Melbourne United prepares for new season against Brisbane in Ballarat
Melbourne United is hoping a camp and NBL pre-season match in Ballarat on Thursday can become an annual event.
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If all goes to plan, Melbourne United will be happy to call Ballarat their pre-season home for years to come.
The NBL powerhouse is this week in the goldfields city preparing for their first practice match hit out against Brisbane on Thursday.
It’s all part of their pre-season camp which involves clinics with juniors, representative players and coaches.
There are also planned school visits.
“It serves a few purposes for us,” Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman said.
“To get away for three or four days as a fairly new team (is good), we’ve got a lot of new additions to our roster this year.
“(We get to) spend three or four days working on court and our culture.”
Vickerman also recognises how important it is to get the club back into the community.
The past two years have been disrupted due to Covid, preventing United from participating in such camps.
“A big part of it is getting back and engaging with the community.,” Vickerman said.
“It was something during Covid that we didn’t get to do a lot of.
“We want to make sure we do a good job of it.”
Vickerman said he would welcome a return to Ballarat to make the camp an annual preparation for the season.
“This is my sixth year with United and we’ve never really had a solid pre-season camp, or somewhere that we’ve gone back to,” he said.
“My hope is that we really enjoy this one, we see some areas of improvement coming back for next year.
“If we could have an annual camp in Ballarat I’d certainly be for it.”
Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney said plans were in place to have them back year after year.
“We’re keen to have Melbourne United have frequent visits so you get that consistency over a few years,” he said.
“The kids see the same players and a range of players come through.
“We think that will help everyone.
“It is great exposure for our kids but it will hopefully be great for Melbourne as well and they get more members come through from the regions area.”
Tickets for Thursday’s clash, which starts at 7pm, are still available.
You can purchase them here.
Full strength United prepare for first test
Vickerman is expecting most of his team to get a solid hitout against Brisbane in the two games in Ballarat and Casey (Saturday).
In good news for Ballarat fans Melbourne United has all but one player available for the match.
“Injury wise, we’ll be pretty good,” Vickerman said.
“Out of our 12 rostered guys we’ll probably see 11 of those plus the three development players will be with us as well.
“We’ll be pretty close to full roster.
“I think that is what the pre-season is about.
“We’ve got two games so we can spread some minutes over two games for all our guys.
“We don’t want to put anyone at risk at this time by giving anyone extended minutes.”
United power forward Mason Peatling is the only player unlikely to play after having knee surgery during the off-season and only returning to the court this week.
Vickerman said the goal was simple - build on last year and go one better by making the grand final and winning.
Melbourne United lost to new NBL side Tasmania in the semi-finals after winning the minor premiership.
Since then the team has lost Jack White (Denver) and Matthew Dellavedova (Sacramento) to the NBA with Joseph Lual-Acuil Jr. also leaving.
The team has signed Isaac Humphries from Adelaide and imports Rayjon Tucker, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Jordan Caroline.
“We think on a par we’ve certainly found some great guys and now we’ve just got to induct them,” Vickerman said.
“We want to do better than last year.
“We put ourselves in a position (last year) and we didn’t get it done, so there is a hunger from the guys to do better.”
But Vickerman is wary of a Brisbane team who have recruited well, getting both Aron Baynes from the NBA and import Tyler Johnson from the San Antonio Spurs.
Both are expected to get minutes in Ballarat.
“Aron Baynes is a massive signing and it is great to have him back in the NBL,” Vickerman said.
“He’s a guy that is so powerful but has so much touch on the perimeter. He becomes a good challenge about how you defend him in both areas.
“(The Bullets have) high level imports coming out of the team and they’ve recruited a lot of young Aussie talent.
“We expect them to have a lot of juice and play with a lot of energy.”
Tucker out to impress for new club
New United recruit Rayjon Tucker is excited to be in Australia after playing all his basketball in the United States.
He’s played in the NBA with Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Denver and is now hoping to excel in Australia.
“This is my first stint overseas and I’m loving it so far,” Tucker said.
“They (United coaches) wanted to take my game to the next level and I felt like I could come over here and do that.
“It’s a chance for me to rebrand myself and have a big opportunity and win championships.”
Tucker said the goal was to get back to the NBA following on from other players who have had stints in the NBL and then got picked up by clubs in the NBA.
But right now his focus is on United.
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