Ballarat Miners coach Eric Hayes believes his side is better placed for the upcoming season than it was 12 months ago.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Miners will unveil a relatively new squad – a stark contrast to its Friday night opponent – as it travels to Geelong for its season opener.
There is no denying Geelong will take an upper hand given the familiarity it has within the team and its systems. But Hayes is confident his group boasts enough talent to be dangerous this season, but how quickly the on-court chemistry can develop will only be known after a few home and away matches.
But one thing ahead of round one is for certain, and that was the club’s ambition to be a successful South East Australian Basketball League team in 2017.
We’re a fair bit ahead from where we’ve been the last couple of years...(they) have a single-minded focus – they all want success.
- Miners coach Eric Hayes
“They’ve had a group together for a lot of years and that group has been quite successful. We’ve got a fairly new team that are just coming together...they’ll be up and going pretty well and pretty early, because they know each other and know their systems,” Hayes said.
“From that point of view they’ll probably be ahead of us, but I think we match up pretty well, we’ve got a talented group that I think will be hard to match up on.
“We’re a fair bit ahead from where we’ve been the last couple of years, so they’re coming together really well, they’re positive guys that all have a single-minded focus – they all want success.
“But I guess we won’t really know where we’re at until we get out on the court and have a real game.”
Hayes said executing its defensive structures would be a key element to the Miners success this season.
“We’re feeling pretty good, we’ve got a good group and they’ve been coming together really well.
“A key thing in any game is making sure we play solid defense, that’s going to be something that will be important for us throughout the year. Just playing consistent defense and making it really difficult for other teams to score.”
While the Ballarat Rush will be hoping to set the tone as it takes to the court before the men. The Rush accounted for Geelong on both occasions last season. The Rush finished fifth last season in what was a tightly-contested eastern conference of the SEABL. Some added talent to the group will have the club aiming to build on last season.