Monday, 13th July, 2009

A depleted WheelKings squad heads to Adelaide this weekend for 2 must-win matches against the Adelaide Thunder. It will be a serious test of Wenty's depth as they're missing a bunch of key players.

Koen Jansens is at his brother's wedding in Holland, Bill Latham is leading the Australian Under 23s to the semi-finals at the World Championships in France, Keegan Oh-Chee is representing Australia in tennis at the World Team Cup in England, and Jeremy Doyle is still recovering from injury. At least Jeremy Van Asperen will be able to suit up for the Saturday game after thankfully re-organising his intern roster at Coffs Harbour Hospital.

Jon Pollock, Jonathon Simon, Craig Cannane and Kylie Gauci will be asked to carry most of the scoring load over the 2 games and Van Asperen will be an important inside scorer on the Saturday. Rookie Josh Meoli will be on his first WheelKings road trip and Gaetano Bagnato is also expected to see his first court time in 2009 since returning from injury. To help bolster the ranks, Australian Glider and 2008 WheelKing Tina McKenzie will return to the team for this trip and beyond. All in all, Wenty still has a strong core of scorers and have lost very little in defence. They have dropped height without Jansens and Latham so rebounding will require smart boxing out rather than reach.

Adelaide's British import Ghazain Choudry is seriously tall and has led his team in all departments in their first 3 games. He is averaging 28 points @ 45% accuracy, 16 rebounds and 4 assists. The problem for him is that he's getting practically no support from the rest of the players. The Thunder are still searching for their first win and will need a lot more offensive output from their veterans - former Australian representatives Daryl Taylor, Darren Schutz and Tim Maloney - who are a combined 11 of 50 shots (22%) so far this season. Younger players Tony Wade, Scott Crowley and Luke Watkins haven't fared much better with 16 of 64 (25%) overall. No matter how good your defence, you won't win many games shooting like that.

To be fair to the Thunder, they have opened their season with games against last year's champions Perth and runners-up Wollongong. That's a tough start and Adelaide is likely relishing the chance to play the WheelKings who ran 5th last season. Conversely, Wenty are on a 3 game winning streak and want to keep the momentum going against Adelaide before facing a tough home double against Perth the following weekend.

The WheelKings have the talent to win both matches but the combination of players is untested in a game situation. It will be an interesting match-up so make sure you keep an eye on the Live Stats.

Game Details: