By Tara Murray
The Altona Gators have had an interrupted start to the Big V men’s division 1 season, but feel they are now on the right track.
Under new coach Grant Duca it’s a different looking Gators to the past few seasons.
With high hopes, the Gators have had a bit of an interrupted start to the season with injuries and illness.
“It was looking really good and we had put together a solid team,” he said. “A week before the season one of our starters [Jake Psaila] got injured.
“He is now out for the season and we’ve been chasing our tail a bit. We’ve had two really good wins and we’ve played how we’ve needed to.”
With the tough start, Duca said the bye had come at a really good time for the group.
He said they had used the time to look at how things were travelling.
“It’s a good time to reassess and I’ve made some changes and we’re in a much better spot,” he said.
“It’s been a fun start, a challenging start. We have a good group of players and guys who have pulled together to fight back.”
Duca said Psaila was still around the group and had been at every training and game that he could.
“He is still giving leadership,” Duca said. “He is one of our captains.
“We’ve definitely been using him in a leadership role off court.”
Duca said over the week off they’ve done some team and player reviews to help see where they are at.
He said they had some tough sides coming up.
“I’m excited to see what they are capable of doing,” he said. “It’s about piecing everything together and doing the right things and learning from each other as well.
“It’s a new season and we have only three or four returning players that played well last season, along with some players up from youth league.”
The Gators were back in action on Saturday against Warrnambool.
It was a big win for the Gators as they won every quarter to come away with a 98-78 point win.
All five starters scored double figures with Majok Maniel and Jaylin To’o top scoring with 17 points a piece.
The win was the Gators third of the season and moves them to fourth on the ladder.
In division 1 women, the Gators beat Collingwood, 76-54.
There wasn’t much between the two sides before the Gators came home strongly with a 23-6 final quarter.
