Woodhill, Haywood, Drmic JackJumpers bright spots

There was plenty to like in the heart shown by the Tasmania JackJumpers on Saturday night including Archie Woodhill being +5 in 16 minutes, Ryley Haywood's first NBL minutes and Anthony Drmic knocking down three triples.

It had been quite the emotional period leading into that game back at MyState Bank Arena for the JackJumpers when they played host to the Illawarra Hawks without Will Magnay, Majok Deng and Bryce Hamilton.

Magnay injured a toe and will miss the rest of the season after the previous Saturday night in Perth before then on Thursday night in a loss in Sydney to the Kings, the JackJumpers lost Deng to a nasty concussion after he banged his head and then Bryce Hamilton injured a knee.

That has now ended Hamilton's season as well having ruptured his ACL as he joins Magnay and Sean Macdonald as being ruled out for the rest of NBL26, but what that does is open up opportunities for others.

The front court was decimated against JaVale McGee and Sam Froling from Illawarra on Saturday night with Bannan holding down the fort admirably with 26 points and eight rebounds on 12/22 shooting in 35 minutes.

Then there was Woodhill who made the first start of his NBL career and ended up playing 16 minutes. He did plenty of encouraging things to finish with two points and three rebounds with Tasmania outscoring Illawarra by four points with him on the floor.

It might have been through necessity that Woodhill's role and minutes dramatically increased, but it could turn out a blessing in disguise for coach Scott Roth to find out what he's made of in terms of an NBL future.

"I wanted him to play because we have no more bodies and he has to be impactful for us, and to help us during this time period and we have no other choice but to throw him out there," Roth said.

"This is a great learning experience for him to be thrown into this and it will be an important six games for him and his growth to see if he is an NBL player, and he has been putting in some really good work and we'll look to get him to continue to build on that.

"We were hoping all along with him he could take the next step this season but then he has a stress fracture and he's out 12 weeks and he's back on the horse now of trying to rebuild himself back up.

"We see a lot of value in him and we've spent a lot of time on him over the last year and-a-half working with him and he might have needed a ventilator out there and he kept looking at me wanting to come out, but he's young and will fight through it.

"These are just going to be valuable experiences for him over these next six games of him competing and it will be great evaluation for us moving forward."

Following the season-ending injuries to Hamilton and Magnay, the JackJumpers were able to add Ryley Haywood to the roster who had already been spending time around the group as a training player this season.

The Tasmanian product had played a lot of his NBL1 South basketball with the North West Tasmania Thunder before playing with the Diamond Valley Eagles in 2025 where he put up 9.7 points and 3.0 rebounds a game while shooting the three ball at over 35 per cent.

He got his first NBL minutes on Saturday night hitting the court for 7:35 against the Hawks where he did manage to pull down an offensive rebound and block a shot even if missing his first two shot attempts in his career.

Roth will continue to have faith in putting him out on the floor if need be as he will for any available players.

"Everyone that walked on the floor was helping us in some fashion or form, and Ryley has been diligent about just showing up in practice and doing the right things," Roth said.

"And he's a Tasmanian kid who can make shots and he got his first taste ever of being out on the floor in that situation.

"We'll need everybody at some point or another over the next three weeks."

It's been a nightmare season so far for 273-game championship winning veteran Anthony Drmic on a health front, but having now made it back for the last three games from a crippling back injury, the signs are encouraging too.

He had his best performance of the season on Saturday night against the Hawks with 13 points and three rebounds with 5/8 shooting from the field along with 3/5 from downtown.

Roth is pleased that his veteran sniper and leader is back, but is also mindful to not push his return too quickly and risk a recurrence of the back injury.

"It was a good sign for him and his conditioning is really, really lacking and that's obvious as to why when he's had almost three months of completely not doing anything and now being thrust back into this," Roth said.

"We have our fingers crossed that nothing gets aggravated again with his back now that he's back playing again, backs are obviously quite sensitive with what could transpire there.

"But they were really good signs from him and he's a competitor. He's a guy we've missed all along, his voice is powerful and he has a lot of grit and grind, which we love about him."