Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport Podcast with Jason Vine
Speaker 1: from newstalksb.
Speaker 2: And it's the defending champion Wellington Saints.
Speaker 3: The fourth seed has dominated the first The Saints will
Speaker 3: have an opportunity to go back to back. The reigning
Speaker 3: champions storm through to the Grand Final one hundred and
Speaker 3: twelve and sixty nine.
Speaker 2: Here they'll take on the Southland Sharks and the.
Speaker 4: Southland Sharks we'll host the Sales MBL Grand Final in twenty.
Speaker 5: Twenty six and the Sharks come away eighty four to
Speaker 5: seventy four winners.
Speaker 2: It is a repeat of last year's Grand Final, this
Speaker 2: time for the first time, it's an in the cargol
Speaker 2: our own. Nick Beuley is part of Sky Sports coverage.
Speaker 2: He joins us, Now let's start with where you are, Nick,
Speaker 2: in the cargol the Southland Sharks playing their first ever
Speaker 2: home Grand Final. How significant could that home court advantage be?
Speaker 5: This afternoon of good afternoon final great to be with
Speaker 5: as Newstort's celebrates one hundred years.
Speaker 4: Look, I think it is significant.
Speaker 5: These two teams, of course, met each other twice in
Speaker 5: the regular season, once in a Vericago, once at the
Speaker 5: Tearsby Arena and Wellington the Sharks one on home court
Speaker 5: that was way back in May, the Wellington Saints one
Speaker 5: on home.
Speaker 4: Court just a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 5: But not only the home advantage, it's the first time,
Speaker 5: my understanding, the first time in the seventeen year history
Speaker 5: of the Southland Sharks that they have sold out Ilt
Speaker 5: Stadium South and three thousand, seven hundred and seventy tickets
Speaker 5: to be exact, So that place is.
Speaker 4: Going to be absolutely humming.
Speaker 5: I've been lucky to be there a couple of times
Speaker 5: over my few years involved with the National Basketball League,
Speaker 5: and yeah, there's a few places around the country that
Speaker 5: have a fantastic home atmosphere and get behind their team,
Speaker 5: and south And would certainly be right up there in
Speaker 5: terms of the way they support not only the Sharks,
Speaker 5: but the Southern Steel and in the Southland Stag So
Speaker 5: I think it could be, you know, something that will
Speaker 5: play into the advantage of the Sharks.
Speaker 4: But that alone isn't going to get it done.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, fantastic they have such a big crowd
Speaker 2: in coming. How much can we read into what happened
Speaker 2: between these two teams in the final last year or
Speaker 2: even during the regular season this year. Is any of
Speaker 2: that important or do we have a clean slate today?
Speaker 5: I think the most recent game Pinty, given it was
Speaker 5: only a couple of weeks ago, as a real significant
Speaker 5: tail tale as to what could transpire this afternoon. Of course,
Speaker 5: South And would not want it to go that way.
Speaker 5: They lost one hundred and nineteen to ninety four. The
Speaker 5: Wellington Saints have the best offense in the league. They
Speaker 5: averaged just to tick over one hundred points a game,
Speaker 5: and they were absolutely humming on that occasion.
Speaker 4: And they've found form at the best possible time.
Speaker 5: Let's not forget just a week ago they went up
Speaker 5: to Auckland and absolutely ran through the top seed at
Speaker 5: Auckland to Atara one hundred and twelve nine. So that's
Speaker 5: a potential sign as to what could happen this afternoon.
Speaker 5: And saying that though, you know on that day everything
Speaker 5: went right for Wellington, you had seventeen made three pointers
Speaker 5: for the Saints. You had Elijah Pepper, the league MVP,
Speaker 5: scoring twenty nine points, but you also had that support
Speaker 5: cast and around him with a Ketcher Lea scoring twenty
Speaker 5: six points, Carlin Davison almost a triple double. So that
Speaker 5: that could happen. But at the same time too Southland.
