speaker
points for games sixty four point two points game defensively not bad But then you look at Manly, who's the fifth seed, 84.6 points per game and 65.1 points per game defensively.
01:13:44
Speaker
They are easily the second best team on those numbers in the competition. The only team that scores more than...
01:13:57
Speaker
Manly, like offensively, is Logan at 87.6, but they give up 73.8 points per game. You know, so for me, if i was if we were doing the seeding right, it should be Coburn.
01:14:14
Speaker
Coburn plays Waverly.
01:14:17
Speaker
Manly plays Woodville. And then Logan can play Knox. That's the way I would have the seedings for the women. um And then we see how it goes from there.
01:14:32
Speaker
The men, yeah, the men blows my mind. I'm not 100% sure about that. How? Illawarra. Unless they've just given Illawarra their seeding because that's where Knox was going to be.
01:14:45
Speaker
ah That's the only explanation I can have for it. At least with like you know maybe in the women's, like yeah you could explain that maybe Manly were fourth and Waverly were fifth, so they switched them so Knox didn't play Waverly in the opening round or something like that.
01:15:00
Speaker
But on the men's side, ah just can't... Yeah. yeah The only thing can think of is what you just said, that Illawarra's just taken Knox's spot and been slotted there into the draw. But...
01:15:12
Speaker
Transfer of information, transparency, you know, tell us things and we won't have to ah speculate. Yeah, exactly. And like, I don't know, it's just, I find that just a little bit, bit lazy.
01:15:28
Speaker
I don't know. Bit lazy. Not trying to be rude or anything, but like, let's, let's again, that transfer information, let's honestly have a look at it and go,
01:15:39
Speaker
what would be cracking match-ups, you know, to to kick off Nationals so that you rope people in and you go, wow, that's an absolute cracker. I want Coburn versus... Like Coburn versus Manly, that would be an absolute belter.
01:15:54
Speaker
Like, first up, a Logan Knox would be cracker. um And then you can have Waverly play Woodville or something like that.
01:16:05
Speaker
um I think if I feel like the team that won Nationals, that sixth team, they should just be the sixth seed straight up.
01:16:18
Speaker
And then we go from there. And it's not being disrespectful, but it's you guys didn't win it this year. You didn't win your conference this year. You were good last year and you weren't quite good enough again this year.
01:16:32
Speaker
So you get to be number six and then we go from there. That brings up another point. If it's different teams, do we need seedings? Why don't we just have a random draw?
01:16:44
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Throw them all into the bingo wheel yeah and away we go. I was going to say the same thing. in this The same way that the Women's World Cup pools are decided, yeah, just put put them all in the in the bingo and the bingo wheel and and pull it out randomly.
01:17:05
Speaker
And just say that yeah yeah just say that the two teams from the same conference can't play each other. and yeah Yeah, similar to how they they do it, like how you're going to have so many from pool pull A and pool B kind of thing.
01:17:21
Speaker
Or they can take my scouting method and just have a few beers, put blindfold on, throw darts at things see what happens. Might be a bit more fun. Yeah, absolutely. And they could live stream it. That'd be sick.
01:17:35
Speaker
yeah Yeah.
01:17:38
Speaker
But, ah yeah, NBL1 National starts this Friday, the 29th of August, hosted by the East In Canberra, of course, ah Manly Warringah Seagulls women are playing at 12 p.m. on the Friday against the Knox Raiders.
01:17:54
Speaker
And then we've got the Canberra men playing at 2 p.m. against Sandringham Sabres. then later in the day, we've got Illawarra men playing Southern District Spartans at 4pm on the first day.
01:18:07
Speaker
Now, the the times are up for day two and day three, but the match-ups won't be released, I think, until day one is over. So keep your eyes on social media.
01:18:21
Speaker
Canberra are a good shout. I mean, they were close to knocking off Frankston on opening night in 2022, and if they'd done that,
01:18:32
Speaker
They would have played in the ah play in the championship. And they play Sandringham, who if it's like normal with NBL being having their blitz or whatever at the same time, Ben Eyre won't be playing.
01:18:50
Speaker
um And I think there's about three other players on that team that won't be playing um because they're NBL players. Nick Kristovich Dash Daniels yeah Yeah, exactly Yeah, so um Yeah, that's that's Interesting Illawarra obviously probably won't have Kobe McDowell-White and Blanchfield um So that kind of hurts them Still a good team I'd be interested to see if Lucky Dent's still playing or has he gone back to Europe By now
01:19:28
Speaker
um No idea. International man of mystery, Lockie Dent. He is. um But, yeah, and then what is it like for the – on the women's side?
