Tara Murray
New Keilor Thunder men’s coach Ash Arnott is chomping at the bit to get on court with the National Basketball League 1 South club.
Arnott joins the Thunder after being involved in coaching several Australian under-age representative teams and having been a Basketball Victoria high performance coach.
The new coach said he can’t wait to get down to work.
“I’m super excited,” he said. “Obviously it’s a great club to be involved in.
“It’s a big club and the support already from the executive team, from different supporters and fans around the area reaching out and getting behind us
“I can’t wait.”
Arnott said through his role with Basketball Victoria he was aware of the Thunder and what the club was about.
He said the attraction for him to join the club was wanting to get involved in an association that he could help continue to grow.
“There’s a lot of success at the club,” he said. “You can tell by the people they have in the club the values they have.
“That is really exciting for me, the place for me.”
Arnott said one of the things he was looking forward to was being able to coach a side week in, week out.
He said it’ll be a really good challenge for him and he can’t wait to get the whiteboard out.
The Thunder’s men’s side is yet to make finals since joining the NBL1 competition.
This year they finished just outside the top eight on head-to-head ratios.
Arnott said he wanted to come in and have an impact like Kristi Harrower did with the women’s side this year, which made the grand final having not played finals before.
“Some have come through the system and I know how hard they’ve work and the type of players they are,” he said.
“I want to try and develop a system that can stand up at both ends of the court and not only make finals, but have success in finals.
“Eltham didn’t finish first but they had things in place to win the championship. They allowed their players to demonstrate their skill set and put them in a position that allows players the best opportunity to thrive in each situation.
“I want to do something special with the men’s side.”
Arnott said he was also keen to make sure that the pathway between the junior and senior programs continues to grow and that players want to stay at Keilor.
He said there’s some really good young talent at the club.
