This is going to be one exciting week – as most of you know, we started pre-season.

I got my car today, which was quite exciting, and I also picked up the keys to my house.

Some of you might already know but if you didn’t, Brad Hill and I are moving in together this week.

We got the keys and the first thing we found out was the back door doesn’t lock! AWESOME! So now we can’t move anything in until the door gets fixed, which sucks because we were so pumped to get in.

The last thing is that pre-season started today. We had everyone down except Shannon Seebohm and our two imports. We also had a couple of guys down from ABA teams to train and help out. It was great to rock up to training and, as pretty as he is, not to have to look at Jacob for an hour.

We had a two-hour hit-out with the boys, with a lot of time put into defence and fitness. All the boys worked extremely well for our first training session and I can already tell we’re in for a good year.

At 3:30pm we had a game against (assistant coach) Guy Molloy’s under-18 state team to help them prepare for the national championships, with Guy wanting us to get all over his players and beat them up a little. To their credit the boys played really well and I'm sure they will have a fair crack at the title.

Yes, another Sandy game this week; we beat Ringwood at home, so we should definitely have a top-two finish. Ex-Dragon Adam Quick was the standout with 27 points, including seven threes!

Not a whole lot else is going on in my world. My dad is over this weekend to help me move in and to see his favourite kid which will be good, as I had my sister and mum over a few weekends ago.

Last but not least, I hope you’re all signed up for this year. With the core of our group now here there is a buzz around the club and we are all looking forward to the season ahead. With two imports still to come in, I'm sure we are going to have a good and exciting year for all you loyal fans.

Well that’s me done for the night. If anyone wants to give me a hand moving in, come 'round and do my washing or cook me dinner. Give the Dragons your resume and I will see if you’re worthy.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Jingles #7

26/06/2007: Hello to everyone…

Well these past two weeks have been extremely busy and that is why I missed writing last Tuesday.

After completing my first Boomers camp in Canberra and making the team to tour China, I was sitting on the plane thinking about everything that was going on. I was extremely excited to be going on my first tour with the Boomers and learning so much from the coaches, players and opposition.

We arrived a day and a half before our first game. We got in late at night and pretty much went straight to bed. The next day we had a good two and a half hour session; it was good to get the cobwebs and jetlag out of the system.

There were four teams in the tournament and we had to play each team twice. The other teams involved were Croatia, Italy and the home team, China.

All the boys were really pumped for the first game and for most of us, it was our first senior Boomers’ singlet. We trained well that morning and were busting to go in the first game.

We ended up winning our first three games by 20 or more points. You could tell the boys were pumped and that the fatigue from training every morning was a factor because of whom we were representing.

The next three games were a little different, we had guys going down left, right and centre with illness. Even coach Brian Goorjian missed his first game coaching in 22-odd years.

Our fourth game was against Croatia and it was a scrappy game with fatigue really starting to kick in but we got over the line by one point, which was the result of every player in the team busting his balls for the win.

The Boomers suffered our first loss in the fifth game to the Italians. There weren’t really any excuses, they came out harder and wanted it more then we did. We were all very disappointed in ourselves and we didn’t think we should have lost a game.

It ended up that we had to win our last game to win the tournament; we were playing the Chinese in China, with three Chinese umpires and 3000 fans barracking against us. All the boys wanted to win the tournament so badly we beat them by eight points.

It was a great learning experience for me knowing what I’m up against to get to that next level and yes, there is a lot of room for improvement in my game, which I'm excited about cleaning up.

I would like to thank all the players and staff on tour, which made it an absolute pleasure to be there, and of course getting to play for my country, which you can only dream about as a kid!

On the other side, my Sandy boys got two wins on the weekend to stay in the top two and are all pumped for finals basketball in three weeks.

Here are my answers to a couple of the questions people have sent in:

Michael: How is your soon-to-be-housemate Brad Hill's injury coming along?

Brad is now officially in Melbourne and saw the specialist today. I'm not exactly sure of what’s going on but I think we should all wish him the best of luck to get back before the start of the season.

Monica: What are your favourite sports outside of basketball?

I love most sports but my favourite would have to be AFL, and of course when you’re a Hawks fan and they are second on the ladder, what more could you want!

What basketball shoes do you wear?

At the moment I’m wearing the LeBron James low cuts - extremely comfy shoes, which I wore all NBL season.

Hope all is well in Melbourne and all you fans are getting onto our very, very, very cheap memberships!!!!

