By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE Keilor Thunder’s Division Two men’s team may well have a wealth of fresh new faces, but the expectations for the upcoming Big V season remain intact.
The coach who took the Thunder to last year’s grand final series, Peter Jukes, has moved on, while a number of senior players from the 2013 roster will not be in action this season.
Playmakers Matthew Jukes and Brent Radoslovic have both chosen to ply their trade in Division One, while Andrew Freeman will be overseas for the next 12 months.
Incoming coach Steve Toy admits Keilor’s recruiting over the summer has been a little lean.
However, Toy has backed his younger brigade to push for a successful campaign in 2014, telling Star another finals appearance will be the goal later this year.
“We’re still hoping to make finals, absolutely, and we believe if we can make finals we can give it a real good shake,” Toy said.
“We’ve got a good group of guys and they seem to be gelling pretty well at this stage, but it’ll just take a little while on the court and once we find that, I think we’ll be very hard to beat.
“We’ve got a good mixture of size and speed now, so it’ll obviously take a little while but I think we’ll be thereabouts.”
Keilor’s inclusions have mostly come from within, with a number of the new senior players graduating out of the club’s successful Youth League program.
Promising youngsters Scott Drysdale, James Webster, Mitchell Lukey and Joel Smith can all expect decent minutes on the floor this year, while Carlo Grossi and Dusan Skenderovicback have also come on board.
The Thunder will open its 2014 Division Two season on the road to the Coburg Giants on Sunday week, before spending the next three weeks on home court against Western Port, Pakenham and Shepparton.
Toy said the focus for the first month will be to establish a fast brand of Thunder basketball.
“It’ll be up-tempo, it’ll be high intensity in the defence and we’ll be looking to push the ball down the court as much as we can,” Toy said.
“So hopefully it’ll be up and down the court pretty quickly.”
