Trans-Tasman showdown starts tonight
CAIRNS basketballer Joel Matysek has a simple motto – “you can never over train, you can only under recover”.
The Cairns Marlin will be one of eight Far North talents on show this week as the Australian Indigenous Basketball All Stars face the New Zealand Maori National Team in a threematch series starting tonight.
The Indigenous and Maori contest will be the showpiece games but there will also be the curtainraisers, including the female national teams, as well as the Papuan Blacks taking on the Cairns Black Marlins.
Matysek will be in the rare position of representing two teams at the tournament, the Cairns Black Marlins, a team consisting of Far North Queensland indigenous basketball talent, and the Australian Indigenous Basketball All Stars.
“It will be a challenge in itself, but I am young and have been to national tournaments when you are playing day after day with basketball coming right at you,” Matysek said.
“As long as you time manage correctly.
“I was told once ‘you can never over train, you can only under recover’, so that will be my motto this week.”
Matysek, an athletic forward, previously won the Aaron Fearne Award for the athlete who “best exemplifies the Taipans’ culture” at the Taipans Academy.
The 18-year-old says it is an honour to represent his culture with former NBL talents such as Deba George and Tyson Demos.
“Opportunities like this do not come around very often, representing where you grew up in Cairns and playing in an international tournament that has a significant cultural component,” Matysek said.
“When chances like this come around, you need to jump on the horse and run with it.
“The guys that are playing in this team have NBL experience and for me as an up-andcoming basketballer, you look up to these guys.”
The fourth annual transTasman basketball clash, which Australia currently holds, consists of a three-game series that will be played over consecutive nights.