The Pirates played 4 games over the weekend in preparation  for the 2012 Queensland Basketball League season which kicks off on Saturday 12th May at the Hibiscus Sports Centre against southern pool rivals Gold Coast.

Coach's assessment:

It's a new coaching team  so we are still working out our roles. Assitant coach Luke Petersen has great knowledge  and an eye for detail and second assitant Dylan Salfi has a great feel for the game. We have a great leadership group in Nate Neisler, Verle Williams  and Bredan Teys and a core group  of guys that have been with the club for a number of seasons.

However, we were a little out of sync early on. Rob (Lippman) has only been with us for 4 or 5 training sessions and while Kenny (Barnes) has been with us through all of our preseason, the rest of the guys have been running Blackies ( Stephen Black's) offence for 3 years so its going to take some time before we are all on the same page. I have brought in some changes to our  transition offence and an alternative half court offence that we are still getting used to, but we definitely got better as the games progressed. 

On the roster:

The league knows about what Brendan and Nate can do. Kenny brings size and athleticism for his position that will create problems for opposing teams that also have to guard Brendan (Teys) and Nate (Neisler) on the perimeter. Rob Lippman has a very workman like game that Pirates fans will love. He has the Pirates favourite shot, the "hook shot", which no one can touch,he shoots well, he rebounds and passes extremely well. Both are still becoming familiar with the offence.  We have a lot of high energy guys providing a spark of the bench and are comfortable in their roles.  Our older guys gave us valubale minutes. Tony Lappi snapped a few jumpshots and Verle Williams  created problems for the opposition when ever he came in. Our younger players are becoming impact players. Ryan Vines has been solid at the point and Marc Roetteler was our most  effective defensive palyer against shooting sensation James Legan from Toowoomba and Jim Wallace has established himself as a player at this level.  We had three new players make their debut for the QBL. Our youngest player in the squad, 17 y.o. Liam Compton, showed he is able to contribute at this level, while our oldest Shaun Guy showed us why he was with the Brisbane Bullets in his youngers days, backing up Rob and ( the returning) Keiran Bairstow in the paint. The other debutant was Dylan Sui who was our D League MVP. Add in club faithfull, Troy Thompson who returns from Canada this week, and we have a solid group of players.

Our success will be determined by how much we improve as a unit each week and how strong the character of this team holds up against the talent and experience of Queenslands best basketball programs.