‘The roster’s on me, I’m not selling’ says Walsh
Under-fire owner Matt Walsh is adamant his club can walk away from their worst season in Australian NBL history with heads held high. Marc Hinton reports.
Disgruntled Breakers’ fans, make of this what you will. Principal owner Matt Walsh says he takes full responsibility for roster shortcomings in 2021-22, has confirmed he has no intentions of bailing out any time soon and is adamant the club can walk away from their worst season in Australian NBL history with their heads held high.
That’s a bit to unpack.
First things first. The Auckland-based Australian NBL club wrap up their season today against the Adelaide 36ers in Hobart (3pm tip NZT) guaranteed to finish with the worst record in their 19-year history. They go in at 5 wins-22 losses, and at longish odds to improve given their best player (Yanni Wetzell) has already bolted to Europe and two young French NBA hopefuls (Hugo Besson and Ousmane
Dieng) have racked their cues to ‘‘concentrate’’ on the upcoming draft.
Given their previous worst results had been the dire 9-23 seasons of 2004-05 and ‘05-06, when the club was in disarray, it has been some sort of annus horribilis for the four-time champions of the league.
But then there are some realities to factor in. The Breakers did not have a single home game in 2021-22, spending the entire season in Australia, buzzing from state-to-state, working round Covid outbreaks and health restrictions, living out of a suitcase, never getting the chance to decompress away from the hoops grind. For a handful of the group it’s their second straight year under such circumstances.
It’s why for all the losses piling up – they are on a nine-game
losing streak – and all the sub-par performances and gut-wrenching endings (they lost two overtime games to ‘‘miracle’’ last-second shots), owner and chief executive Walsh feels no significant disappointment. To their credit they’ve gone toe-to-toe with the best teams over the last month and have not dropped their heads.
‘‘I’m super proud of the guys,’’ Walsh told the Sunday Star-Times from the US where he has been attending to family matters. ‘‘It’s impossible to understand what they’ve gone through. Look, they’re professional athletes and they’re not at war, but to ask people to uproot entire lives for two years, and be away from family and friends, is a huge ask and I think we’ve handled it as well as anyone could.
‘‘I know the amount of work that’s gone in, I can see how much they care, I see nobody ever quit, and to see us fight without any support from fans in person ... there has never been a time I’ve been upset with a performance. They’ve tried their best.’’
Walsh wants to make it clear. He’s disappointed his team couldn’t contend, couldn’t win more. He’s gutted they couldn’t return home over the second half, as planned. He feels for fans who have had to get used to a diet of defeats.
‘‘We’ll do our best to evaluate,’’ he adds. ‘‘I compared last year to almost a post-traumatic stress situation . . . we’ll retool, and we’ll feed off the energy of being back home. One of the big drawcards of playing for the Breakers is living in New Zealand, and playing at Spark Arena. We haven’t had that for two years. But as one season ends, one door closes, another one opens. We’re already working on who we’ll bring in as a Next Star [player] next year, we’ll bring in some high-quality imports and we’ll build up for hopefully a playoff season.’’
Clearly the Breakers roster wasn’t good enough. Their imports largely struggled (though Peyton Siva showed glimpses of his quality), they were too guard heavy, not deep enough in the front court, and two young NBA aspirants was probably one too many.
Walsh said he accepts what
‘‘I’m the one who signs off on players and makes the ultimate decisions, so it’s on me.’’ Breakers owner Matt Walsh
ever blame is going on that front.
‘‘We didn’t get it done, and I absolutely take responsibility for that. We like to think we’re building a roster that could play in space and win. I’m the one who signs off on players and makes the ultimate decisions, so it’s on me.’’
That said, he is not sure blowing up the roster and starting again is the right approach. He has lost Wetzell to the Europe out-clause in his contract (a major defection), but still has Tom Abercrombie and Rob Loe under contract, and Sam Timmins on a team option. Kiwi collegians Sam Waardenburg and Dan Fotu now also come on the radar, having finished their commitments stateside.
‘‘It’s tough evaluating the team given the circumstances. The last two years we’ve been home for 17 days,’’ added Walsh. ‘‘We’re the only pro sports team in the world that’s gone through this. We’ve got some great pieces . . . and I’m not sure blowing this thing up is the right way to go. We’ll retool, and get ready to go again. That’s the nature of pro basketball.’’
Walsh said he couldn’t confirm under-contract coach Dan Shamir would be back, but did say ‘‘100% I want Dan back’’. He wants all staff and players to make decisions on their futures removed from the emotions of the long campaign.
Walsh never once contemplated putting out the ‘‘for sale’’ signs. ‘‘I absolutely love this. We’ve battled uphill with heads high, without excuses and with complete ownership of our situation . . . never for a moment have I thought about not continuing on.’’