JackJumpers march on in history-making inaugural season

The Tasmania JackJumpers have made history by qualifying for the 2021/22 Hungry Jack’s NBL Finals in the club’s inaugural season, after finishing fourth in the standings at the conclusion of the regular season.

The JackJumpers family – coaches, players, staff, partners and members – are incredibly excited about competing in the NBL Finals in the club’s inaugural season and continuing to create history for the state of Tasmania and for the League.

Head Coach Scott Roth says the finals berth is reward for the efforts of the entire organisation and the buy in of the loyal fan base.

“I’m just incredibly proud. Especially these guys, it’s a joy to be around them, they work extremely hard on and off the floor and they just love being together. It’s not overly common to have this type of connection in a group and they’ve built something very special together”.

“They never lost hope or faith in this whole process from day one and I saw that in our last game and they truly had belief that they were going to play again so to see their excitement was great”.

“The culture has been built is a standard that has been set for many, many years after we’re all gone. They created something that means something to this state and wearing this jersey really means something” Roth said.

The 2021/22 NBL Finals will be JackJumpers Captain Clint Steindl 5^th post-season appearance but he says this campaign will be particularly special.

“It’s special for this group, for the fans, the club, for the state. The last regular season game at home the fans embraced it in there and now they get a chance to take it to another level”.

The JackJumpers’ finals fairy tale came at the expense of Roth and Steindl’s former club Perth Wildcats, who went down to South East Melbourne in overtime in the last regular season game of the NBL22 season.

It was a tense wait for everyone involved in the JackJumpers organisation.

Roth said “South East just did a heck of a job to finish the season with two wins and to go in there [RAC Arena] and win is always difficult. I do feel bad for Wags, Cotton and Norton who have spent their entire career there building something.

“It’s been a heck of a 24 hours. That game was absolutely crazy, as was the Illawarra-Sydney game before it. I was by myself and had a lot of mixed emotions obviously but I was just at home and you know pacing when I had to”.

Despite the drama, it was straight back to work for the coaching staff and players on Monday as the Championship dream continues.

“We’re back to what we were doing. It’s about the process, it’s everything we normally do, going through the steps of reviewing the game and there’s not a lot we’re changing. Our teams our team and we move forward”.

JackJumpers will take on Melbourne United at John Cain Arena this Thursday in the first of a three-game NBL Semi-Finals series.

“[United] is a championship pedigree team that knows how to win and the pressure is going to mount and the crowd’s going to be there.

“We’ve played in some big games already this year that we can look upon and have confidence in”.

JackJumpers ended the regular season with 17 wins and 11 losses to finish fourth behind United, Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks.

“I tell these guys we need to expect to win. We’re here to win a championship not make up numbers. I think that’s why we’ve been relatively successful because we’ve never put a ceiling on anything, we’ve just said let’s keep doing the work and see where it leads you” Roth said.

Steindl said “Even if we were on the other side of this and we’re not in here this morning I’m absolutely proud of the position we’ve put ourselves in. Whatever happens here on in, we’re holding our heads high and the camaraderie we’ve built in such a short amount of time with the support of this state, I’m incredibly proud”.

All games in the 2021/22 Hungry Jack’s NBL will be Live on ESPN Available via Kayo and Foxtel.