Warriors win opener

The Warragul Warriors have began their Gippsland Men’s CBL title defence off on a high note, taking care of Sale away from home on Saturday night by 28 points.

Led by young gun Luke McKenzie’s 20 points, the Warriors never looked in danger, controlling the match from the opening tip.

Without star player Ambu Uliando, McKenzie stepped up for the Warriors alongside veteran Jarryd Moss, who finished with a tidy 18 points, but the win comes at a cost for the Warriors with Moss going down with a knee injury during the game.

Coach Mike Santo, who himself had to pull out of the contest in the warmups due to a calf tweak, said the loss of Moss was a tough one for the side.

“Losing the league MVP in the first game isn’t ideal at all, but people stepped up,” he said.

The team also welcomed back veteran Jeff Reid, who, after Moss went down, saw the ball in his hands more.

“We probably wanted Jeff to have the ball a bit there, he’s really smart with it and just a cool head. We changed a few things up on the fly, but it worked out well, we have a really versatile and deep squad,” Santo said.

He also praised youngster Luke McKenzie for bringing energy off the bench at both ends for the Warriors in the win.

“Luke’s a very speedy young player and he injected that in straight away. He was super aggressive on defence, everything opened up for him from there,” he said.

Santo said the 83-55 victory was great starting point as the Warriors look to make it backto-back CBL titles.

“It was a good way to start the season, but a short season there isn’t much margin of error, so you need to be on all the time,” he said.

Next week Warragul will host their first home game of the season against Moe and will welcome back important players Ambu Uliando and Tom Muir who both missed Saturday night’s win.