Jingles #7

12/06/2007: Hello to all…

This week was quite busy – as most of you know, Jacob Holmes and I had a Boomers camp in Canberra.

It was a very hectic week. We had two sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They were about two and a half to three hour sessions with a lot of learning.

On the first day we did a bit of testing: the vertical jump test, 20m sprint, the beep test and our skin folds, height and weight. Jacob and I did really well in all the categories and we were praised at the end of the week for the hard work we had put in prior to the camp.

We also had a game against Washington State University and, as we had only had three days together, it was tough to play but we did extremely well and won by one point. Washington is one of the top schools in the US.

Now we are both off to China from June 13-22 for a Boomers tour. We’re playing six games against Italy, Croatia and China, playing every team twice. It will be my first tour with the Boomers and I'm extremely pumped and going to soak in every bit of it.

Aaron: Did you choose your playing number and if so, why did you choose number seven?
Yes I did – I was number five when I first started because that’s how old I was, then I started district as seven and wanted to keep that number at the Dragons. I had to be number four at the AIS because someone else was seven, but hopefully I will always be number seven from now on. I LOVE IT.

Ben: If you weren't playing basketball what would be your dream career?
If I wasn’t playing basketball I would be at uni studying to be a lawyer or politician. Thank God I made it in basketball.

Tayla: Will you marry me?
Tayla? Are you a boy or a girl?

Mick: Who will win the NBA Championship?
Well I wanted my team Dallas to win but they got knocked out, so I will have to go with San Antonio – I don’t see anyone stopping Parker, Ginobli and Duncan.

Will write my next entry from China…

Jingles #7

05/05/2007: Surprise, surprise not much changed this week - except for the fact I’ve had my mum and sister here from Adelaide since Wednesday.

I really didn’t think girls could shop so much but they definitely proved to me that you can go to the same shop or mall several times and buy different things every time. It was good having them here as they wanted to go out and explore Melbourne and usually I couldn‘t be bothered. It was great having some good company for a few days, even though they walked me off my legs at the shops.

Had a game on Saturday night in Latrobe, which we won, and it was good to have the family there to watch me play. It was a shaky first half as Latrobe came out hard and our response was very average, but we got a rev-up at halftime and came out and played like we needed to get the win. It wasn’t pretty but I guess you play to get the win.

The other week I applied for a place to move into with Hilly (Brad Hill) and found out I got it, so my lovely mother has bought me a lot of stuff to start me off in my own place. The only downer is I don’t move in until July when we start pre-season!

I have now left Melbourne and I am in Canberra for my first official Boomers camp. I’m extremely excited about it, it will be a great experience and hopefully not the last. The camp lasts from Tuesday to Friday, with approximately three sessions a day and a game against a US college team.

On Friday it’s the beginning of the long weekend, when I get to go back to Adelaide until Monday to catch up with family and friends for the last time before the season starts.

As promised, I'll answer some more questions – sorry if I miss yours, but I'll try my best to do as many as possible each week.

Jack: Do you have any say in who the Dragons sign, like new players or coaches? And if so, could you put in a good word for me?
I honestly wish I did have a say in the team/coaches! But no, I don’t – I think it would be ugly if I did because I'd just want my mates from Adelaide with me. But yes, I'll put in a good word for you, although Hammer's hearing is fading away with age so I’m not sure how well it will go.

Alsie: When did you know you were going to be a pro player?
I guess I knew when I was officially signed to the Dragons, but I always knew I wanted to play professionally since I was little. Basketball is my life and has been for a long time. I have a great passion to improve and win, so until that dies away I'll still be around.

Why didn't you go to college?
College was never really in my thinking, ever since I was little I wanted to play in Australia. I also didn’t want to study straight after Year 12. Obviously when I was young I wanted to play for the 36ers as I was a keen supporter, but that didn’t work out and I’m more then happy playing here in Melbourne.

Are you going to play in the NBA one day?
Playing NBA and representing Australia are my two ultimate goals. I believe every basketball player wants to play in the NBA but there is a long way to go before I get there. On and off court I have to work on things, which I will do and when I think the time is right to give it a crack, I most definitely will. But who knows when that will be…

Rich: Who is your favourite player in the UNIVERSE?
My favourite player is Dirk Nowitzki, I've always loved his style of game and his team, the Dallas Mavericks. But most of all it’s the way he plays – his desire, passion and attitude are amazing and that’s why he’s the league's MVP this year.

Roberto: What size are your shoes?
My shoe size is 13!

