New Breakers head coach aims to embrace the Kiwi feistiness of days gone by for the 2022-23 Australian NBL season. MARC HINTON reports
Something gnawed at new Breakers head coach Mody Maor at the end of the 2021-22 season in the Australian NBL – spent entirely on the road in Australia. It wasn’t necessarily all their fault, but they had drifted away from the Kiwi identity that had been a hallmark of the championship-winning iterations of the club from not so long ago.
Maor had been an assistant under fellow Israeli Dan Shamir for the three seasons from 2019-22 (the last two of them conducted under a Covid cloud), and when Shamir decided it was time to cut his losses and bail, CEO and owner Matt Walsh had little hesitation in promoting
his colourful assistant.
Maor has certainly begun his tenure promisingly, immediately pledging to go
on a “journey of rebuilding” and to “reconnect to the roots” of the club by getting back to the Kiwi identity that was the fundamental essence of the group that won four championships in five years between 2010 and 2015.
“I am well aware of the legacy this club has and of the expectations Kiwis have of the Breakers to perform with excellence,” said Maor. “Reconnecting to the roots, culture and intensity that were the championship teams of the Breakers is a focal point of the culture we want to instil.”
In an ideal world Maor would have lured back world-class big Isaac Fotu to to help with that process. But he wasn’t available. The classy Finn Delany, too, was finally cutting his ties with the club to explore fresher fields after a disappointing ‘21-22 campaign.
But the Kiwi core has has been assembled – and quickly. Tom Abercrombie and Rob Loe were still on contract, young centre Sam Timmins was quickly added after a promising stint as a development player and Dan Fotu (Issac’s younger brother), Tom Vodanovich and Izayah Le’afa followed. A pair of Aussie role players, in Will McDowell-White (back for a third season) and veteran sharpshooter Cam Gliddon, completed the “local” contingent.
Maor and his boss have also snapped up another French teen projected to go high in the NBA draft, in Rayan Rupert as a Next Star, and have secured the first of three imports in 2.03m Dererk Pardon who has played professionally in Italy, Germany and Israel, and projects to start at centre.
But Maor is adamant the tone of any response from the Breakers in 2022-23, as they play their first “normal” season in what seems like forever, playing a regular slate of games in front of their adoring fans, will come from the Kiwi core, with a little help from their Aussie mates.
“I’ve felt strongly over the past two and a-half years … not being in New Zealand, not being part of the community, not being around Kiwis was a big part of … soulless is a harsh word, but at times us not displaying the spirit you want from a competitive team,” he said.
“I definitely felt bringing people back who feel a connection to the Breakers, who see the Breakers as something that’s important to them, as something they hold dear … it’s a magnifier of intensity, of how how much someone cares, of how much you can mould a team into something that’s meaningful.”
The new coach is the first to put his hand up and admit his group has its limitations. Abercrombie is clearly past his best, and injury-riddled, Fotu is raw, Timmins is still very much a work in progress, Vodanovich, for all his toughness, has never played significant minutes in this league and Loe is coming off a sub-par season.
“We don’t have a superstar, a best player in the NBL in his position, but what we have is eight players who set the floor for us to be a very good defensive team, with a level of intensity, commitment, competitiveness and physicality we want, and the foundation to play in space and hopefully with a little pace,” he added.
“From a character standpoint we upgraded in everything that has to do with the intangibles. We’ve brought in people that are more competitive and a little more physical, and it’s not a surprise these are also Kiwis.”
And Maor is quietly confident Le’afa, a hard-nosed, defence-minded combo guard who is coming off two quality seasons for South East Melbourne Phoenix, can help set that required tone of toughness and tenacity.
“He’s a fierce competitor and capable of defending the best players in the NBL, and limiting them. He gives us something we really didn’t have, except for when Tom (Abercrombie) was healthy for extended periods.”
It is quite simply time for the Breakers to embrace their inner Kiwi. After an historically bad 5-23 season, it certainly can’t get any worse.
Marc Hinton
Sports Writer