New Roller wants Australian honour
Birds up to finals pressure
terry.wilson@news.com.au AMERICAN Torrey Craig will wear the green of the Gold Coast Rollers in the Queensland Basketball League which starts this weekend.
But the 198cm swingman’s dream is to add a splash of gold to that colour and wear the Australian unifrom at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Craig, 26, hopes to become a naturalised Australian in time to do that but right now his focus is firmly on helping the Rollers to get to the top of the QBL tree, starting on Saturday with an opening-round match against the Brisbane Capitals at NAB Stadium in Auchenflower.
“I’ll be applying for Australian citizenship and Tokyo in 2020 is the target, for sure,” Craig said.
A number of Americans have completed the same pathway – Leroy Loggins and Cal Bruton among the most notable to make the switch and become Boomers reps.
Like Loggins and Bruton, Craig has worn the Brisbane Bullets singlet to the extent where he was named best defensive player of the just-completed NBL season as well as the Bullets’ MVP.
As such his value to the Rollers is immense, but he is not just good in the defensive areas, he can put points on the board as well.
His best haul in the 2017 NBL season for the Bullets was 34 points against Adelaide. Craig was drawn to the Rollers through a previous association with coach Pero Cameron in his days with the Wellington Saints in New Zealand during the 2015-16 seasons.
“It’s just down the street from Brisbane anyway, Pero coached me at Wellington and I’ve heard good things about FIREBIRDS captain Gabi Simpson says the Suncorp Super Netball finals have arrived early.
The fifth-placed Queensland take on fourth-placed Collingwood in Launceston on Sunday as their battle for the final spot in the top four intensifies with five matches left in the home-and-away season.
The Firebirds play four of their last five matches on the road and cannot afford to drop a game to their playoff rival.
A Collingwood win would put the Magpies three points clear of the Firebirds while the the Rollers,” Craig said of his signing for Gold Coast.
Craig is set to debut for the Rollers against the Capitals, although fellow American Devon Sullivan will have a late start after having visa problems.
Gold Coast Regional Basketball boss Joel McInnes has forecast a surge from the Rollers this season.
“We have good depth with some star players and some top juniors,” McInnes said.
“We have four young blokes who were in the Australian schoolboys squad now playing for us. “ TORREY CRAIG
Those four are Tobias and Flynn Cameron, sons of coach Pero, Levi Franklin and Jalen Patton-Croker.
Meanwhile the Rollers women have another new coach in former mentor Steve Weiland, who is head of Hillcrest Christian College basketball program.
The Rollers have taken a savage hit with player departures – starting team members Nadeen Payne, Brianna Moyes, Bianca Abbott and Katie Rose – among them.
But the Rollers have signed two American rookies in Emily Hall and Ashleigh Condon, who are doing degrees at Bond University. The Rollers first home matches are at The Southport School on May 6 against the Ipswich Force. top three of the Vixens, Lightning and Giants have all but secured their finals berths.
Queensland stayed in the hunt with the 55-50 win over West Coast at Boondall last weekend and Simpson said the Firebirds need to go to another level against the star-studded Collingwood.
“What a great opportunity for us. We really want to show we are in it to win it, we want to be in the finals,” Simpson said.
“We’ll work extremely hard to make sure we are ready for that intensity for the full game.
“We were quite slick for those first three quarters (against Fever) but it (the Collingwood clash) is going to be another step up.”
Meanwhile, Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander has predicted the ladder-leading Melbourne Vixens could be among the winners when the national squad for the Commonwealth Games is announced.
Alexander said the performances of captain Kate Moloney, goal attack Tegan Philip and goal keeper Emily Mannix this season were also making the selectors take notice.