Speaker 5: I was there in christ Church seven days ago. It
Speaker 5: was a real sort of playoff grind type of the
Speaker 5: game as opposed to know everything flowing offensively, but they
Speaker 5: found a way and perhaps you know that that's a
Speaker 5: sign too. In finals games your defense is just as
Speaker 5: important as your offense and limiting the opposition's opportunities. They
Speaker 5: held the Canterbury Rams to seventy four points, So I
Speaker 5: don't think last year's final matters from a form perspective
Speaker 5: because they are quite different teams. But it's certainly lingers
Speaker 5: and stings still for the Southland Sharks. Not often you
Speaker 5: see piney import players from America come back. Caleb Asbury
Speaker 5: and Kiln Boone. They came back after last year's disappointment
Speaker 5: to write a.
Speaker 4: Few wrongs here today.
Speaker 5: And the coach as well, Jonathan Yim in his second
Speaker 5: year in the league. You know, he's sort of spoken
Speaker 5: publicly about the minutes after losing the Grand Final last
Speaker 5: year and how basically a lot of them in the
Speaker 5: group would just say, right, let's run it back next
Speaker 5: year and go one better.
Speaker 4: They get that opportunity this afternoon.
Speaker 2: Absolutely redemption absolutely is on the menu for Southland this afternoon.
Speaker 2: In order to get it, they need to stop Elijah
Speaker 2: Pepper season MVP scoring it close to twenty nine points
Speaker 2: a game. Can Southland actually stop him or is it
Speaker 2: more about trying to make his life as difficult as
Speaker 2: possible today?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the latter, Piney, I think you know,
Speaker 5: you look over the course of the league, I think
Speaker 5: only the last once in the last nineteen games, which
Speaker 5: is pretty um the bulk of the season. Has Elijah
Speaker 5: Pepper not scored twenty points in his last seven games,
Speaker 5: he scored at least twenty seven. Interestingly though, for me,
Speaker 5: the last when Southland beat Wellington in the regular season,
Speaker 5: Elijah Pepper scored.
Speaker 4: Forty three points and that was still in a loss.
Speaker 5: So for me, that sort of speaks to Look, Elijah
Speaker 5: Pepper is going to get his shots. As you say,
Speaker 5: it's the league MVP. He's an absolute scoring machine. He
Speaker 5: can get to the basket and kill you in the
Speaker 5: mid range, and he's an elite three point shooter as well.
Speaker 5: It's more about containing and limiting the support cast for
Speaker 5: south and forcing Elijah Pepper into some of the shots
Speaker 5: that he doesn't like.
Speaker 4: As much.
Speaker 5: That feels like the strategy for me, because if you
Speaker 5: try and double team Elijah Pepper, ultimately you're going to
Speaker 5: leave someone else open. If you get a ketcher Leaire
Speaker 5: starting to hit his shots at Dante Agra mccarl and Davis,
Speaker 5: and then things become a lot harder.
Speaker 4: Of the Southern Sharks.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the Sharks then, and you
Speaker 2: land naturally on their point guard Ryland Jones as a
Speaker 2: potentially key part of their team to repic season fan MVP.
Speaker 2: How integral and how crucial might he be this afternoon?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I really like Ryland Jones first year in the league.
Speaker 5: As you say, traditional point guard. He doesn't have to
Speaker 5: go above and beyond to facilitate the offense.
Speaker 4: He feels like a little bit of a glue guy.
Speaker 4: But he's just.
Speaker 5: Always there and doing something and making a positive contribution.
Speaker 5: Seven is fifteen points a game, even six rebounds. He
Speaker 5: just seems to be in the right place at the
Speaker 5: right time to then allow the Sharks to get out
Speaker 5: and run on transition. So between he Caleb Asbury, who,
Speaker 5: as I mention, was here last year, have a real
Speaker 5: chip on his shoulder.
Speaker 4: He didn't make the All Star five.
