New Sharks coach learns from 'bitter' experience
“There were a bunch of things that meant that my foundation with the team was next to nothing and then when a club like Wellington start the season losing games, I was just under immediate pressure."
Guy Molloy has a key stipulation for any Southland Sharks recruits. The message is clear, you need to be ready for a decent preseason build up.
There’s a personal reason behind Molloy’s quest and it involves a fair amount of pride.
Molloy has had to pick himself up, dust himself off, and resurrect his NBL coaching credentials after one of the toughest experiences in his 35 years as a professional basketball coach.
In season one coaching the Wellington Saints last year the Australian was sacked midseason.
It came after a three-win-seven-loss start to the season.
“From the perspective of them making the decision they made I was disappointed, but it’s their decision,” Molloy says.
“I just felt it was a very poor reflection on myself, because I got there so late and I didn’t fit and it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t how I wanted to work. So, everything I’ve done is about saying, ‘that’s not going to happen’."
Molloy has found a new home at the Sharks as he goes about proving a point.
“There were things from my perspective that went really wrong for me and things that were largely out of control that impacted, like I got there very late.
“I had no preseason with the team and was still dealing with the aftershocks of Covid.
“There were a bunch of things that meant that my foundation with the team was next to nothing. And then when a club like Wellington start the season losing games I was just under immediate pressure, so to establish a foothold was very difficult.
“It was then up to me to pick myself up, dust myself off, reflect on it, and be better for it. So, when another opportunity come around that’s what I really want to take away from it.
“It was bitter, but I’ve learned from it and I’m going to be better for it.”
Molloy says his quest is to make sure the preseason preparation at the Sharks is much more extensive.
“That was really the condition I’ve put on every player is, ‘I want you here’. Because my last experience was that I got into Wellington about a week before the season started and the team wasn’t in place.
“As a new coach there I had no foundation. I felt really awkward, I felt like a fish out of water.
“Not a repeat of that. So, the guys I recruit here, we are working together, we are building our culture, we we’ve got time in the preseason.”
“I believe in what I do, and I think I’ve got some great lads here. It’s a great club, it’s a much different culture of a club, so I feel very much at home already.”
The Invercargill-based Sharks players are already at work, while the entire squad is likely to unite in early March for its April 7 start to the season.
In the basketball world that’s a significant preseason build-up. It hasn’t been unusual in the past for players to arrive the day of the first game, or even miss the opening rounds for that matter. Not this year.
Molloy’s own situation mirrors those at the Sharks who are also dusting themselves off after a disappointing 2022 season when Southland finished second last in the NBL.
“Talking particularly to the senior guys such as Zo [Alonzo Burton], Romaro [Gill], Brayden [Inger], I think they felt the same way I did. They felt like, ‘no I’m better than that, no we’re better than that’. I’ve got pride as a pro and so do they.”
Like Molloy, some things were out of the Sharks’ control in 2022, including losing coach Rob Beveridge for much of the season after he fell from the roof at his house and suffered nasty injuries.
It was actually Beveridge who pointed Molloy towards the Sharks job.
The pair are very good mates, so much so they were the best man at each other’s weddings.
They’ve coached for many years alongside each other, although they’ve only coached against each other once.
That was in round one in the 2022 NBL season when Molloy travelled with a baby Saints team, missing almost its entire frontline players, to Invercargill and got whacked by the Sharks.
Beveridge called Molloy to see if he was interested in the Sharks job which he was stepping down from. Beveridge then recommended Molloy to the Sharks board.
Molloy went through an interview process with the Sharks and was successful.
He says he is thrilled to have landed the job and has quickly become aware of what the Sharks mean to the Southland community.
“I’ve probably had three meet and greets since I’ve been here and there is a buzz around the team….It’s fantastic to have that feel around you.
“I want the community to make sure the team is a reflection of them, that’s really important to me. We are going to work, we are going to be in shape, and we are going to play hard, and we are going to execute well, that’s the plan.”
What would Molloy deem as success in his first-year coaching at ILT Stadium Southland in Invercargill?
He acknowledges everyone wants to win a championship but admits, like many coaches, he’s more process-driven at the moment.
Molloy prefers the mindset of winning each day, whether that be at a training session or on game day.
“Hand on heart I’d love to win a championship, that would be great. Is that going to define success or failure? I don’t know.
“Is the culture great, do we play a great game style, is it a committed team, have we got great chemistry, have we got great leadership…. If you’ve got those things in place then I’d say it’s pretty successful and the results will follow.”
GUY MOLLOY
Born: Melbourne, Australia
Age 57:
(Coaching Career)
1989: Canberra Capitals
1989–1994: Australian Opals (assistant)
1993–1996: Perth Breakers
2001–2005: Cairns Taipans
2006–2009: South Dragons (assistant)
2009–2012: Australian U17 men
2013–2022: Melbourne Boomers
2017–2018: Tall Ferns (assistant coach)
2018–present: New Zealand Tall Ferns
2022: Wellington Saints
2023: Southland Sharks
‘