Roar Rookie
Joined May 2011
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It has often been noted that "a week is a long time in sports." If a week is a long time, then for Melbourne…
Bev – Thanks for your message. I may be one of the rare few, but I can assure you that outside of my family, my true passion is the success of our national basketball teams. Whilst I can’t have a major influence on this at the moment, I take most opportunities to do what I can, and try to get the message out there. The guys are elite athletes and have worked so hard to get to this level where they can wear the green and gold. They deserve to be seen and heard, and have their achievements promoted to the wider sporting public.
B-Rock – All I can say is ‘hear, hear’. You’ve touched on so many valid points, I don’t know where to start! I’ll just run with responses to your numbered items;
1. I agree, the profile of the Boomers is poor. Its a bit of a double edged sword. Would a higher profile for the Boomers indirectly bring more attention to the Emus? Or could better promotion of the Emus and their players then bring more attention to the Boomers as the players such as Greenwood step up and make Boomers camps and teams?
2. Yes, its not entirely the medias fault, but in this internet age its quite easy to get an article up online, even if it doesnt go into a print edition. But you are quite right about Basketball Australia. They have a media and communications staff, but quite often I’m left wondering what they actually do. On the three BA controlled twitter accounts I follow, there has not been one mention of the Emus. There should be a media representative travelling with the teams, making themselves available for radio and TV interviews, posting articles online, recording video interviews with players and coaches and posting them to youtube along with game highlights. If BA arent prepared to invest in telling the story, then we cant blame the media for not wanting to – why should they?
The invisible Emus deserve attention
Hi James,
Fantastic article mate. Really great stuff.
The lack of coverage for the Emus has been appalling. They currently sit with a 5-1 win-loss record, the only other team with that record is the USA. As you mentioned in your article, if the Joeys were achieving a similar feat in the under-17 World Cup it would probably be splashed all across the back sports pages of the major daily newspapers.
But this is the problem with basketball in this country at the moment – lack of media coverage, and a lack of creativity by the major basketball organisations to connect with their fan base. I’m a regular twitter user, and I can’t say that I’ve seen one tweet on any of the accounts of theirs that I follow. This is just not good enough!
So congrats to you for going out there and making a difference mate by writing this article. It’s the same motivation that prompted me to call SEN sports radio here in Melbourne yesterday morning, just to get the Emus a mention. I’ve been listening to them speak about the Joeys and Matildas for the best part of a couple of weeks (which I don’t have a problem with, they should be promoting ALL Aussie national teams), so I thought it was time the Emus got some love too.
People have short memories, as it was only back in 2003 that we won the u-19 world championships, with a team that featured current Australian basketball superstars such as Andrew Bogut, Aleks Maric, Brad Newley and Damian Martin, all guys who are now regular members of our senior national team, the Boomers, and whom will likely be leading Australia’s charge to a medal at the Olympics in London next year.
Whilst the current crop of Emus may not reach the heights of the players mentioned, the likes of Greenwood, Drmic, Hadziomerovic and Mitch Creek will push for senior national selection for the best part of the next 10-15 years. This is a chance for all hoops fans to see them at the infancy of their careers.
A recent criticism of basketball in this country has been the number of players plying their trades overseas, making them ‘inaccessible’ to basketball fans. Well, Hugh Greenwood has been filling in time between his AIS and college careers by plying his trade in the SEABL for his hometown Hobart Chargers. I watched him play out at Kilsyth a couple of weeks ago, he’ll be back in Melbourne on July 16th against Dandenong. Mitch Creek plays in the NBL at the moment for the Adelaide 36ers, so be sure to catch him at a game while you can!
All in all, the future for basketball in this country is very bright, we just need more people like you James who are prepared to take them to the fans and tell their story!
Well done mate. Keep up the great work. Thanks for supporting the great game of basketball.
The invisible Emus deserve attention
Nice article Cam. I’m not sure that Ben Allen will ever quite hit the heights you’re predicting (eg. Boomers starting centre), but he will be a very solid player in the NBL for a very long time to come. He is only still very young, and it usually takes the big guys a lot longer to hit their peak.
@buck – I think you’ll be waiting a while mate. I can’t see the Dragons ever coming back into the NBL.
@jbomb – I hope you do watch with interest mate. There will be quite a few Boomers calibre players running around in the NBL this season aside from Benny Allen – a few eg.’s are Mark Worthington, Adam Gibson, Damian Martin, Peter Crawford, Luke Schensher, Alex Loughton, Cam Tragardh, Stephen Weigh, Anatoly Bose, Daniel Dillon – just to name a few! There’s basically one Boomers calibre player on every NBL squad this season, so get out there and support the Aussies. It will be even easier now that One HD have announced they’ll be showing NBL games on Friday’s, Saturday’s and Sundays! Bring it on!
@johnno – Ben Allen has played in a couple of friendlies for Australia. He played in them last year (2010) prior to the World Championships and prior to his rookie season with Townsville.
@jvgo – I think you’ve summed Benny up pretty well. It will be the lack of defensive intensity that will hold him back from making strides with the national team. He’s only young though so he’s got plenty of time to rectify this. I do like to see the big guys play with a bit of a mean streak though. You’re huge and weigh a tonne, use that size to your advantage!
Ben Allen: the next big thing in NBL