01:19:43
Speaker
You know, like last year, what was it, Northside? They pulled out because players took off and went to their European – gigs you know i know a lot of them are just over there getting ready to start the european gigs um so yeah it'll be interesting i'm kind of torn in the women's do i do i get behind manly being an east team yes or do i roll with um supporting the local that's playing for coburn steph gorman um
01:20:20
Speaker
Well, I've already kind of nailed my colours to the mast that my r second team might be Coburn with my ah Ruby Porter support. Yeah, absolutely. they They're a fun team to watch too. So, um like I said, ah I'd just love to see an absolute cracking first game between Coburn and Manly.
01:20:39
Speaker
And that would just set the tone perfectly in that. And then, yeah, it's going to be good. I like it. I just hope that we can...
01:20:50
Speaker
hit on something so that we can get the NBL players available to play in it so that you've got the best, like the teams that have worked their butts off all year to get to that position actually competing.
01:21:07
Speaker
Yeah, make it look it true national like like not just kind of like, oh, who's available for one more weekend? Yeah, exactly. And like, I feel like the week off kind of hurt or could have hurt a few teams as well. Like, that's just an extra week that you've got to pay someone to sit around and and not really do anything.
01:21:28
Speaker
um I mean, yeah yeah, when we went 2022, when we were watching a game and Sam McDaniel, Harry Froehling and Jason Kadir are sitting in the stand watching. Yeah, that's right. All contracted to the very teams that are playing.
01:21:42
Speaker
Yeah, that Gold Coast Rollers team, hey. Yeah. yeah gold coast yeah gold coast and hobart i was yeah across yeah yeah yeah meanwhile they're playing some weird practice match in the nbl at the same time so they're not allowed to they're not playing the practice match but they're not allowed to play nbl1 weird yeah
01:22:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, it all tips off Friday of the 29th of August, as we mentioned. Yep, Manly Warringah on at midday against Knox, which will still be a really great game.
01:22:18
Speaker
ah Because from from what I've told, there was a bit of a question mark around some of the WNBL players having to go to preseason or if some people are getting called out early.
01:22:30
Speaker
So I know that the son of the Sydney Flames players may um may not be there, unsure. That would be the likes of Michaela can and Agnes and, um,
01:22:44
Speaker
Yeah, so question marks around them, but not confirmed, not confirmed. ah But, yeah, it's it's definitely going to be, ah regardless of who's there, it's still going to be very competitive, very exciting. I'm very grateful, especially on the Friday, that the games were a lot earlier than last year because I think ah think it was maybe the Saturday where we just finished really, really late. I think there were some games that were, like, at night. Yeah.
01:23:13
Speaker
and so we were finished commentating really late and then we'd go back and hang out the hotel to kind of wind down together and then we still hadn't got our schedule for the next day to prepare and uh yeah it was it was a big challenge it was a big weekend lots of fun but not a lot of sleep
01:23:34
Speaker
i'm jealous i wish i was doing that right now yeah But we'll be watching. i think there's a few of us from our squad that are still around. We'll get together and we'll watch it. um It's just good to watch. It's still good basketball even if people aren't there at the end of the day because those teams have got good systems and they're teams. They're not just one or two players. So, you know, you get to see someone else, like, step up and and and get an opportunity on the big stage. So, yeah, I'm excited to watch it. it would be It'll be good.
01:24:10
Speaker
Yeah, available on KO Freebies. ah But yeah, Sammy Mack, congratulations on such ah another successful season as head coach of the Aubrey Wodonga Bandits.
01:24:22
Speaker
Certainly not a one-trick pony. We never thought that you would be. um But, yeah, thanks for joining us ah today as well for this special bonus episode of East Goff Game, ah getting into some of the nitty-gritty and especially learning a little bit more from your perspective from head coach.
01:24:39
Speaker
And thanks for always being a big supporter of the podcast too. Yeah, thanks very much for having me, guys. um Love the work you do. um And it's always good that you give me a shout at it.
01:24:51
Speaker
It helps with my um self-esteem, um especially in the down times. um But, yeah, no, I appreciate what you're doing and love having a yarn.
01:25:02
Speaker
And if there's one message you'd like to send to the teams of the other conferences ah competing at NBL1 Nationals on East Turf, what would that be? Me?
01:25:15
Speaker
I get to use Lucky's line. Don't sleep on the 8th.