By Lachlan Onions
SOME of the best basketballers in Australia will converge on Mount Gambier this Friday night when the Adelaide 36ers and South East Melbourne Phoenix face-off in an NBL preseason game at Wulanda.
Doors will open at 6pm before the game tips-off at 7pm with a packed-out crowd expected for a rare NBL appearance in the Blue Lake City.
Adelaide 36ers owner Grant Kelley spoke to The Border Watch this week and shared his excitement to bring top-level basketball to the Limestone Coast.
“There were a few reasons (why the 36ers brought a game to Mount Gambier), number one, Michael Kosch was kind enough to invite us and he has been a huge supporter of the Adelaide 36ers for years,” Kelley said.
“So I was delighted that Michael arranged that.
“Secondarily, I was down in Mount Gambier for the Generations in Jazz concert in May.
“One of my step-sons was there playing the guitar and he did a beautiful job but I just loved Mount Gambier and I hadn’t been there for years.
“The third reason is, the last few years, our young gun Nick Marshall has played beautifully with the Pioneers so we had a connection there as well.”
Mount Gambier Pioneers fans will have the opportunity to see back-to-back Allan Scott Medallist Marshall in action on Friday night after he made the step up to Adelaide’s main roster during the off-season.
Kelley hopes bringing preseason games to various regional locations across the state will help reinforce the 36ers as “a team for all South Australians”.
“All things considered, it is terrific to be doing this,” he said
“On the court, it gives our guys the chance to test their skills against a very good side in South East Melbourne and it showcases our club outside of the city of Adelaide because we are really a team for all South Aussies.
“So I think we will do this increasingly in preseason, we will go to a regional basketball hotbed but there is none better than Mount Gambier.
“Mount Gambier is a town of about 30 thousand people, it has an extraordinary economy, you have tourism, agriculture, forestry et cetera, it is an incredible town I reckon.
“So I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to go to a terrific regional centre where we are going to have a lot of fun.”
Kelley is hopeful the road trip for his players will help strengthen the chemistry of his players ahead of the new season.
“Some guys are driving, quite a few are flying, they will have a weekend in the Mount because the game is on Friday,” he said.
“I think many of them will stay on into the Saturday and nothing solidifies teams better than road trips.”
After a rigorous preseason, Friday night’s hit-out will be the first time this year’s squad takes to the floor and will be the perfect opportunity for both the 36ers and the Phoenix to assess where they are at.
“We started our preseason on the 26th of July so we will be five weeks in by Friday night,” Kelley said.
“It is a tremendous time for us because preseason and scrimmaging only works to a point and then you have got to actually play a live game to get your bodies hardened up and all the rest of it.
“I reckon it will be really, really good for our guys to have this ability to test themselves against quality opposition.”
Looking ahead to the NBL24 campaign, Kelley said his goal for this year is for Adelaide to return to finals after missing out in recent seasons.
“We have missed finals narrowly for a number of years now,” he said.
“We have never really had a year where we were out of the hunt but we want to go one step further and absolutely make finals.
“That is the KPI for all of us at the club, most especially me.
“I think our fans have been incredible in fairly lean times in terms of finals appearances so for us, that is the key objective.”
