Big V Championship Men: Wyndham get off to impressive start

Wyndham coach Lucas Allen was full of praise for several players after they responded from a shock pre-season loss to start their Big V Championship Men’s season.

Wyndham coach Lucas Allen says a “kick in the arse” was one of the reasons behind his side’s hot start to the Big V Championship Men’s season.

Allen’s side took care of Chelsea and Hume City by 19 points and 37 points respectively to get their season off to the best possible start.

But he said it was from perfect.

“We got up a kick up the arse in our last pre-season game so it was nice to see a response from the group,” he said.

“We’ve got high ambitions as a team but everyone knows we have to keep working. I don’t think there’s a risk of this group getting too far ahead of themselves.

“There’s a real push for everyone to push the next guy and sometimes we can probably go a little too hard. But we know the standards we’re setting will help us in the long run.

“The fact we had numerous contributors, from one through 12, in both games was the most pleasing aspect of the weekend.”

Maurice Howard impressed in his first weekend of action for Wyndham. Photo: Supplied.

Import point guard Maurice Howard showed off his scoring prowess with 60 points across both games including 33 in the season opener against Chelsea away from home.

“Maurice is a fantastic player because he can score at three levels,” Allen said.

“The next step for us is the other guys understanding his game more.”

Allen also hailed the impact of Abram Tong who he described as his team’s “tone setter” on defence.

In the big win over Hume he finished with 14 points, three assists and a steal in 19 minutes of action.

“Abram was a guy that really benefited from a full pre season,” he said.

“He played his first senior game on the weekend and was defensively the tone setter, a brilliant first round from him.”

Supplied Editorial Abram Tong enjoyed a strong weekend. Photo: Supplied.

Josh Norling, a local resident who returned to Wyndham before the season, was impressive off the bench.

He had 11 points in the win over Chelsea before going bigger with 18 against the Broncos on Sunday.

“Josh and Nate Hargrave, who is only a young guy, both stood up in their minutes,” Allen said.

“They showed the coaching staff that they’re more than capable of performing at the level.”

Wyndham will host Western Port in round 2.

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