Tara Murray
Wyndham is sticking with the squad that earned it title success in the Big V men’s state championship last season.
Nine of the 10 championship players have returned this season, including both imports Kavione Green and Maurice Howard.
Coach Lucas Allen said they felt the group still had a lot more to give and they wanted to reward those guys.
“We felt that all of them had room to grow,” he said. “It was a successful program and we didn’t want to turn it over too much.
“We’ve brought in two new players who are Wyndham locals as well and we’ve left one spot open to kind of rotate youth league guys through.”
The two players Wyndham have brought in are both locals, who come through the junior system at the club.
Solomon Deer returns to the club having played with Hume City Broncos last season before he got injured.
Daniel Herbert also returns to the club, wanting to join the club’s senior program.
For Allen getting two more locals on board is equally what they were after.
“A big part of what we’re about which we spoke about last year at the start of the season is representing what our Wyndham community is,” he said.
“To have nine of the 11 guys from the Wyndham area, the only two not from the area are our important, but they’re both here for a second year, they’re becoming more local.”
Allen said having most of last season’s squad back had made this pre-season a lot easier than 12 months ago.
Allen missed the start of the pre-season due to his commitments with NBL side the South East Melbourne Phoenix.
“Last year we started from scratch at the start of the season,” he said. “Last year and pre-season I had concerns about if we were going to win a game because of how far behind we’re starting.
“This year, we’ve got a base we’re starting from and we can kind of build on that, get deeper and teach more the technical details and build on what we already have got instead of trying to get a base in place.
Allen said they had spoken about being the hunted this year after winning the title, but it’s something that’s not completely foreign having been one of the best teams all year last season.
Never completely happy with his side’s performance, Allen said they had more to give this season.
“There’s still a lot of improvement on both sides of the court,” he said.
“In defence we’re changing things up a little bit. I really wasn’t happy with probably at least the first half of the year defensively, it got better towards the end.
“Offence there’s some things we can do a lot better particularly the way the ball moves.”
Wyndham starts its season on March 19 against Keysborough.