Speaker 5: Piney and he's let everyone know already on social media
Speaker 5: and some of the Sky Sport commentary team and Sam
Speaker 5: Timmons as well, Defensive Player of the Year, just a
Speaker 5: focal point the ynchor down there and the interior.
Speaker 4: So look, the Southern Sharks has got a lot of
Speaker 4: key pieces.
Speaker 5: But if someone like Ryland Jones in particular can support
Speaker 5: your Caleb Asbury's you Sam Timmons from a scoring perspective
Speaker 5: as much as a facilitation and really is going to
Speaker 5: be the sum of all parts today for Southland.
Speaker 4: Look, they've got guys who can score.
Speaker 5: Certainly great defensive unit as well, but if everyone can
Speaker 5: can buy in and get a little bit extraduce out
Speaker 5: of the orange from everyone, then that'll go a long
Speaker 5: way to giving them the outcome they so desperately crave.
Speaker 2: Well, you've mentioned a lot of players from the starting
Speaker 2: fives from both sides. Who has the deeper bench.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's a great question.
Speaker 5: I'd say probably Wellington, although there are question marks around
Speaker 5: Hiram Harris.
Speaker 4: He's currently listed as questionable.
Speaker 5: He rolled his ankle in that semi final win over
Speaker 5: the Auckland Tuitara. Of course, as you know, Pioneers Grand
Speaker 5: Final MVP in this very matchup last year, twenty points,
Speaker 5: fourteen rebounds.
Speaker 4: He's the heart beat, all hustle, Hiram Harris.
Speaker 5: If he's out, then coach Aaron Young is going to
Speaker 5: have to go deeper down his bench. But they've got
Speaker 5: guys like Jordan Hunt who come off the bench who
Speaker 5: can certainly have an impact. Sam Gold as another player
Speaker 5: for the Southland Sharks, I really like that they have
Speaker 5: Tobias Cameron, son of the great Pedo Cameron off their bench,
Speaker 5: and he's just a real.
Speaker 4: Good glue guy.
Speaker 5: He'll make He'll probably come on and defend Elijah Pepper
Speaker 5: and try and make his life as difficult as possible.
Speaker 5: But that both these teams, by the point you get
Speaker 5: in this season where it's Grand Final piety, they're rarely
Speaker 5: running a six or.
Speaker 4: Seven man rotation at best. They used to that. I'd
Speaker 4: be surprised to see any of our super young players.
Speaker 5: But who knows, it might be an opportunity for an
Speaker 5: Aubredge younger out of Wellington to make a hero or
Speaker 5: a name of himself with a couple of big plays
Speaker 5: off the bench.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of big plays, big basketball games, in fact,
Speaker 2: any basketball game, but big ones in particular can change
Speaker 2: quickly in a couple of possessions, a big three, a turnover,
Speaker 2: a run of six or eight points. Which of these
Speaker 2: two teams do you think has the greater capacity to
Speaker 2: produce that decisive run.
Speaker 5: That's a beautiful thing about basketballers and Piney you never
Speaker 5: quite know until the day Compared to yeah, like a
Speaker 5: rugby game or football, it feels like you can just
Speaker 5: change it and a made shot defensive play.
Speaker 4: I looked at Wellington Saints.
Speaker 5: Though, and the way, particularly in the last three or
Speaker 5: four weeks they've won their last five and by significant
Speaker 5: margins as well, and even just cast my mind back,
Speaker 5: you know, the semi final last week, it was even
Speaker 5: reasonably close sort of first quarter, they started to push
Speaker 5: in the second and then they just absolutely put their
Speaker 5: foot down in the third. And saying that though South
Speaker 5: and you know, they jumped out to a double digit
Speaker 5: lead over the Canterbury Rams.
Speaker 4: Last week.
