By JARROD POTTER
EARLY signs are extremely promising for the Casey Cavaliers after smashing through their first pre-season practice match.
With the Coburg Giants sending out the request for a January practice match, Casey was more than happy to take up the opportunity and excelled on Sunday at home in the 64-42 win.
The Cavaliers’ new look senior men’s roster was tested for the first time against external opposition and three things became clear in particular.
They’re tall, they’re fast and most importantly, the Cavaliers have a lot of weapons in their arsenal.
There were no punches pulled in a particularly bruising and high intensity practice match as rebounds were contested like rugby scrums and the tempo never shifted off full throttle as Casey built the early margin and held onto it comfortably in the pre-season skirmish.
The Cavaliers had options upon their options – four players tall enough to play centre, three swingmen, three fleet-footed 1-2 guards and all this did not include newly recruited Dandenong 205cm NBL/SEABL forward Brent Hobba – who was still away on holidays.
Hobba and Witherden will stand as a tantalising inside-outside tandem alongside the returning Jay McMillan – who will play the majority of the Big V season before heading to college for his junior year at Colorado Mesa University.
Running the tallest Cavaliers’ offence yet, coach Stewart Baird threw Witherden, Ash Szalek, Dean Johnson and Lester Strong on court three at a time to give Coburg nothing but big headaches in the front court while Steve Michalski, Brad Szalek and newly recruited speedster James DeNeefe ran the ball excellently.
Michalski returned from the Christmas break lean, quick and hungry for the hard ball – which was all the more impressive considering his wedding, to Gabie, was held the day before.
“Firstly it was good to get up and down against someone else,” coach Baird said after the 22-point win.
“You practice against each other all summer and it’s nice to get up and down against other opposition.
“We deliberately came in with not a lot of structure – I just wanted get the ball through guys’ hands and see who would produce for me.
“Overall we stuck pretty much to our rules and all in all I’m pretty happy.”
The Cavaliers wore black armbands in memory of Michalski’s mother and long-time Cavaliers volunteer Debra Spinks, who passed away earlier this year.
Baird praised Michalski for his commitment to the team – as the guard chose to never miss a training session or the practice match, despite a trying few months where he rescheduled his wedding in an attempt to have his mother there, but she sadly passed away less than a fortnight before the big day.
“Stevie’s last two weeks with his mum passing away and then the wedding – not even two weeks later – he hasn’t missed a practice and he’s been amazing and the guys have been amazing the way they’ve rallied around him,” Baird said.
“The whole club has and it’s a perfect example of what’s great about this club – everyone is part of the family and when he needed us to be there for him, everyone stepped up.”
The Cavaliers Youth Men also faced Coburg on Sunday in a Big V practice match double header.
