John Allison has returned home to the Melton Basketball Association.
Having coached the Thoroughbreds’ women’s side to a Big V division 3 championship in 2008, Allison has taken on the same role at the Melbourne Tigers.
Approached to take on Melton’s division 1 men’s coaching role for next season, Allison found he couldn’t say “no” a second time.
“They’d approached me some time ago and I’d been thinking about it,” he said.
“About a month ago they approached me again and I realised I had to come back to Melton at some point, and everything aligned.
“I spoke with my wife and kids, and decided to take the role on.”
Allison replaces Julie McCallum, who took over coaching halfway through the season when the club parted ways with Grant Spencer.
Allison says he’s excited to be returning to the Thoroughbreds.
“I had to learn some more stuff before coming back. I’d coached local clubs and juniors at Melton but never a men’s side at this level. I’ll see if I can bring some new things back to the club.”
The Thoroughbreds were knocked out of this year’s semi-finals, after winning the championship the previous season.
The coach expects most of the playing group to return next season, with possibly just two exclusions.
“One of the players, Cameron McCallum, is trying to play SEABL and I think that he should and will play,” Allison said. “My son Blake is going to state championship side Werribee. They both need to play at the higher level.”
Allison said while he would have liked to coach Blake, going to Werribee was best for his career. His other son, Liam, who played youth league this year, could be one of several youth league players to get a chance in the senior side.
“Most definitely, there’s a couple of guys I’ve pencilled in I’d like to get some games into. Some might have a larger role in the division 1 team than in youth league.”
Allison said that, like most teams, they were on the lookout for a big man to fill the centre position.
“It would be nice to get a monster in the time who’s 6-foot-9, 10 or 11, to take up a lot of space and get rebounds and blocks.
“They don’t seem to grow on trees at this end of town, but we are talking to someone at the moment. We’ll see how that pans out.”
