Adelaide 36ers Anthony Drmic and Jack McVeigh to team up for North Adelaide in NBL1 Central
Anthony Drmic and Jack McVeigh will form one of the most dynamic duos in NBL1 when the Adelaide 36ers pair suits up for North Adelaide this season.
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They are best mates off the court and now Anthony Drmic and Jack McVeigh hope their chemistry on the court can take North Adelaide to the NBL1 title.
The Adelaide 36ers duo will suit up at the Rockets for the first time together when the inaugural NBL1 Central season tips off this Saturday night.
Drmic made eight appearances for Southern Tigers last year before requiring surgery to relieve plantar fascia pain in both feet, ending his season.
The 28-year-old said Southern did not try to entice him back for 2020, leaving the door open for McVeigh to recruit him to the Rockets.
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“Me and Jack are pretty much best mates now so it’s going to be a fun time,” Drmic said.
“I think the both of us work well together on the court.
“We always joke about being pretty much the same person.
“We have all the same interests – he’s the positive version and I’m kind of the negative version and we even each other out.”
It is set to be a busy few months for Drmic.
He remains out of contract at NBL level, but says he hopes “to have something sorted in the next few weeks”, and is set to get married in June.
While he will miss a few games because of the wedding, Drmic is eyeing silverware with the Rockets.
“Coming over to play with Jack, that was the main thing,” he says.
“Our goal is to win the whole thing and then go over to Melbourne to play in the national finals and showing out there as well.
“I haven’t won a premiership in a while, didn’t win one in college and haven’t won one in the NBL, so we’ll hopefully get it started and win one in NBL1.
“It (NBL1) is massive. You always hear people talking about the off-season, which league is better, who has the better imports – so we will finally find out, I guess, when teams get to play against each other.”
NBL1 replaces the SA Premier League after the NBL, Basketball SA and the Adelaide clubs reached an agreement last month.
North Adelaide will compete with its usual rivals in the Central conference, with the winner set to progress to a national finals series in September to face off against the top sides from NBL1 North and South.
The Rockets men finished third on the ladder last season but crashed out of the finals in straight sets.
They have added Drmic and retained McVeigh and import Tobias Dowdell. However, two-time Woollacott Medallist Alex Starling left to join South Adelaide in the off-season.