Chargers face tall order

‘Huge’ rivals force Hobart to devise a strategy based on court speed

“SMALL-BALL” will be on the menu for the Hobart Chargers as they look to bring down the tall timber of ladder-leading Diamond Valley in Friday night’s clash.

Coach Anthony Stewart said he was confident his undersized squad could use its speed and agility to advantage.

“They’re huge, their starting (shooting guard) is 6’7” (200cm) and they don’t get any smaller across the board and we’re on the other side of the ledger,” Stewart said.

“We’ll be putting a pressure up the floor.

“We just want to be disruptive, quick around the floor, making sure that we penalise their bigs. lot of

“They’re pretty slow but if you miss a shot they take care of the boards so we’ve got to get up and down and try and compete as best we can.”

Stewart said his young side had exceeded his expectations to start the campaign.

“I’m shocked to be honest. The boys have done an amazing job,” he said.

Key to that start has been guard Jonathan Mines, who leads the side in scoring with 22.4 points per game.

“His consistency good,” Stewart said.

The coach said he expected Mines to be back in seasons to come after being unearthed from Queensland via playing overseas.

“It’s similar to every player we get down here, they always is really want to come back,” he said. “Jonno’s not too far off being an NBL-calibre player. We got pretty fortunate getting him.”

Stewart said the Chargers had signed an NBL player and expected to sign another but was tight-lipped on who those players were, aside from “one big, one small”.

The NBL regular season wraps up on June 6 when players are then

NBL1.

Targets linked to the Chargers in Harry Froling and Jarrad Weeks have been scooped up elsewhere.

Sydney Kings forward and 2018 SEABL championshipwinning Chargers captain Craig Moller and Cairns Taipans guard Tad Dufelmeier have also been on the radar. free to join the