Jack out of the box at the Blitz

‘Pain in the Rear’ energy guy, Jack McVeigh will be unleashed at the NBL Blitz after recovering from a shoulder injury sustained in July while playing for the Australian Boomers.

“The biggest thing for us to accomplish is to get Jack McVeigh back into game shape” Head Coach Scott Roth said.

“This is his first week back. I’m hoping to get 15/20 minutes a game out of him. He’s going to have a lot of nervous energy.

“He’s a pain in the rear because he’s just constantly yakking and running around, he’s got all this energy and he can’t play. It’s been good, but he gets quite antsy on the sideline and just to hold him back to this week where we feel like he can go and practice full.

“It’s going to take some time, I told him ‘you can’t eat an elephant in one bite’, you’re going to have to take small bites and it might be 3 or 4 weeks until you really feel like you’ve got your feet underneath you, so we’ll just give him as many minutes as we can and incorporate him as best we can and we’ll see how we are at the end of this week”.

“We’re excited he’s back, it’s now just trying to reincorporate him, could take a week or two”.

‘Floor general’ Josh Magette reiterated how excited the group was for McVeigh’s return in Saturday night's meeting with last year's Champions, Sydney Kings.

“He brings our communication levels up, and our positivity as a group… he’s just fun to play with, he brings joy to the group for sure”.

Magette is hoping to use the Blitz to keep building momentum and chemistry as the JackJumpers prepare for season 2.

“We’re going on a month together now and last week was great and we’re still getting pieces back, good to have Jack back this week but it just getting familiarity of different guys on the court and continuing to grow together.

“It’s night and day to where we were last year at this point, there was so much uncertainty last year, you practice a lot and you don’t know how good you can be, but this year we’re pretty confident if we do the right things, we’ll have a chance of winning some games” Magette said.

An 11-man squad has travelled to Darwin with Will Magnay (injured), Clint Steindl (injured), Sam McDaniel (injured) and Josh Tomasi remaining in Tasmania.

Roth say while the injuries to key players are frustrating, it’s part of the professional game and the players’ offseason commitments.

“I think playing for your country is a huge honour so I would never hold anyone back from playing if they’re selected in the Boomers, that’s a huge honour” Roth said.

Sam McDaniel continues to recover after he suffered a rib injury in the Hobart Chargers NBL1 South Grand Final victory, where he was named MVP.

“When we come back from Darwin we’ll have a better gauge on him, I don’t think it’s overly serious but it just not worth him flying up here”.

“With the Chargers and the Thunder that more just the timing of how the [NBL1] season pushed into this season with covid and next season there will be quite a big difference and a break between seasons”.

“It’s frustrating for him, he’s a competitor and he wants to play. Clint’s in the same boat. You get back to spend time with your team that you invest so much time in, and it’s the same with Magnay, anyone who’s really invested is dying to get out there”.

“I have no problem with playing any of our guys, if they earn their minutes, they’ll get it”.