How Ipswich is embodying a next-man-up mentality

Feature image via: Erick Lucero

The Ipswich Force were crowned the NBL1 North champions two weekends ago, but now they'll have their full attention on the National Finals. 

Going into the tournament undermanned, with Nathan Sobey missing the tournament with an injury rehabilitation, the core group are ready to even the load and win the National Title according to coach Christopher Riches. 

“It’s a great opportunity for other guys because we’ve also had some other guys that played earlier on when we were going through those injuries,” coach Riches said on the No Offence podcast. 

“They’ll get to come back into the group Atem Atem, Isaac Bennett those guys are going to be able to step into the program now. 

“I think that’s also a really good opportunity for not only them, but for all the other guys that have really been working across the season –they’ll have a breather expectation placed upon them going over to Nationals.”

Captain Jason Ralph echoed what an opportunity it is for Ipswich to develop their core group. 

“We need to go into the mindset of, okay Sobey gets his 30, Jaylin and Kyrin do their thing, but if everyone picks up a little bit – instead of one guy taking all the shots, each guy 1-10 gets two or four more points, we can pick it up from there, and sometimes makes teams a little bit more dangerous,” Ralph said.

“We are definitely not just going over there to participate, we are trying to go win another one.” 

Coach Riches explained that his team sees this as an opportunity for his team to show their talents.

“There is definitely a number of guys who want to go out and show off what they can do,” he said. 

Watch the NBL1 National Finals Live & Free via Kayo Freebies here.