FRANKSTON EMBRACE THE WILDCARD TITLE

By Dan Woods – NBL Media

The Frankston Blues have a tall task in front of them to try to win the ultimate goal.

The Coles Express NBL1 National Final will take place next week, the Frankston Blues enter as the Wildcard seed and they will play the NBL1 East champions the Canberra Gunners on Friday, 9 September at the State Basketball Centre.

GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE COLES EXPRESS NBL1 NATIONAL FINAL HERE

Knocked out of the NBL1 South semi-finals by the David Barlow and David Okwera-led Sandringham Sabres, the Blues have remained hard at work as they seek to win the inaugural national championship. Star forward Dillon Stith says his team has remained locked-in on title success.

“If you’re a team that finds yourselves in a position where you’re the wildcard or you’re playing for a national tournament – if that hunger isn’t already there then you wouldn’t be in that position,” Stith told NBL Media.

“We hung our heads after losing that final to Sabres, there was no question that we wanted to win the NBL1 South championship. We let that night hurt but we rolled into the following training knowing there was still that big one to play for.

“If you’re a team that’s made it this far you’ll have had moments of obstacles, triumph, injury, but any team that’s made it this far will have one thing in common that they won’t have found themselves doing too much, and that’s doubting their ability.

“You either come back with your shield or you come back on it. You’ve got to be ready to do battle, you’ve got to be ready to go out there and leave it all out there. We think if we do that we’ll be the national champions.”

While they may have lacked the current NBL star power of some other sides across NBL1 this past season, there’s no debating Frankston’s roster is full of high-level, big game talent.

Stith averaged 15 points per game this season as a highlight machine. He has plenty of NBL experience, previously playing for Melbourne United from 2019-2021, initially as an injury replacement player for then import Casey Prather.

While the upcoming national stage is big, Stith says at the end of the day basketball is basketball.

“The team I’m on, we have some guys who’ve played in some big games, he said.

“My fellow American import Adrio Bailey, he played at Arkansas in games against Kentucky, we’ve guys like Iggy Hadziomerovic playing at Boise State and in the NBL. Dan Trist. Lachlan Barker. We have some guys who’ve played on some stages.

“At the end of the day it’s basketball… we clearly know we’re a team that’s capable of winning a conference championship and we know we’re not a team that just scraped in. We believe we’re capable of being the best team in the country.”

With the tournament taking place from September 9-11, the Blues will have been out of competitive action for two full weeks ahead of their first game against Canberra on Friday night.

Although missing out on the conference finals undoubtedly hurt, Stith says his side is using the heartbreak to their advantage.

“Missing out on the conference grand final doesn’t have to be a setback, it can be a benefit,” he said.

“The other five teams who will be participating on our side of the national final are all playing for a conference championship, either last weekend or coming up this weekend. Everyone is in the middle of some really intense basketball.

“You kind of look at it as an opportunity to swing it in our favour, let’s take a breath, let’s get back to the basics a little bit and let’s lock in on being the wildcard and knowing your opponents. You start to lock in and get ready.

“I think our versatility is our biggest asset, it’s going to be something that’s important when you have three games in three days.

“If you look at a lot of teams you can see the head of the snake, and if you take away or subdue their front runners you can neutralise a team, but we’ve had eight or nine guys score 20 points in a game this season.

“You have a conference and a state on your back that you want to represent … It’s going to be an exciting thing for all the clubs.”

Get your tickets to see the Frankston Blues in the Coles Express NBL1 National Finals here.

Feature image via: Ian Knight Photography