Photo: B.Rad Sports Photography
The Darwin Salties have stacked their roster ahead of the upcoming NBL1 North season. Kouat Noi and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk have joined Makuach Maluach, recently crowned NBL champion Sean Macdonald, and Australian hoops legend Nathan Jawai to form one of the conference’s super-teams – on paper that is.
Because as much as the Salties have reloaded in their pursuit of the title, so has the rest of the competition, and this upcoming season looks set to be one of the most competitive yet.
While Macdonald himself will not be linking up with the side until the back end of April, he says seeing all the talent that’s calling NBL1 home this season should make for an exciting season.
“It’s just good to see a lot of talent choosing to play in NBL1 for the off-season,” Macdonald told NBL Media. “I say off-season, it’s still a great league and how many elite players we have playing in this league is really cool to see.
“We’ve got a really talented team and an exciting team, and I feel pretty rested already and ready to get going. I’m very excited for the season ahead and think we can make some noise.
“There are a fair few teams that have stacked up with a lot of talent, I imagine they’ll come out and try to play their best games, they’ll prep all week for us and be ready to go, but we’re excited.
“It’s going to be a fast-paced team that plays with a lot of energy, and it’s going to be cool.”
While Macdonald’s NBL title run with the Tasmania JackJumpers will leave him on the sidelines taking some deserved rest in the opening stanza of the Salties’ campaign, there’s no doubting the team should be able to build on last season’s solid finish.
Macdonald and Maluach managed to lead Darwin as far as the quarter-finals, where the Logan Thunder ended Darwin’s season with a defensively astute 81-66 win in which the Salties were limited to just eight points in the third quarter.
While there may be no lingering wounds form the manner in which his most recent NBL1 campaign ended, Macdonald says it was a “no-brainer” to return to the Northern Territory after his season in Tasmania.
“I get to Darwin on April 24, but I’m really excited. ‘Flinny’ (head coach Matt Flinn) has been great with me in making sure I take some time off and making sure I’m rested and recovered and ready to hit the ground running,” he said.
“I love my time up there, the climate is a little different to Tassie but it’s honestly probably the best summer I’ve ever had and it’s April to July/August.
"The weather was big, Flinny’s coaching and the freedom he let me play with, and the fun we had as a team – we had a great group of guys last year and there are a fair few guys coming back.
“Some new faces I know from playing juniors and competing against them in the NBL, I’m excited to get back up there and it was a bit of a no-brainer to go back.”
“A championship is always the main goal, but just to bring the cliches out and say take it one week at a time, play good basketball and play the right way, and I think if we do that with the squad we have we’ll be really tough to beat and make some noise.”
Darwin’s NBL1 North campaign will get underway when the Salties host the Cairns Marlins on Saturday, April 13 at 8:30pm AEST.
