This city boasts an impressive sporting landscape with impressive pathways and a decorated roll call of athletes who have launched professional careers here. Our marquee teams mix it with top athletes in Australian Rules, basketball, hockey, netball and soccer, and it is fantastic how each co-exists with strong community support.

But we do not have a professional, national franchise.

Bendigo Spirit coach Simon Pritchard is serious about narrowing the gap for our athletes in basketball. This is why he is back at the Minerdome, less than four months later, following up on the work he started.

Sure, this is about fostering depth for Spirit, checking on his players in the Women’s National Basketball League off-season and doing a little scouting in the process. But this is also about sticking true to his promise to develop the game regionally as head coach of the state’s sole country-based national league club in the game.

Pritchard is open on sharing and cultivating knowledge, because the leap to the elites is so massive and so those that will take the leap be prepared.

“This visit is about relearning and re-educating. For us, we really want Ballarat to grow as we do,” Pritchard told Press Box. “The gap between SEABL (South East Australian Basketball League) and WNBL or NBL is not just a step up – it’s more like a hop, skip and huge jump.

“You have to go from being a successful player in Ballarat to playing on the world stage, because that’s where a lot of WNBL players are at.”

The leap is mental as well as physical. Spirit-listed Rush tall Molly Mathews is shooting well but spent time with Pritchard sharpening her assertiveness and aggression to better hold her ground and beat everyone around her.

Mental toughness is also about drive and determination. He found Rush’s Lydia Brooks was quicker, fitter, her body shape more athletic from adopting a smarter and more disciplined approach to her training.

For Pritchard, narrowing the gap is about our promising juniors too. He wants Ballarat under-16 players like Georgia Amoore and Sophie Molan to be comfortable working with WNBL coaches and expectations.

Development is about not just equipping club, advanced and elite coaches with extra skills and insights. Pritchard said basketball in Ballarat already had a “switched-on” high performance culture promoting players to reach their highest potential, wanting players to get to WNBL and NBL. 

This is about offering perspective and ideas to grow rather than dictating drills.

Rush has a crucial game against Dandenong on Sunday. A win would put Rush in control of its own finals destiny and a springboard into the team’s final two games. Pritchard has been strategising with Rush coach David Flint, his Spirit assistant, to best pull apart the Rangers’ style.

Success creates greater opportunity and raises standards for Rush and our grassroots game.

Getting it right helps lessen that gap for athletes in getting to that next level, and that helps set higher standards for regional Victoria.