Rockhampton Rockets NBL 1 competition: Neal Tweedy believes he has the line-up to compete with the ‘top-end teams’

Neal Tweedy believes he has the team to mix it with the best in the NBL1 North comp: ‘Once our full team is on the floor we’re going to be very hard to beat.’

Rockhampton Rockets’ coach Neal Tweedy: “I think we’re going to make big improvements from last year.”

Rockhampton Rockets’ fans can be excited about season 2022, according to Neal Tweedy.

The long-serving coach said recruitment had gone well and he had the line-up to compete with the “top-end teams” in the NBL1 North competition.

“I think we’re going to make big improvements from last year,” Tweedy said.

“We sort of knew last year we weren’t going to compete just through Covid and issues with recruitment through that period.

“We’ve turned the corner, hopefully. Recruitment opened up a little bit for us this year and we knew we had to get the right players to compete with the big clubs and I think we’ve done a really good job of getting those players.

“Size is something that we had to fix from last year and we’ve got that now with Matt McCarthy and Damien Prgomet, and we’ve got the length with Kendall Stephens in the wing position.”

Rockhampton Rockets’ coach Neal Tweedy: “I think we’re going to make big improvements from last year.”

Tweedy said the only issue was just when star recruits McCarthy and Prgomet would suit up for the Rockets, given they were currently playing overseas.

Their arrival would be dependent on how their teams fare in their respective leagues.

McCarthy, a 2.05m centre, Prgomet, a 2.08m small forward, and Kendall, 2.01m guard, certainly deliver on the height front.

So, too, does centre Lucas Schmidt who stands at 2.08m.

The 19-year-old Yeppoon product returns to Central Queensland after graduating from Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence in 2020.

A regular in Queensland teams in his teen years, he was part of the Australian team which won gold at the 2019 FIBA Under-17 Oceania Championships.

Mitchell Kuhl will play a bigger role with the Rockhampton Rockets this season. Picture: Jody Grayson

Tweedy said there had been a big turnover of local players so there would be a reset on that front.

He would be looking to North Queensland under-18 rep Mitchell Kuhl and Hayden Richardson to really step up this year.

The Rockets open their season with a home game against the Sunshine Coast Phoenix on April 29 and Tweedy cannot wait.

“I think we can have an exciting feeling about this year’s team,” he said.

“Once our full team is on the floor we’re going to be very hard to beat.”