Tara Murray
Melton Thoroughbreds season is slowly getting on track with the side getting on the winners list the last two weeks in Big V men’s division 2.
After taking until round 10 to get their first win on the board, the Thoroughbreds got their second on the weekend.
On Saturday night, the Thoroughbreds beat Craigieburn Eagles 90-89
Melton Thoroughbreds are hoping to use their first win of the Big V men’s division 2 season to build for the rest of the year.
On Sunday, they had a big loss to Pakenham Warriors, losing 118-54.
The difficult start for the Thoroughbreds this season, has included switching coaches, with assistant coach Christian Norris stepping in to take over from Kelvin Bowers.
Norris said before the weekend’s matches, that despite the change of coach, the process hadn’t been too rough for him or the players.
He has been involved at Melton basketball for seven years with both his children either playing or having played at squad level at the club.
“I’ve been involved with coaching this team for two years now and coaching various other teams on and off for over 30 years,” he said.
“I’m a basketball junkie so I’m always watching basketball games or on my laptop studying the game via the many on-line basketball coaching communities that I’m a member of.
“The mid-season transition from assistant to head coach has been a fairly smooth one given that I’ve been involved with this team for a couple of years now.
“The biggest difference has been that the workload has significantly increased with now having to plan practices, conduct video reviews and scout opposition teams, all while coaching Melton’s under-16.1 Boys VJBL team and my daughter’s two domestic teams.”
Morris said despite the tough start to the season for the men’s side, the group had continued to want to improve. The side currently sits second bottom.
“The players were understandably disappointed about being winless, but they all accepted the changes that needed to happen in order for us to become competitive,” he said.
“Everyone is committed to getting better every week.
“The players and coaches were overjoyed after winning our first game. We had come close before but to finally get a win was a great feeling. We all sung the club song in the rooms and some of us ended up a little soaked.”
With one win on the board, Norris said the main focus on court was to play with the same effort in the first quarter as in the last quarter.
He said there was also a big off court focus too
“Off the court we want to be more involved with the club’s junior program,” he said.
“The Big V players are now attending junior games on Friday nights at the new Cobblebank Stadium – sitting on team benches, offering advice to players at time-outs, addressing teams before & after games, and cheering on from the side lines.
“The kids love it and the feedback from parents has been terrific. At last Saturday night’s home game win we had our under-12 girls VJBL team join us in standing for the national anthem before the game which was such a joy for them all.”
