The unique rise of Darwin basketball coach Rod Tremlett
A top-level Australian basketball coach who ‘played a really poor standard’ has added another chapter to his remarkable journey. Read about his unique rise here.
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Darwin Salties women’s coach Rod Tremlett says his focus remains on “making noise in the finals” after putting pen to paper on a big two-year contract extension earlier this week.
But, even with an important game ahead on Saturday night plus finals after that, it is hard to avoid the unique rise of the NBL1 coach who describes himself to his players as “an amazing basketballer without a ball in his hands”.
It is because Tremlett, 52, has only ever played the game at amateur level or at “a really poor standard” as he calls it.
But when it comes to coaching, he is as good as anyone in the business including rival NBL1 North coaches who have professional playing careers behind them, unlike Tremlett.
So the question is, how has someone with hardly any playing experience risen to coach Darwin’s only semi-professional sporting team and one of the best NBL1 outfits in the country.
Well, with the support of his assistant coach Matthew Hunt bringing the player’s perspective, an interstate coach bringing the film and analytics and Tremlett bringing 30 years of player development experience, “they get the job done” and “work seamlessly together”.
His journey to coaching the Salties began as a youngster who loved sport growing up in the Territory.
Tremlett played footy for Southern Districts, rugby league for Litchfield, cricket for Waratahs and a bit of wishy-washy basketball alongside a number of other sports.
“You name it, I probably had a crack at it, beach volleyball, touch footy, loved it as a kid playing everything I could play,” Tremlett said.
“I just really valued the role sport can play in young people’s lives.
“I think it’s kind of why I kind of ended up with a passion for junior development the way I did.”
Then in 1989, Tremlett met his eventual wife Jodi at university who played basketball so he would always go down and support her.
“I was sitting on the sidelines one day and someone said to me, ‘you’re here every week, are you interested in coaching a team’,” he said.
“And they gave me the soft story of ‘if we don’t have a coach, they won’t be able to enter a team and blah, blah, blah’.
“So I said ‘I don’t want that, I am happy to give you a hand’ and that kind of started the love affair with it all.”
From there, Tremlett began his 20-year stint as a volunteer coach in the high performance program at Basketball NT.
On Tuesday, Tremlett signed a breakthrough deal, confirming he will coach the Salties for a further two seasons to the end of 2025.
After his side finished 13th in their inaugural season last year, Tremlett led a thrilling turnaround, as his side won its first eight games to start this campaign where they now hold sixth spot on the ladder with an 11-7 record.
Before clinching the top job as Salties women’s coach in 2022, Tremlett locked in a job at basketball NT as high performance manager in 2016.
A few years later he coached the 3x3 NT pro team which led to an opportunity to coach the Australian under-18 men where he guided them to a bronze medal.
The top achievement was supposed to lead Tremlett to further opportunities although Covid hindered those from taking place.
But when the Salties came to the fore in 2022, he was presented with a top chance to coach the women’s side in the club’s inaugural season.
Almost a decade before picking up the Salties gig, Tremlett coached local basketball club Tracy Village to 11 championships in 12 seasons with their women’s team.
Incredibly, before that achievement, Tremlett was at Razzle Storm where he took the side to a championship after they had finished on the bottom of the ladder for multiple seasons in a row, losing nearly 50 games with barely any wins in between the losses.
Fast forward to the present and as the Salties enter their final home-and-away game of the season this Saturday, a pleased Tremlett wants more.
“The start [of my future goals] is to make the playoffs this year, that was our aim from day one of pre-season this year,” he said.
“And not only do I think we can make the playoffs this year, I think we can make some real noise in the finals so all focus and attention is on that at the moment.”
A win for the Salties this Saturday could give them an unlikely chance of a home playoff as they could lift into the top four at the end of the round and remain there by the end of the season.
But it will depend on how results pan out in the final round of the season (next weekend) when they don’t play.
Long term goals
Tremlett said focus would turn to local development and list management once the season was completed.
“When the season does ultimately come to an end, then we will have a look at the roster and make some decisions there for the development...,” he said.
“And then really start turning our attention to some keys ways to try and continue to develop the local talent and bring them into the Salties program.
“I am lucky in a way that I have got my role with Basketball Northern Territory as the high performance manager to be able to try and link those two things together.
“And try and come up with meaningful ways for our girls, that are getting out of the under-18s program and looking for the next step in their game, to be a part of the Salties program is going to be really important.”
Asked about what he would have liked to have achieved by the end of 2025, Tremlett said the ultimate was the aim.
“End of 2025, hopefully a home final for our home fans,” he said.
“We were pretty much on track this year for that, we had a bit of a folder and some injuries haven’t helped us there.
“We will still be pushing for the highest place we can get this year but certainly a home final next year and a championship in the next two years.
“I think that’s realistic, I actually think that is a realistic ambition for this year.
“I think we have shown we can take it to and beat any of the top sides in the NBL1 North right now.
“If it doesn’t happen this year, then certainly that will be a goal for the next two years to bring a championship to the Darwin Salties for sure.”
Tremlett the right person to be steering Territory talent
Tremlett, who was born in Bunbury, Western Australia but has become a Territorian after living in the area for more than 40 years, said the development of locals was a top priority.
“I have been invested in local junior development for more than 30 years now so it is a lifelong ambition for me to see our local kids get opportunities and try and develop them and get them on the national stage,” he said.
“It was one of the main reasons why applying for the Salties head coach position was really important to me.
“It is something personally I have been striving to get an opportunity at the next level but also to be able to do it in my hometown and in my home community and try and give these local kids an opportunity to take to the next level while staying home is obviously really important.
“It has been a passion of mine of my life for the last 25-30 years.
“We got to continue to push that and Flinny and I both know how important it is to have the local talent getting opportunities at the next level.
“But as well, we have to have a franchise that’s competitive and produce a product that people want to come and see and have corporate partners that want to invest in.
“I think we have done a great job with that so far and the development of local talent is a work in progress but it’s something that is really important to the success of the franchise.”
Darwin Salties for WNBL? It’s in the ‘forefront of management's mind’
Tremlett said the club was looking to build some links with top Australian basketball clubs in the off-season to help improve their own programs.
“Over the off-season, we are going to look at getting involved in visiting some NBL and WNBL programs to start trying to glean some of the IT from those guys to help us out,” he said.
Tremlett indicated his interest in pushing the club to becoming an WNBL side in future in line with its men’s team which are striving for an NBL licence.
“The WNBL is certainly in the forefront of management‘s mind as well, it’s just dealing with a different mechanism and ownership group [to the men] which is headed up by Basketball Australia.”
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