Dave Tollner (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Darwin Basketball Association has been invited to send its Darwin All Stars team to the prestigious 6th Shell Rimula Brunei Cup international men’s basketball tournament that will be held in Darussalam in Brunei this year from Saturday, 19 August to Sunday, 27 August to celebrate the 60th birthday of His Majesty, the Sultan of Brunei. The Darwin team will play five games against other participating teams, such as professional club teams from South Korea and the Philippines, as well as all-star teams from the Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabi and the Philippines. From those results, the top four teams will then go on to play in the semifinals and so on.

This is the first time that a team from outside the Asian zone of FIBA, which is the world basketball body, has been invited to the tournament. The Darwin All Stars will be representing not only Darwin and the Northern Territory but also Australia as a whole. The tournament is principally sponsored by Brunei Shell and is supported by Brunei’s Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. The teams will be competing for a total prize pool of over $30,000 in cash plus many other prizes. The board of the Darwin Basketball Association, led by President John Sealy, has been instrumental in seeking and acquiring opportunities such as this one for the association’s senior teams. Other board members who are very deserving of congratulations include Maisie Austin, Ian Charman, Dale Geer, Grant Matthews, Gary Shipway and Errol Thorne.

This will be the strongest team ever to represent Darwin in a basketball competition. The team will consist of 12 players, of whom seven are local Darwin products. These players include Michael Maclean—an all-round elite sportsman, who is the captain of the side—Danny Miller, Kevin Roe, Travis Ellis, Matthew Rugendyke, Jacob Fogolyan and Blake Truslove, who is currently in New Zealand playing with the New Zealand Breakers in the National Basketball League. These fellows are the cream of Territory basketball, and they have been training extremely hard over the last couple of months. They are acutely aware that this competition will be tough and that they are carrying the hope and expectation of thousands of Territory basketball fans.

The other squad members invited to join the Darwin All Stars include Marcus Ch’ng and Shane Davis, who have both played for Queensland in numerous national championships, and Dallas Jeffries, Cadale Threatt and Toby Zaremba, who have all played in the National Basketball League. The officials travelling with the team include the head coach, Don Sheppard; the team manager, Clint Kononen; the sports trainer, Bernie Devine; and the head of the delegation and Executive Officer of Darwin Basketball Association, the tireless worker Rod McGrath.

We were lucky to have obtained a coach of the calibre of Don Sheppard. Mr Sheppard has been named national and state ABA Coach of the Year a remarkable seven times over his career. He has also received the Australian Sports Medallion for his services in basketball, presented to him by the Queen’s Governor-General in 2000. Mr Sheppard has coached the likes of Luc Longley, who won three NBA championships and played alongside Michael Jordan, and also Michelle Timms, who represented Australia in the Olympics for many years. We are excited to have him developing our up-and-coming players.

This tournament in Brunei will be an excellent opportunity to promote Darwin, the Northern Territory and, of course, Australia. I would like to pass on my very best wishes to the players and officials and also to congratulate the board of the Darwin Basketball Association for supporting this initiative into South-East Asia. Obviously it is rare for those coming from Darwin to have this opportunity.

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