The NBL1 is debuting its Mens and Womens National Finals format for the first time this weekend, which sees all five conference winners and one wildcard play three games in three days to determine a national champion. We take a look at the mens side of the tournament, the format and focus on the Hobart Chargers schedule,
Teams competing
Hobart Chargers – NBL1 South Winner
Gold Coast Rollers – NBL1 North Winner
Rockingham Flames – NBL1 West Winner
Canberra Gunners – NBL1 East Winner
South Adelaide Panthers – NBL1 Central Winner
Frankston Blues – NBL1 Wildcard winner
Points and seeding
The NBL1 National Finals system is based on the NBL Blitz format for points. That being that each match will be worth seven points overall: one point awarded to the team that wins each quarter, and three points for an overall winner of the game.
The number of points each team has after each day of competition will determine who they play in the next round.
Schedule (what we know so far)
Friday
Rockingham Flames (NBL1 West) v South Adelaide Panthers (NBL1 Central) – Court 3, 8:00pm AEST
Hobart Chargers (NBL1 South) v Gold Coast Rollers (NBL1 North) – Court 2, 8.15pm AEST
Frankston Blues (Wildcard) v Canberra Gunners (NBL1 East) – Court 1, 8:30pm AEST
Saturday
1st v 5th
2nd v 4th
3rd v 6th
Sunday
1st v 2nd – National championship game
3rd v 4th – 3rd place playoff
5th v 6th – 5th place playoff
Player availability
Unfortunantely the timing of tha national finals is not ideal. As its in the middle of NBL preseason training and one week away from the NBL Blitz, meaning the majority of NBL players will not being playing the NBL1 finals. For the Hobart Chargers they will be missing Harry Froling (Brisbane Bullets), Sam McDaniel (Tasmania JackJumpers) and Jarred Bairstow (Tasmania JackJumpers).
Match preview – Hobart v Gold Coast
With this the only confirmed matchup for Hobart at this stage, we’ll focus on this game.
Arguably this game is the winners of the NBL1’s strongest conferences. However both sides will be heavily impacted by NBL player unavailability. Hobart is missing McDaniel, Bairstow and Froling, while the Gold Coast are missing Jason Cadee, Tanner Krebs and Donovan Mitchell
Despite missing these key players, there is still plenty of talent on both sides for a great game. Hobart will rely heavily on import duo AJ Harris and Jamar Sandifer.
Harris has been a key part of the Chargers team all season, changing his role as players have come in and out of the squad. But he has stepped up his game during finals, non more so than top scoring with 21 points and 9 rebounds in the preliminary final win over Kilsyth.
Sandifer was a late addition to a team already boasting a strong squad, but has been a great 6th man off the bench this season (12 ppg, 4.6 rpg). But he’ll be able play a bigger role as he moves to the starting lineup. But Ole Angerstein will be working hard on the glass and in the post as he has all season. Coach Anthony Stewart will want his 2nd unit including Jacob Richards and Jack Stnwix to step up over the three games this weekend.
For the Gold Coast, a lot of their success rests with two-time NBL first team representative Lamar Patterson. The American was overlooked by NBL teams this off season meaning he’ll be available for the full campaign for the Rollers. Patterson is has been in the Rollers top 3 for scoring (17.5) , assists (5,5) and rebounds (8.2), and only expect those number to increase over the nationals weekend with NBL players out. But coach Antony Petrie will be keen to see his role players Preston Le Gasswick, Jaze Morris and Devon Sullivan to also step up over the weekend.