'Til next week,

Jingles #7

29/05/2007: Hello everyone, hope all is well.

I’m glad last week is over as I got a swollen throat last weekend that caused me to stay home until Wednesday. I got it all checked out but it sucked because I wanted to train and I couldn’t.

Anyway, I'm all better now and back into full training.

Thursday was an interesting day – I had a camera follow me around all day for a video the Dragons are doing, which, before you ask, you will all see soon. It was very different to have a camera behind me all day and people looking at me like I was a movie star. I really did enjoy it though and I know Dan the video man will do a great job of editing it to make it a really good movie.

Sandringham got our tenth win on Saturday night to take us to 10-2 for the season. We played the Eltham Wildcats and it was a scrappy game, but I guess you can’t complain too much when you get a win. Great contribution from all the boys.

I’m still waiting for my sister and mum to get here on Wednesday, which I am really excited about. I haven’t seen them for a while and it will be good to take my mind off the Boomers camp for a few days.

I leave next Tuesday for my first official Boomers camp and I'm extremely pumped. Jacob (Holmes) and I have been training for about 11 weeks now to prepare for it and we both know we are in great shape. It will be good to have Jacob there as he has been involved before and I can ask him as many questions as I want.

Now, we asked last Tuesday for people to send in questions that I would randomly answer each week. Here they are:

David: "Who would you most/least like to play with/against in the NBL/NBA?"
I'll start with the NBL – I think I'd most like to play with Sam Mackinnon. He is just a complete player and obviously playing with an NBL MVP would be great.

I'd least like to play against Darnell Mee, he is such a great defender you just think you have no space to do anything when he is around.

In the NBA, I'd love to play with Shaq – honestly, who wouldn’t want to play with a man that big! And I’d probably most hate to play against him too, there is no way I would want to run into him – I think I'd break into several pieces if I did!

Jen: "How did you get into the AIS?"
To get into the AIS, you have to fill out an application form. That’s the hard bit, the rest is basketball – the coaches know who you are and they come to watch at all the state tournaments. I applied and I think they knew about me but I believe the main reason I got in was the U18 Nationals. That was my best tournament of them all and I think I showed I could play at the next level, wherever that was.

"What are your main goals for this season?"
This season is a bit different to last. In the off-season I have been working on my defense a lot – I guess you could say it was okay, but I want it to be great. I want to be able to guard anyone from the big men to the little fellas. I guess you can say I want to win Defensive Player of the Year – that would show that I have worked on it!

The other goal is just to be consistent, there haven’t been many rookies that have had another good year after their first and I don’t want to be one of them. I’ve been working out a lot so hopefully that doesn’t happen! I'll definitely be prepared for the '07-08 season.

If your question didn’t get answered, maybe next week.

Take care,

Jingles #7

22/05/2007:I’m actually lost on what to write as my opening line so… yeah!

This week was quite the same as most; I trained all week with the Dragons.

On Monday I had my medical screening for the South Dragons with our new physio, Amanda Berntsen. It was the first time I had met her and she is a lovely lady and from what I’ve been told, a really good physio.

I did hear she is painful though, so knock on wood I don’t have to see her this year! Apart from a few minor hiccups, I aced my screening!

During the week I also visited a few places to rent out for next year. Brad Hill and myself are looking for a place to share. Its quite fun, just looking through other people’s places with no real reason. But NO I’m not telling you where it is because I don’t want your daughters or girlfriends stalking me.

I also had two games with Sandringham, on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Saturday night we played Werribee and ended up winning by 24, it was freezing cold and I had to put a jumper on every time I came off but we ended up getting the win.

On Sunday we played the Melbourne Tigers and, with their NBL players missing, we won by 20 points. It wasn’t the best weekend of basketball on our team’s behalf but to get the two wins was good.

I think you should all come out to watch our game at Sandringham this Saturday night for support!

For a bit of news outside basketball, my mum and sister are coming across to Melbourne at the end of this month to see me, which I am pretty pumped about as I only had three weeks at the end of the season to go home. It will be great to catch up with them.

Last but not least, I was thinking of having a Q&A every now and then with me interviewing a player from the club and, once a week getting all you Dragons fans to email me a question: just something you would like to know about me or the club. Each week we will randomly choose an email and I’ll do my best to answer.

Well I best be off to bed as I’ve been a tad sick the last few days with a cold.

Have a wonderful day and don’t think about me too much.

