Hoops

Become a Pioneer - opportunity awaits

The best current Mount born junior would be Mike Harris from Forestville. Although Harris left the Mount when he was 14 and was developed 100% by the Eagles.
Kane & Kyle are solid players but their careers took many different stops before getting a serious look in with their "home town Pioneers". Kane joins Harris @ Forestville with Brother Zach on Woodville’s PL squad list.

Lachy Hunter is a 6’8 big man that returned last year from a community college in California (not the before mentioned car boosting Mount junior) and could be decent at PL level given opportunity.

Are you sure it wasn’t Pl clubs panicking after believing player bullshit who were trying to use mtg to inflate their contracts.

Would have thought that to be considered a pl player you might have actually had to have played a pl game.

It is also 24 players per club!

I think the phrase is jumping at shadows....

The OP - Maury Hayden was the name of one of the Pioneers inaugural imports along with Dwayne Cross under coach Doug Romain. So he or she obviously has knowledge of the Pioneers history.

Didn't one of those promising Mount juniors get kicked out of a junior college for boosting a car? Southern should sign him quick smart as he would do well down at MV.

Maury (unusual name) don't "peddle you know what". Look up Kane DeWitt and Kyle Tippene I'm sure a well researched guy like you will have the stats at your finger tips. Then post how many minutes those two guys played. BTW they have both gone to PL and QBL along with the others who like the pioneers had uncertain futures.

Yet in the PL topic someone says there are a few local Mt Gambier players already in PL, yet doesn't name them for fear of outing them. Who are they and wouldn't they be ideal for a return home.

Those 6 you speak of would struggle at other PL clubs! Tell me if they are on the roster for 2019? They played in 40% of the games with token minutes at very best.
Recruit recruit and recruit, don't kid yourself about this being a local backs against the wall club.

The Mount had a Women's team in the SEABL once, what happened??

Hi Maurie Nice thoughtful post. There is no doubt that the Pioneers have brought talent into the town to compete in SEABL. Unfortunately it was that or perish. A township of 25K trying to compete with Melbourne teams Hobart Canberra Geelong Ballarat etc etc could never survive without bringing in a significant number of players. The recent success has been more about those players staying and yes believe it or not developing their games.Lets not get fact in the way of a good story. Last year the Pioneers had 6 of their first 10 players that were born in the Mount or Millicent. Whether it be men women football netball basketball etc a huge % of the youth leave regional towns and move to the city and in sport are encouraged to do so. To put it quite bluntly Maurie without bringing talent in the Pioneers would have been dead 25 years ago and the enjoyment and opportunity they have provided would never have occurred. In closing if you wish to blow off the contribution to basketball and the community of those that have came and stayed you have a serious chip on your shoulder.

I suppose that this highlights the simple fact that the Mount doesn't develop talent and that coach Hill and those before him bought $$ talent to the area. The Pioneers vision 30 years ago was to find a vehicle to showcase their local Junior/Senior talent and that was the SEBL as it was in those days. Slowly overtime the two good imports with the rest local 20 somethings and an abundance of State Country junior reps faded and it was who you could bring in and for what price. Sure the now locals who weren't from the Mount but stayed should be considered locals like De Witt, Russell, Mason and Joynes,Burdon, Sutton who were or still are long term residents. But the once great vision of a pathway for the Mount juniors is long gone. The last was David Bowden (who would have finished playing before most of the current list picked up a ball)!
Yes Coach Hill has had success, Can he coach - YES, can he recruit - HELL YES, can he or the Pioneers club develop talent - UNFORTUNATELY NO.

Female programs at any level in the Blue lake city has been in rapid decay for many decades and the male side is a "buy in" rather than a develop fix. The Pioneers and the feeder association in MTGBA have a long history of mistrust and not getting along even though it was MTGBA that was in control and nominated the Pioneers for the National competition 30 years ago. Both the Pioneers and the MTGBA are guilty of sitting on their hands for way to long.

So put this all into perspective when you consider the current PL rosters do have a connection with their junior programs and do attempt to have a pathway program in place. The Mount will finish 4th at best in the Men (collecting home wins) and the women will finish no higher than 8th with a rookie coach, no juniors and a "johnny come lately" philosophy to put together a team.

Its great they are now in the PL, but don't feel sorry for a club that never cared about its future in Juniors or Women's programs. I hope the Norths, Southern, Forestville and Wests of the competition show them what a real club can put on the floor.

Mt Gambier need to advertise on the Basketball Vic page or even their facebook page if they have one, way more traffic than here

Hi reality Nice to hear from you again. Always going to be tough putting a new team together from scratch. Try it starting at Christmas with a restriction on recruiting any PL players. Pioneers had a plan in place and plenty of players wanting to join them in Elite comp. Many of them SA players who have now signed with Melbourne clubs. We (Mount gambier) have been belted from every direction and are just trying to put two competitive teams on the floor. Men have a head start on women with 2 remaining players plus some kids that have been working with the group for some time. I just hope there is some understanding of my clubs situation. Clearly many people don't get it.

Pioneers could pick any C grade social women’s team and still be more competitive than Centrals.

Hoops is the absolute last place I’d be looking for decent basketballers if the average user is anything to go by