Injured Shark likely to miss the start of NBL season
The Southland Sharks are just a week away from its 2023 NBL season opener against the Manawatu Jets at ILT Stadium Southland in Invercargill.
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Key Southland Shark Brayden Inger is likely to miss the start of the 2023 National Basketball League as he continues to recover from an ankle injury.
Inger badly damaged his ankle in training almost a month ago joining his netball playing fiancée George Fisher on the injured list.
Fisher - a Southern Steel shooter - just a month earlier injured her knee which ruled her out of the entire 2023 ANZ Premiership.
Inger went from helping Fisher with her recovery to having his own nasty injury to tend to.
At least in Inger’s case, he will still see some court time this season.
“He’s getting closer but he’s certainly still a week or two away yet,” Southland Sharks coach Guy Molloy said.
“Touch wood he comes back from this and has a great season because he certainly is a key piece for us.”
New Sharks recruit Ben Adamson is another nursing an ankle injury at the moment. He missed the Sharks’ preseason victory over the Otago Nuggets in Dunedin on Wednesday night.
“He’s an athletic young forward who we brought in from Hawke’s Bay. I think he will be impressive as the year goes through,” Molloy said.
“But it’s been a bit of a feature of our preseason, we’ve had a raft of soft tissue injuries, either with just freak accidents or adjusting to training loads… It’s just frustrating when you can’t get a couple of people on court.”
In terms of round one, Molloy rated Inger more unlikely to play than likely to front against the Manawatu Jets on April 7 in Invercargill.
He gave Adamson a better chance than Inger but still was not confident, saying it was probably “50-50 at best”.
Molloy acknowledged it would test the Sharks’ roster depth.
“It tests the depth on the frontline for sure. We’ve already tried to make some adjustments at training because there are going to be times where we are going to have to play a bit small. Turn twos into threes, threes into fours, that kind of thing for the initial rounds.”
The good news is they won the preseason game 96-75 against the Otago Nuggets on Wednesday night without Inger and Adamson.
Australian Grant Anticevich top scored with 28 points and also latched onto 11 rebounds. Ben Hall scored 17 points and Romaro Gill picked up 15 points, nine rebounds.
Molloy was pleased with the hit-out but was reluctant to get too ahead of himself in his assessment.
“It’s just a preseason game so it’s halfway between a practice and a real game. But in general it showed we are moving in the direction I want to move, but plenty of things to improve on.
“I’m not taking too much away from it. For a start, the Nuggets didn’t have two of their imports there. They’ve got significant room for growth.”
The Sharks and Nuggets will again go at it in a second preseason game on Friday night (March 31) at ILT Stadium Southland in Invercargill.
The game will be played at 6pm with the game free for season members and a gold coin donation for anyone else wanting to have a look at how the Sharks are shaping up a week out from the season opener.