This team will never be together as a group again.
The season ended with a fantastic win in the Champions Trophy. To the older members it was made even sweeter as it was on Neptune’s home floor. The season as a whole was a huge success. We brought back two trophies and put in some fantastic performances along the way, while playing an entertaining style of high tempo basketball. Our team was build around good defense, quick transition, ball movement and a high volume of 3 pointers and lay ups. We felt that was our best way of competing and we were proved right with results. The team really bought into the high tempo/chaotic play as it gave us the best opportunities to score and to take the other team out of their game plan. It was hard for teams to get comfortable against us as this way we could throw a lot of different rotations at them before they settled.
The group of players deserve all the plaudits. They put their bodies on the line from the first week in July to the last in March to achieve the success we did. Every player bought into their role and realised the team was more important than the individual. I couldn’t thank them enough for their commitment and take great pride that I was able to coach such great ambassadors of the club. There will always be talk of retirements especially around Niall and Shane but as a club everything should be done to stop this from happening. Their class and quality cannot be replaced and as club legends have plenty more years on the clock to give.
Timmy O’Halloran was a great help this year. He has served the club throughout as a fine player and the premier league team will be in good hands when it’s his time to coach.
Pat “Keano” Keane and Gary O’Leary finished our squad of 14. They were the two guys behind the scenes making things tick over and were valuable cogs in the squads success.
The committee gave me a shot of coaching the biggest club in the country and I hope the 2 Trophies justify their choice. We asked for and received a lot of extras to help us prepare for games which as a team we are grateful for. We took a lot of pride in representing Demons Nationally and the committee members helped give us our best shot at success. Without funding from sponsors none of this could of happened. From the small and large companies every little helps in these times. C and S coming on board as main sponsors was a huge boost to the club. To have a local business dedicate the time and funds which Anthony Coughlan did was great and hopefully we have convinced him by the publicity C and S received to come back on board next season.
Finally the fans who watched us throughout. Thank you for your unwavering support. This team will never be together as a group again so we are happy that your last memory of us, is us lifting a National Trophy in the middle of our fiercest rivals home court.