‘Crazy’ injury woes
A RAFT of injuries has given Supercats coach Leon O’Neill a couple of headaches heading into tonight’s home clash with Eltham.
Lewis Thomas (ankle) and Anthony “AJ” Williams (finger) will both need to pass fitness tests to make themselves available for the Easter Saturday game at The Arena, otherwise the Supercats will be thin on numbers.
“We’ve got that many injuries at the moment, it’s crazy,” O’Neill said.
“Lewis hurt his ankle playing 3x3 on the weekend — he hasn’t trained all week — (while) Liam (McInerney) broke his thumb against Knox in the last home game.
“We haven’t ruled out Lewis, hopefully he’ll come up, but Liam we’re looking at the game against Centre of Excellence rather than this weekend.
“He’s still having a hard time catching the ball and his thumb is very tender.
“One of our young kids, Josh Tang, has been out for about a week-and-a-half with a strained tendon in his foot.
“AJ obviously with a broken finger, we hope to have him back this weekend.”
O’Neill said 3x3 commitments, on top of NBL1, had meant the Supercats had not been able to train as often as he would have liked.
“The amount of basketball these guys have had to play over the last month-and-a-half has meant doing anything off the court practice-wise has been very challenging,” he said.
“While we’ve only had the three NBL1 games, the 3x3 commitments have been significant and those are the guys that have been playing the big minutes for us in NBL1 as well.
“It’s been a bit of a balancing act, but we’re looking forward to Eltham, another challenge.”
O’Neill said it was important his side squared its ledger at 2-2 tonight.
“If you don’t come out and perform every single night, you’re going to find yourself on the wrong end of a result,” he said.
“Eltham have got two quality imports, NBL talent and a number of good locals.
“They’ve got the same record as we do, they’re 1-2, and while it’s very early in the season, it’s a big game for us.”