Basketball: New Zealand Breakers and Wellington Phoenix join forces as Australia beckons

Sport Oct 28, 2021 5:30 AM3 minutes to readFinn Delany had an impressive campaign for NZ Breakers last season. The New Zealand Breakers and Wellington Phoenix are about to get to know each other much better. On Monday, the two teams will fly together from Wellington on a charter flight to Australia for their upcoming ANBL and A-League campaigns. “All in all, I think it will be a cool experience to have two teams representing the country in an Australian league sharing a flight,” said Matt Walsh, CEO of Breakers, the Herald. “Much credit is due to the Phoenix. Our GM Simon Edwards has done an incredible job with the Phoenix to organize all of this and I think it will be a lot of fun.” Before we finalize the flight on the Phoenix, the Breakers did not have a confirmed date for departure but expected to take off between late October and early November. The ability to fly the Phoenix through New South Wales before heading to Melbourne not only lowers travel costs for both teams, but also means that the Breakers do not have to be quarantined when they arrive in Melbourne Free travel between New South Wales and Melbourne. With a little more certainty in their plans, the Breakers will host a larger tour group this time around, as a number of the players’ and staff’s family members will be making the trip while swingman Rasmus Bach returns, import point guard Jeremiah Martin and assistant coach James Reid are already on in Australia and will be joining the team early next week for support, “Walsh said of family members who flew over with them resounding reply was ‘let’s get to work’.” With a confirmed itinerary, the team can now be fully on Preparations will focus on the four preparation games against the Sydney Kings, Illawarra Hawks, Melbourne United and South-East Melbourne Phoenix, starting on November 13th. With several new faces on the team this year, including bright young French stars Ousmane Dieng and Hugo Besson, and no returning imports, Walsh said he hopes to see progress in keeping the team together as they prepare – with their first game in the regular season on December 4th away against Cairns. “We have a very interesting group of guys. We were able to bring our core group back in guys like Tom [Abercrombie] and Finn [Delaney], we added Yanni Wetzell who was absolutely amazing and we have these two young people who I am very confident will both play in the NBA next year, best list we have ever had; By far the most comprehensive list – if you look at our locals, our imports, and we essentially have two next stars – so it’s pretty exciting. ”

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