Jingles #7

15/05/2007: Good Tuesday morning to everyone,

First mention goes to Sandy – I was away on the weekend and couldn’t play but to the boys’ credit they played well and won by 13 points over Hume. Shout out to Quicka (Adam Quick) with 31 points. Good job boys!

Now I’m sure you all want to know why I was away.

I left last Tuesday morning for the wonderful city of Canberra. Oh, lucky me.

I arrived Tuesday lunchtime and went straight to the AIS to have lunch with the other boys there to take on the national under-19s : Brad Newley (Adelaide 36ers), Adam Gibson (Brisbane Bullets), Julian Khazzouh (West Sydney), Graeme Dann (West Sydney) and Rhys Carter (West Sydney).

After lunch we all went in to learn Turkey’s offensive game, which we were to use against the Emus. The session went well and we were ready to go but we played pretty average and just got a win by six points.

On Wednesday we went in for a short scrimmage against the Emus before our next game that night. Before the game we had a little chat about our performance the night before and we weren’t very happy, so we decided to work it out and we ended up wining by 30.

It was a big turnaround and a great job by the Emus, too, they put up a hell of a fight in both games.

At the end of the Emus camp Brad (Newley) and myself had to stay until Saturday to train with the Australia Post Boomers. Thursday and Friday we trained and relaxed a bit which was good, as we have both been pretty full-on with training lately.

On Saturday morning the other five guys arrived. It was just a little camp, with Jason Smith, Glen Saville, Darnell Mee, Luke Schenscher, Mark Worthington, and obviously Brad and myself.

We went straight to the gym and did our own programs but had (head of strength and conditioning at the AIS) Bohdan Babijczuk making sure we were all okay.

Next we headed straight to the grass for an hour of running drills that were extremely helpful. After the running we decided to go shoot as a team and then watch the AIS men’s SEABL game that night.

All the boys gathered up for the game that saw the AIS defeat Hobart. It was a good game with Hobart veteran Anthony Stewart dropping 49 points and upcoming AIS point guard Patrick Mills scoring 36 points.

Sunday was the same as Saturday all over again. It was all very helpful and I learned a lot from the two days. It was my first hit-out with the Boomers and I can’t wait for the next camp from June 5-8.

Thanks to all the Boomers for making me welcome at my first hit-out.

Now I’m back in Melbourne, training with the Dragons and playing for Sandy.

Hope all you Dragons fans are ready to sign up for an exciting year ahead.

‘Til next week, goodbye!

Jingles #7

08/05/2007: Dragons fans!

I have decided to write my diary on Tuesdays now so that when the season comes around I can report on our games with it all still fresh in my mind. So for everyone reading, Tuesday is the day to stop your whole life and read about me!

The off-season is going great at the moment, I’ve been working out every day and hitting the gym with Val. Jacob and I are both loving it and we are starting to see the results.

As most of you know I have decided to play the rest of the ABA season with Sandringham, whenever I don’t have commitments with the Australia Post Boomers.

Saturday night was my first game with the Sabres and also my first game since we lost to Cairns in February. I was pumped and ready to play, but we lost.

It was a shock to the system as the fitness in games is totally different to doing individual sessions each day. I enjoyed being back out there but I couldn’t dribble, didn’t shoot too well and ended up with 13 points and seven rebounds. Nonetheless, it was great.

We lost the game but still had to back up on Sunday against Latrobe.

Sunday was a totally different game – we got off the blocks early and ended up winning 140-90. I felt a bit more comfortable and had 27 points and five rebounds. All the boys got on the court and it was a good comeback from our poor performance the night before.

This afternoon I am flying to Canberra for six days. From Tuesday to Thursday a group of us will again be at the AIS to play the U/19 Australian Emus squad. This is the last camp for the Emus before the team is selected on Thursday (good luck to all!).

From Friday to Sunday I have a few sessions with the Boomers – I’m not exactly sure what they are, but I can’t wait! A few of us will be doing some training, weights and fitness work. It should be great to have a tough hit-out with a few of the boys.

So that means I won’t be suiting up for Sandy this week while I’m away, but I’m sure the boys will have a great game and get the win over Hume City.

Well, I best be off to pack for my trip. I will fill you in with all the goss from Canberra when I get back.

Until then, have a wonderful week.

Jingles #7

03/05/2007: Hello to everyone,

Hopefully there are one or two people still reading these entries that I’m putting a lot of my spare time into.

As most of you know, we played the Cairns Taipans in February in our first ever final as a club; unfortunately, it was knockout.

