By Jonty Ralphsmith
The Pakenham Warriors men’s season is set to get underway on Sunday with the team again putting forward a strong roster in 2024.
Following promotion from Division 1 last year, a season the Warriors won 13 games in the home-and-away season, Pakenham has added import Malik Colvin-Seldon.
The athletic 6’8” entertainer is set to require significant attention from opponents this year and while his class will change games throughout the year, it’s also set to free up other players.
Having competed strongly in practice matches against NBL1 sides, coach Rob Roberts is confident in the talent of his side, with Cody Frederickson returning from college and Cal McNiff also set to play a significant part.
“I think we can really go eight deep without changing much on the court so that will be a big benefit to us,” Roberts said.
“We’ve got guys sitting on the bench who could go to another state championships side and start, comfortably.
“We are pretty big height-wise and physically on court so teams will have trouble (against us) when it comes to that big spot as well.”
While maintaining their key players, a focus of preseason has been ensuring the Warriors’ synergy is there from round one, given the additions.
“We’ve talked about it at our practice matches and scrimmages and we can see already that the things we weren’t happy with at the start have already changed and we’re confident with what we’ve built it to,” Roberts said.
“That’s the benefit of having the extra time (with the championship competition starting later), I think our defensive structure is what will help us, we’ll stop teams from being able to put high scores on us as well as adding scoring power through Cody (Frederickson).”
The men’s season gets underway this Sunday, 3pm at Cardinia Life as part of a double header with the women’s game.
