Hornets eye off finals upon return
Junior development and securing a finals berth are key aims for Horsham Hornets men’s and women’s teams as they kick-start their 2018-19 Country Basketball League seasons on Saturday.
Men’s playing coach Cam Bruce said he looked forward to returning to the south-west conference after claiming the north-west conference title in the Hornets’ first season in the division.
“We created a few rivalries in the south-west conference before we moved last season so we’re looking forward to getting back there and rekindling a few of those,” he said.
“It’s been a funny build-up to basketball because we’ve been waiting for footy finals to finish to get all our players back.
“Now that we have, we’re looking forward to getting the season underway.”
The Hornets will host Portland at Horsham Basketball Stadium on Saturday night.
Bruce is unavailable, Jake Hobbs is under an injury cloud and John Wood is a wait-and-see prospect.
The club has also lost James Hallett, who has moved to the Northern Territory, but otherwise the Hornets will field a similar side to last season.
Tim Pickert, Matt Lovel, Mitch Martin, Jeremiah Mckenzie and Damien Skurrie will all return to the court in Hornets colours.
“We’re hoping a few of our younger kids will have developed over the past couple of seasons and play bigger roles this year,” Bruce said.
“We’ve also welcomed back Ben Lakin and Jordyn Burke, who have played a few seasons with us previously. They will bring good experience to the side, it will just be a case of getting them up to speed with how we play and how we want them to play.
“Young Sam Breuer is set to step up and we also have Austin Mckenzie and Harley Pope, so we have a pretty deep team.”
Bruce said round one would be interesting and he would wait and see how it panned out.
“Portland is always a tough game. They’re always pretty physical. Hopefully we can blow out some of the nerves early and get settled into it,” he said. “It will be good to have our first game on our home court.”
Bruce said his side would be out to make finals again this season.
“We always aim to make he said.
“It’s hard to predict how we will go and where we will finish at this time of year but we’ll start with the aim finals,” of making finals and assess our other goals as we go.”
Lady Hornets
New Lady Hornets coach Damien Kilpatrick will have a strong focus on junior development in 2018-19, but it does not mean he has taken his eyes off the main prize.
The Hornets women lost last season’s north-west conference title to Bendigo and Kilpatrick would like to see his charges make a strong tilt at the title this year.
“We’re there to win it, we’re not making up the numbers by any means,” he said.
“We have a strong side. We want to pressure teams and be competitive while developing our younger players.
“It’s not a ‘development year’ as such, but we will be working to develop players as part of a long-term plan.”
Kilpatrick has plenty to work with again this season, with the Horsham association retaining most of its players.
“We’ve lost a few but gained a few, so we will have a similar-strength side to last year,” he said.
The Hornets have kept Caitlin Story, Liv Jones, Rebecca Mcintyre, Georgia Hiscock, Ema Iredell, Jess Cannane and Shannon Reinheimer.
Kilpatrick said Faith Mckenzie would be a handy addition to the team.
“Faith has come back after a couple of seasons away. She’s a strong player and will come straight into the starting five,” he said.
“We’ve also got Georgia Carberry returning and six juniors who will form part of our squad.”
Kilpatrick said Nekaela Butler, Stephanie Glover, Ella Friend, Molly Lakin, Ella Amos and Jemma Thomas would be development players this season.
“It is part of a strategic long-term plan to bring juniors through the senior competition,” Kilpatrick said.
“A lot of these girls are only 14 and might not even get on the court but they will have an opportunity to sit on the bench sometimes and train against bigger-bodied players at faster speeds.
“We still have nine senior basketballers so it’s a perfect time to bring in half a dozen kids. They will get bigger and stronger at the same time the older girls get older and slower. “We need to plan for the future.” The Hornets have farewelled Maddie Iredell, Ally Hiscock, Kara Shuttleworth and Gabby O’brien.
“Some of them didn’t play much last year but they are unable to commit to training this season,” Kilpatrick said.
“Anyone who can’t commit to training won’t be in the squad. It sounds harsh but I’m trying to set a precedent for the future.”
The Lady Hornets will also go head to head with Portland Coasters.
“I don’t know anything about Portland and we have quite a few players out this weekend, including Liv Jones, who is still in a moon boot, and Shannon Reinheimer and Jess Cannane, who have had big pre-seasons,” Kilpatrick said.
“Some of our girls haven’t played a lot so we will just have to wait and see what happens on Saturday.”
The ladies will take to the court at 6pm, with the men’s game at 8pm. Ararat Redbacks will only field a men’s team this season and have a bye.