Sport
11 December, 2024
'Excited and ready to go': Hornets out to avenge grand final loss to Lakers
Horsham faces Mount Gambier in CBL decider on December 14.
The Horsham Hornets have put the finishing touches on its preparation for the 2024 CBL south-west men's grand final against Mount Gambier on Saturday, December 14.
Hornets captain Mitch Martin is looking forward to the challenge of facing the Lakers in the second-straight decider between the two sides.
"There's a little chat that's coming up against Mount Gambier again," Martin said.
"They're a quality team [and have] probably been the best team for the past 15 years, so I know everyone's pretty excited to have another crack at them.
"To hopefully beat them in the championship game [would] be a dream come true."
This comes after the Mount Gambier defeated the Hornets in Horsham in the previous season's decider.
For Martin, the key to success will be continuing to play a team game, as they have done all season.
"Everyone in our team, just playing our role, staying locked in for 40 minutes," he said.
"We know what they're going to bring and we know what they're good at.
"Hopefully we can slow them down as much as we can, and we can get off to a good start."
Hornets head coach Scott Benbow sees the squad's depth as a major advantage for their second meeting of 2024; Horsham defeated the Lakers 90-84 on October 19.
"We've seen Mount Gambier once this year, and we've got a fair idea how we'll match up with them and how we'll want to play against them," he said.
"We're certainly deeper than what we were last year, too. So we think we'll have some surprises for them."
Benbow knows that the defensive side of things will be key to the outcome once again.
"We have been at our best Whenever we've been really locked in on defence, offence is generally not a problem for us," he said.
"We're the highest-scoring team in the league; we just got to stop leaking a few easy points."
He identified Simon Berkefeld and Toby de Wit as players that the Hornets will have to try and contain.
The Hornets will have the extra motivation of Matt Lovel playing his 200th Big V/CBL match in the decider.
"That was a goal at the start of the year and we know we had to make to to the championship game to do that, so that's one tick," Benbow said.
"Then trying to get our second championship in four years and avenge the loss last year... That would be great."
Despite the potential distractions that grand final week brings, Martin is confident his side will hit the ground running.
"I guess when that ball gets thrown up, everyone's on the same page and we're ready to go," he said.
"So I don't think we have to say too much [before the game]. I think everyone knows what we've got to do."