36ers will aim to play more in regional areas

Adelaide 36ers owner and chairman Grant Kelley said he hopes to take the club to regional centres during the club’s pre-season campaigns.

The 36ers are in Mount Gambier for Friday night’s NBL24 pre-season clash against South East Melbourne, and Kelley said he’s delighted about the prospect of taking the club to rural areas.

“There were a few reasons (why the 36ers brought a game to Mount Gambier), number one, Michael Kosch was kind enough to invite us and he has been a huge supporter of the Adelaide 36ers for years,” Kelley told The Border Watch this week.

“So I was delighted that Michael arranged that.

“Secondarily, I was down in Mount Gambier for the Generations in Jazz concert in May.

“One of my step-sons was there playing the guitar and he did a beautiful job but I just loved Mount Gambier and I hadn’t been there for years.

“The third reason is, the last few years, our young gun Nick Marshall has played beautifully with the Mount Gambier Pioneers so we had a connection there as well.”

Back-to-back Allan Scott Medallist Marshall, who started as a Development Player, is now a contracted player at the 36ers after signing during free agency last off-season.

Marshall can’t wait for the chance to play again in front of his “home’ fans.

“I’m sure I’ll have my fair share of support when the game comes around,” Marshall said in the lead-up to Friday night’s match.

Kelley hopes taking pre-season games to various regional locations across the state will help reinforce the 36ers as “a team for all South Australians”.

“All things considered, it is terrific to be doing this,” Kelley said.

“On the court, it gives our guys the chance to test their skills against a very good side in South East Melbourne and it showcases our club outside of the city of Adelaide because we are really a team for all South Aussies. 

“So I think we will do this increasingly in preseason, we will go to a regional basketball hotbed but there is none better than Mount Gambier.

“Mount Gambier is a town of about 30,000 people, it has an extraordinary economy, you have tourism, agriculture, forestry, it is an incredible town I reckon.

“So I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to go to a terrific regional centre where we are going to have a lot of fun.”

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After a rigorous pre-season, Friday night’s hit-out will be the first time this year’s squad takes to the floor and will be the perfect opportunity for both the 36ers and the Phoenix to assess where they are at.

“We started our pre-season on the 26th of July so we will be five weeks in by Friday night,” Kelley said.

“It is a tremendous time for us because preseason and scrimmaging only works to a point and then you have got to actually play a live game to get your bodies hardened up and all the rest of it.

“I reckon it will be really, really good for our guys to have this ability to test themselves against quality opposition.”

Looking ahead to the NBL24 campaign, Kelley said his goal for this year is for Adelaide to return to finals after missing out in recent seasons.

“We have missed finals narrowly for a number of years now,” he said.

“We have never really had a year where we were out of the hunt but we want to go one step further and absolutely make finals.

“That is the KPI for all of us at the club, most especially me.

“I think our fans have been incredible in fairly lean times in terms of finals appearances so for us, that is the key objective.”