While I'm by no means a basketball expert, watching the Breakers take on the North East in the 2019/20 season has been an entertaining experience to say the least.
And you could definitely say I am a convert now.
It's exciting to see the popularity of basketball at a local level - with the community support shown by bums on seats at home games - while an increase in the standard played continues to skyrocket.
At its highest level, America's NBA/WNBA is one of the most popular sporting exports in the world right now and has with it some of our best athletes in Ben Simmons and Elizabeth Cambage competing. Meanwhile our home-grown offerings in the NBL/WBNL continues to go from strength to strength.
It was this type of improvement that we saw with the men's Breakers side this year, and while I wasn't around to personally see how last year's Breakers season played out, to jump from 0-12 to 3-9 - and come so close in four of those losses - should be considered a massive achievement by all involved.
Benalla's Lachy Kego continues to take his game up a level, skipper Sam Burrowes and Patrick Mahoney had strong, consistent seasons, while it was exciting to see some of the region's rising youth in Hamish Teichert and Cooper Nichols take to the floor.
But as you may well know by a few of my previous Saultry's Score, I'm a huge supporter of women in sport, so watching the Lady Breakers compete each week was perhaps what got me most excited about the current CBL season.
While their record wasn't a true indication of the effort put in by the Lady Breakers, the talent on their list has massive upside.
Teen Isabella Riley is a gun, while 15-year-old Madison Gray was another to impress me. And the whole team's improvement was there is see, with Alex Robinson one who stood out for her rise from the first to the final match.
Having also closely followed the Seymour Blasters in my dual role with the Seymour Telegraph, I can clearly see the talent pathway available for these players.
The Lady Blasters’ average age would be slightly higher than the Breakers, but they are still young.
So for them to feature in finals this year should provide a blueprint for where Benalla can get to in just a few years by continuing to add playing experience to this current group.
Continually improvement is in the slights of both Breakers teams and this season has proven there is plenty of talent in Benalla's basketball stocks.
I'm excited to see where the Breakers can go in the 2020/21 season.
9°C