By Lachlan Onions
THE NBL is coming to Mount Gambier with the Adelaide 36ers set to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix in a preseason game on Friday September 1 at the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre.
Mount Gambier Pioneers president Tom Kosch spoke with The Border Watch this week and was excited to bring some of the nation’s best basketballers to town.
“The NBL has been a brand and competition in our country that has gone from strength to strength in the last five to 10 years and we are hugely excited to be able to bring the highest level of competition in Australia to our town,” he said.
He said the Pioneers board has worked hard over the last couple of months to make this dream a reality.
“We have always kept on our agenda the priority of bringing an NBL club to Mount Gambier once the Wulanda facility was open and ready for use,” Kosch said.
“It has been a priority of our board to deliver a high level of basketball in our community and to be able to bring it so early in the piece is a huge thing for our town.
“We are certain that the local community along with the neighbouring associations will see great value in being able to be part of what will be a successful night at Wulanda.
“We have had some great games at Wulanda for our Pioneers, we had over 1500 people attend our game against Bendigo on Friday night.
“We are hoping to exceed that and sell it out in September but we obviously have some finals that are still on the cards for our Pioneers and hopefully through later July we can fill Wulanda and carry that through to the NBL game.”
Kosch highlighted the significance of this event as top-level teams rarely play in the Limestone Coast.
“Access to NBL games is not always achievable, very rarely do they play in regional areas,” he said.
“Being able to showcase the sport here in our new centre and to do so in our own community is huge and we feel like it would be hugely beneficial to our community.”
Kosch said there has already been a strong amount of interest in the game and said tickets will go on sale soon through the Pioneers’ social media channels.
The game will also give Pioneers faithful a chance to see fan-favourite Nick Marshall playing for Adelaide.
Marshall spoke to The Border Watch this week and was eager to play at Wulanda in 36ers colours.
“I am looking forward to it,” he said.
“It is cool that I will be able to see all the local Mount Gambier fans in a 36ers uniform so it will be pretty special.
“It will be nice to be back here to play on the home court at Wulanda with hopefully a sold out stadium, it will be an awesome environment to play in.”
The preseason game also brings extra significance for Marshall, as it will be his first game as a part of the main roster after being a development player in previous seasons.
“I am really looking forward to this season to be able to be a part of the group, with the team the whole time and always travelling,” he said.
“I am looking forward to being a part of that team and showing what I can do.”
However, for Marshall, the focus remains on the task at hand, as the Pioneers have been in fine form lately and are currently on a seven-game winning streak with finals just around the corner.
“This season has been lots of fun,” he said.
“We are just playing fun basketball at the moment, letting the ball do its thing and just playing together.
“It has been a really good few weeks and we got a couple of weeks left to make that push into the finals and hopefully get a top two finish.
“It still stings a little bit that we lost the grand final last year.
“This year, Kuey (Tom Kubank), Kane (de Wit) and I are all determined to not let it happen again so we are really pushing for that championship.”