I remember sitting in the changerooms after the game and looking at everyone and seeing how disappointed we were with ourselves, because we really believed we could win. But over all I think to look back at where we came from at the start of the year to how we turned our season around was a credit to everyone involved in the club.

Now that the season is over, what do we do with ourselves?

Well I’m not sure about everyone, but when the season finished most of the guys had some time off.

I went home to Adelaide for just under four weeks. To go home and catch up with friends and family was great, I hadn’t been home for a good break for some time and I really enjoyed the chance to relax and not have to do anything - I even considered retiring! My time at home went quite quickly and before I knew it I was back in Melbourne to start up a bit of training.

I totally forgot that a week later I had to go to Canberra to play against the U/19 Australian Emus squad. The Emus had a camp on and (head coach) Marty Clarke wanted a group of us that used to train at the AIS to play against the current team to give them some good competition.

The five guys invited back were Adam Gibson (Brisbane Bullets), Jeff Dowdell (Perth Wildcats), Ryan Kersten (NZ Breakers), Brad Hill (South Dragons) and myself. We were all at the AIS together, so as much as we were there to play, we all loved the thought of catching up.

We played the Emus twice and beat them both times. It was a good couple of days and I’m sure the Emus got a lot out of playing older guys.

When the camp finished I decided to stay an extra few days in Canberra with Pat Mills. We have always been close and it was really good to catch up with Pat and his family. We didn’t do too much but we both had a good time.

By then it was time to get back to Melbourne and really start getting into training. As most of you know, Jacob Holmes and I both made the Boomers squad and we have camps starting in June/July.

Since I’ve been back we have been training every day and doing weights three times a week with our new trainer, Val. We’re into our fourth or fifth week now and we’re looking good.

We’re both working on our defence, shot technique, hitting the gym hard and eating a hell of a lot! It’s been great because by the time the season comes we will have worked with each other so much that we will know what is wrong with each other’s shots and be able to correct ourselves. We will both be in tip-top shape and ready to give it our all at the national camps.

So for the time being this is my schedule, training every day and getting ready for the camps.

Well, now that I wrote this I'm late for training and definitely going to have to run.

So thanks a lot.

Jingles #7

26/04/2007: Well, well, well, where do I start?

The Dragons have got me onto this ‘Joe’s Diary’ page, so I’ll be writing once a week to all you fans out there to give you a look into the life of a professional basketball player.

I think I’ll start by talking about how I arrived at the South Dragons and what my first year was like.

As most of you know, I was on a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport for two years. These were honestly the best two years of my life, spent playing basketball three to four times a day; when you’re 16, that is all you want to do.

At the end of 2005 my scholarship was quickly coming to an end and I had to decide if I’d follow the US college or NBL route. I chose the NBL, so towards the end of 2005 and at the start of 2006 I began the journey to find a team.

I went to Townsville to train for a week and in the very first session I broke my foot. I had to have surgery, I missed out on my last year of U/20 Nationals and I guess I hindered my chances of being selected to play in the NBL. I ended up missing about six months of basketball and only played the last 10 or so games with the AIS. Luckily, for some reason a lot of teams were still interested in me for the 2006-‘07 NBL season.

The Dragons were actually the last team to contact me and I put the other clubs on hold to fly down and see what it was like - one thing led to another and here I am. I couldn’t be happier with my decision!

My first year in the league was something I’ll never forget. I guess I didn’t know what to expect but I was so happy to be in a team after breaking my foot, I just wanted to soak it all in. When the season started it was great – playing basketball with the best bunch of blokes and travelling around Australia for a job!

It all hit me how serious the national league is with the controversy at the start of the season but Shane (Heal) took over and gave me a lot of freedom to play my game and I think that’s why I had a good, consistent year.

The All-Star game in November was definitely one for the memory bank. I was sitting on the bus on the way to the game with all these great players and I kept looking around - to be honest, I was quite nervous.

The atmosphere at the game was amazing, there was a buzz around the stadium and the fans were all wanting to see some entertaining basketball. The fact the game was played in my home city topped it all off. Thanks to all who voted for me to start!

Rookie of the Year came around quite quickly. There were lots of people saying I had it in the bag but I wasn’t too bothered by it all, I knew I helped the Dragons to the best of my ability and if that wasn’t good enough for Rookie of the Year then that was fine. But I won it…

The win was definitely right up there with All-Star selection as one of the most memorable moments in my career.

You’re probably sick of me right now so I will let you all enjoy your weekend and don’t forget to jump on-line and read my weekly diary.

Jingles #7