Tara Murray
Keilor Thunder is hoping to finish its debut National Basketball League 1 South women’s season on a high.
The Thunder have gotten better as the season has gone along and entered the second last round of the season in 11th place.
Speaking before the weekend’s match, Thunder coach Tom Bandilovski said they were happy with where they were set to finish the season.
“We feel good,” he said. “We turned our season around, we didn’t start that good.
“We’ve been really competitive and played better, hopefully now we can finish the season well.
“We will finish the season sitting in mid-table, which is good for our first season in the NBL1 competition.
“We want to finish the last three games strong and we’re looking forward to it.”
Bandilovski said the group took some time to adjust to playing at this level, with many of the group having not played in the NBL1 competition before.
He said the group had started to play as a team and it had made a big difference.
“We’ve been really competitive against every team in the competition, it’s a good result for us,” he said.
“Only two or three players had played at this level, the others have come up from [Big V] state champ women.
“We’ve continued to develop and we’re very happy with that. The proof is there that we can play at this level.”
Bandilovski said while no contracts have been signed for next season, there was plenty of good signs for the group if they were to stick together.
With the core of the group still in the early parts of the careers, there is plenty of potential to grow.,
“Hopefully these girls sign for the future with the club,” he said. “If we can keep most of them next year, they’ll have one year under their belt together at this level.”
The Thunder was set to face the Geelong Supercats on Saturday, after deadline.
Bandilovski said they were hoping to have a better performance against them, than they did earlier in the season when they lost.
“It’s a good opportunity and we’re looking forward to playing them,” he said.
“We’re playing them in front of our home crowd and we’re better at home.
In the final round of the season, the Thunder will play Casey Cavaliers and the Knox Raiders.
The Thunder men’s side was in 15th spot with six wins heading into the final two rounds.
