Sport
30 September, 2024
Hornets put finishing touches on preparation for new-look CBL season
The Horsham Hornets open the CBL season with two away games.
CBL
Horsham
With the Country Basketball League South-West men's season under a week away, the Horsham Hornets are itching to get back onto the floor.
With football finishing recently, head coach Scott Benbow has started to have his full squad at training.
"The guys we have been able to get to training have been really good and intense; we look fast. The boys don't look out of touch," Benbow said.
"But now it's just getting the footballers back; I would've liked to have had an extra couple of weeks to get into it, but we'll be fine."
The Hornets' squad has undergone some change in the off-season with the retirement of Damien Skurrie, whilst Matthew Brown is away with the Army, and Max Bryan is having a year off.
However, last season's grand finalists recruited Charlie Campbell and saw Johno Lovel return after 10 years away from the set-up.
"He [Campbell] is going to be a really big recruit for us; he's an athletic three [or] four man that's going to certainly be a crowd pleaser,"
"He throws down a nice dunk, and he's super quick."
Assistant coach Matt Lovel is excited to see his brother back with the group.
"It's going to be pretty exciting that I get to play with the brother for a season or maybe two," Lovel said.
"He definitely brings a bit of a toughness. He likes the rebounding and that sort of side of the game.
"He moves pretty well for a big fella. He's probably that swap for Browny, who was strong under the basket."
Lovel is also excited about the continued development of younger players, such as Tarkyn Benbow, Hugh Dougherty and Freddy Frew.
"I was just looking at a photo the other day of Fred. Fred was [only young] coming to watch a game when I was playing, and he got a photo," Lovel said.
"They're good kids, really coachable and just make life easy."
According to Lovel, this stems from the younger players being in the system for a few years.
"A lot of these kids have been around for a while now, whether it's in a training sense and now playing a few minutes here and there during the last couple of seasons," he said.
"We're not just chucking the young kids in the deep end. They dipped their feet in and have got a bit of experience."
The squad is not the only element that has changed coming into the season.
A condensed schedule will see each team play five home and five away matches in the regular season.
The campaign will be finished by Christmas.
Something that Benbow sees pros and cons of.
"We like the idea of a shortened season, but once you're into it, you'd like to play a couple more games," Benbow said.
"It will take a bit of adjusting too... We'll see how it goes."
To start the season, the Hornets have away games against Millicent [Saturday, October 5] and Ararat [Sunday, October 6].
"You want to win every game you play in. But, if we can split the [first] weekend because two away games first up are always tough.
Horsham Hornets 2024 CBL men's squad
Cody Bryan, Tarkyn Benbow, Charlie Campbell, Hugh Dougherty, Freddy Frew, Jake Hobbs, Johno Lovel, Matt Lovel, Austin McKenzie, Mitch Martin.
Development Players: Micah Livingstone, Toby Lakin, Arkie Ellis.
Next Generation: Aiden Reinheimer, Rory Cameron.