THE Launceston Tornadoes may be on the verge of securing a playoffs spot but coach Richard Dickel is not looking any further than the Geelong Supercats on Saturday night.
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Geelong is second on the Eastern Conference table and toweled up the Torns by 36 points in Victoria back in May.
Both clubs will again be without key personnel for their second clash at Elphin Sports Centre with Launceston captain Lauren Mansfield and two Geelong sharpshooters Sara Blicavs and Alexandra Bunton all in America on an Opals camp.
Blicavs has 28 points and 11 rebounds, while Bunton finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds against the Torns last time around.
“It’s a different team that we’ll be playing, they’re very good defensively and kept Sydney to 35 points for the game on the weekend,” Dickel said on Wednesday.
“It is also another opportunity for us to come together as a group and get a really good gauge for where we’re at against a really good team.”
The Tornadoes sit third on the Southern Conference and a win at home would almost certainly secure them a finals berth for the third-straight season.
Launceston recorded a 12-point win over Albury-Wodonga last week and managed to contain the Bandits to just 33 points after quarter-time.
In Mansfield’s absence, Bec Abel (20 points, five assists, five rebounds), Jayde Brazendale, Paige French and Lauren Nicholson stood tall.
Dickel said stand-in skipper Tayla Roberts, after a couple of lean weeks, was on the verge of a big match.
“Tayla has had a quieter couple of weeks after an amazing start to the season but I am sure she is due for a big game soon,” he said.
“While she hasn’t been scoring as high as early in the season (averaging 21.8 points per game) she is still defending well and restricting our opponent’s tall players in the paint.
“We have been working hard at training to share the load offensively and work on our team defensive structures.”
Dickel said defence was the key to Launceston’s ongoing success and home playoff ambitions.
“We have to base our whole game off our ability to be able to stop people… because we are always going to score enough points to win a game provided that we do the thing on offence,” he said.
“It’s a two-fold thing, when we don’t play good defence and let 90 points go – we’re going to struggle to win.”
We have been working hard at training to share the load offensively and work on our team defensive structures.
- Tornadoes coach Richard Dickel
Corey Martin
Having started at The Examiner as a cadet in 2009, I have held various positions telling the stories of Northern Tasmanians in sport and news. I was appointed deputy editor in 2019 and became editor in September 2021.
Having started at The Examiner as a cadet in 2009, I have held various positions telling the stories of Northern Tasmanians in sport and news. I was appointed deputy editor in 2019 and became editor in September 2021.
