FLEXIBILITY in defence – Bathurst Goldminers coach Andrew Obsorn hopes that will bring about the downfall of the undefeated Shoalhaven Tigers when the Division Two Youth Men’s rivals meet on Saturday night.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Bathurst outfit has made a solid start to the season with two wins from three outings, but the Tigers, who will host the Goldminers on Saturday, have four victories to their credit from as many matches.
Though the Tigers’ wins have come against weaker outfits, Osborn knows they will pose a significant challenge for his men.
“Shoalhaven, they and Hornsby, from my knowledge, are going to be very hard to beat, especially when they play at their places,” the coach said.
“They have been around for a long, long while and their form indicates that they’re obviously playing good basketball.”
In order to inflict the Tigers’ first loss, Osborn worked hard on getting his side’s offence up to scratch at training.
It is an area of play that has been good thus far, but Osborn knows working on more options will strengthen their game.
“We have used a two-three zone on a couple of occasions against sides and that worked well from what Ben [Slater, assistant coach] has told me, so I’m going to look at working on a one-three-one zone where there are some rotations involved,” he said.
“It’s something I used a number of times when I was coaching Stannies and if it’s played the way it should be played, it’s a very effective defence.
“We have to have options, you’ve got to have them. From what Ben has been saying, at times we’ve struggled with our man, so I need to have these couple of extra options up my sleeve.
“Having our man and the various option there, plus two zones, I should have enough to keep one step ahead of their coach. I’ll have the ability to change between a number of different defences when, and if, I need to.”
We have to have options, you’ve got to have them.
- Andrew Osborn
The Goldminers have not played since beating the Sydney Comets on March 24, but Osborn said that his players will not be impacted by that gap between games.
“It’s not a problem, for many of them, this is their passion and that certainly helps,” he said.
“The motivation is there and given we are playing one of the three undefeated sides, that will also be a motivating point for us as well.
“I’m expecting it to be a close game of course, but coming off that 17-point loss to Illawarra then beating Comets and Macarthur, there’s definitely been some improvement there, which is encouraging.”
Tip-off is at 6pm.