Speaker 5: Canterbury climbed all their way back in you know, came
Speaker 5: back from seventeen down to tie things up at the
Speaker 5: end of the third quarter. But Caleb Asbry back to
Speaker 5: back threes to open the fourth and that sets Southland
Speaker 5: on its way. So look, both of these teams, that's
Speaker 5: what makes this afternoon's Grand Finals so good. I reckon
Speaker 5: it's a bit of a marketer's dream, of course, because
Speaker 5: you've got that redemption story Grand.
Speaker 4: Final repeater last year.
Speaker 5: But you've got so much elite production in these both
Speaker 5: these two teams. I just hope it lives up to
Speaker 5: its billing because this could ebb and flow.
Speaker 4: As we saw last year.
Speaker 5: It wasn't really until the last heck thirty forty seconds
Speaker 5: where Wellington could perhaps you know that they were going
Speaker 5: to be lifting a banner for a thirteenth time.
Speaker 2: All right, just before you go, just up the road
Speaker 2: in the not to just in future, Canterbury are going
Speaker 2: to try and wrestle the Ranfurlly Shehill back from Otago. Now,
Speaker 2: of course you cover all forms of Canterbury sports. You
Speaker 2: reckon that when you get back to christ Edge whenever
Speaker 2: that is, the shield will be there as well.
Speaker 5: Oh be honest, spot here, Look, I think that it's
Speaker 5: a game that has significant potential to go right the
Speaker 5: distance as well. I've really liked what Otago particularly did
Speaker 5: last year. I was fortunate enough to call the Ranfhilly
Speaker 5: shield win they had over Canterbury last year and in
Speaker 5: speaking of redemption the grand final between the two teams,
Speaker 5: when Canterbury beat Otaga to win the NPC Trophy so
Speaker 5: early in the season it was quite hard to get
Speaker 5: a real read on Otaga. They were actually hearing in
Speaker 5: McCargo last week Stag they beat beat Southland quite comfortably.
Speaker 5: They don't have Dylan Pledge at the moment is their
Speaker 5: real spark plug, but still Lucas Casey and Christian Leo
Speaker 5: William and there I was actually speaking to Otago coach
Speaker 5: Mark Brown because funnily enough he's my wife's boss Piney
Speaker 5: and in another job, that is my wife doesn't work
Speaker 5: for the Otago r Union, okay, but I was having
Speaker 5: to reach out to him earlier in the week and
Speaker 5: he said, we're not out to defend the ran Philly Shield.
Speaker 5: We want to win it again and our style is attack, attack,
Speaker 5: attack under the roof at Forsyth Bar. I think they'll
Speaker 5: have a real go, so too will Canterbury though I
Speaker 5: man Richie Myng at ten and the evergreen Johnny McNichol
Speaker 5: at fullback that they've got a lot of potential as well.
Speaker 5: So I'll be keeping half an eye on how things
Speaker 5: go up the road, that's for.
Speaker 4: Sure, all right.
Speaker 2: So just after two o'clock and duneed and it's Targo
Speaker 2: against Canterbury for the Rampailly Shield. Three o'clock this afternoon
Speaker 2: and in the Cargo Sells NBL Grand Final, Southland Sharks
Speaker 2: Wellington Saints.
Speaker 5: Who you got, I'll put me Nick out here, piney,
Speaker 5: I'll go Sharks.
Speaker 2: Regardless of that, it's been good to talk to you
Speaker 2: and we hopefully will get the opportunity to do that
Speaker 2: again soon.
Speaker 4: Here's mate, No, I love it.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you you taking the time to get basketball
Speaker 5: on the airwaves.
Speaker 4: You're a big supporter of the sports, so really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Now, good man, Nick. Thanks indeed, Nick Biory part of
Speaker 2: Sky Sports coverage of the National Basketball League Final this afternoon.
Speaker 2: Just after three. That game kicks off at what sounds
Speaker 2: like it'll be a jam packed stadium Southland, the Southland
Speaker 2: Sharks against the Wellington Saints for the twenty twenty six
Speaker 2: National Basketball League title.
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