This was published 7 years ago
Illawarra Hawks coach Rob Beveridge would 'love' to bring NBL back to Canberra
By Caden Helmers
Illawarra Hawks coach Rob Beveridge has backed talks for his club to form a partnership to bring NBL matches to Canberra.
Expansion is on the agenda for NBL officials however Canberra's best hope is likely to form a partnership with an established club and host a number of games in the capital every season.
Hawks coach Rob Beveridge gives a Illawarra-Canberra NBL partnership the thumbs up.Credit: Mark Nolan
Beveridge grew up watching the Canberra Cannons thrive and says it is "pretty disappointing" his hometown no longer has a presence in the NBL.
Basketball ACT is keen to oversee the return of the NBL to Canberra, and the Hawks loom as the most logical option after the Cannons went under 13 years ago.
Beveridge says there is "absolutely no question" the prospect of shifting some games to Canberra has been spoken about by Illawarra officials.
"Obviously being a Canberra boy, born and bred, I'd love to be able to take some games back to Canberra and get people from Canberra coming up to Wollongong," Beveridge said.
"If something like that happened in the future I would be be 100 per cent supportive of it and it'd be a great opportunity.
"I know there's still a massive following of basketball people - a lot do come up to Wollongong, but if we can develop the relationships even further that would be definitely something that I'd be supporting for sure."
The NBL is experiencing one of its tightest seasons in history with just four wins separating first and last in the competition standings.
Beveridge says the strength of the competition makes expansion in the coming years "inevitable", confident the league boasts enough depth to sustain more than eight teams.
"There's actually a lot of quality players that firstly missed out on jobs, but what that means is it's really healthy for the future - it's almost like supply and demand," Beveridge said.
"By adding another one or two teams over the next couple of years, you know you've got depth within the teams, you've got players coming back from college, you've got players coming back from Europe.
"It's just an incredible period of time for Australian basketball with how well our players are doing in the NBA and how well the NBL is doing as well."
Beveridge joined Illawarra ahead of the 2015-16 season having previously led the Perth Wildcats to a championship win over the Hawks in 2010.
Moving back to the east coast has plenty of benefits for Beveridge - Canberra is still home to he and his wife's families.
Beveridge will be back in Canberra for Christmas before returning to Wollongong to prepare for a New Year's Eve blockbuster against his former club.
Beveridge steered the Wildcats to three grand finals and has been in and out as a part of the national set-up as an assistant coach for several years.
The Australian Boomers head coaching job is currently vacant and Beveridge has entertained the thought of taking the job were it offered to him.
"The bottom line is yes, one day I would love to coach the Boomers. It's simple as that," Beveridge said.
"...It's something that I would love to get involved in again in the future but right now, a lot of that is just totally out of your control.
"It's not really a job that you apply for as such, and the way I see it is if Andrej Lemanis wants to have the job back, I thought he did a pretty good job with the Boomers and the Olympics... if he would want the job back, I think it's pretty logical to give him the job back.
"Just like any player that wants to represent the country, I think a lot of coaches want to represent the country as well and it's a tremendous honour to do that."