Walsh: "It Starts With One Win"

Sky Sport Breakers Owner Matt Walsh has ruled a line under a challenging 2021 and has a renewed sense of optimism as the club’s NBL22 season resumes against the Bullets in Brisbane on Sunday.

It will be two weeks since the Breakers last played a game, and since that time, the staff and players have confronted and overcome another COVID outbreak at their base in Melbourne.

While the Victorian government says there are no plans to introduce another lockdown in Melbourne, the Omicron variant has exploded with nearly 22,000 new infections on Wednesday.

By comparison, a fortnight ago, Victoria reported 2005 new cases.

Despite everyone in the Breakers’ touring party being double jabbed and cautious with outside interaction, the virus has still penetrated the group sending players and staff into forced isolation.

However, it is no longer just the Breakers dealing with COVID.  

Every NBL team has now had some experience dealing with the virus too.

It is not just the NBL, with virtually every professional sports team in Australia currently dealing with COVID outbreaks.

The Brisbane Broncos announced 16 players, and three staff tested positive yesterday.

“It’s been a challenging end to 2021”, said Walsh.

“I’ve said it for the last two years; it’s tough living on the road, a lot of injuries, and now COVID, but there’s still a sense of optimism.”

One of the reasons Walsh is optimistic is the return from injury of import Point Guard Peyton Siva.

Walsh is a big fan of the former Detroit Piston and Euro League star and believes having Siva and captain Tom Abercrombie injured most of the season has hurt the team.

“Peyton Siva is one of our on-court leaders, and I think we’re going to win some games”, he said.

“We have a very talented roster, and unfortunately, due to COVID, injuries, and living away, we haven’t seen our whole team roster on-court yet. 

“I think the team believes we’ve got enough talent to win, and we are going to see an energetic and optimistic and revamped team back on Sunday.

“We’ve had some extended time to be together, and we’re going to win some games.”

“In our league, you win a couple in a row; we saw that a couple of years ago when we had a very tough start and were 2-8, and then we came back to win 11 of our next 14 games.”

“It just starts with one win, we’ve had success in Brisbane in recent years, and we’re looking forward to getting back up there.”

Walsh says Breakers fans can expect a breakout performance from Next Star, Ousmane Dieng anytime soon.

The French wunderkind has yet to display his full array of talent on the court for the team, but Walsh says the wait is almost over.

“Ousmane has had a great two weeks of training, and we’ve seen at practice what he’s capable of doing”, he said.

“At the end of the day, Ousmane’s an 18-year-old young man who’s one of the most talented teenagers in the world.

“It takes different players different amounts of time to get acclimated to the league, but I think he’s going to find his way.

“There are exciting things to come for Ousmane in the last 22-games.”

 

The Breakers face the Brisbane Bullets on Sky Sport this Sunday at 5 pm.