WITH THE 2025 NBL1 season set to begin this weekend, the Melbourne Tigers are a slightly different looking roster heading into their first match than they would have expected a few months ago.

The Tigers were shaping up for a big campaign throughout the off-season, not only bringing through more players from their very successful junior program, but also adding some impressive talent through signings.

However, an injury crisis struck, and some key players were ruled out for the entire season, but head coach Andrew Gaze said the team is optimistic about the opportunity it provides to other players.

“We’ve had a really good preseason and unfortunately over the last couple of weeks, we’ve lost three of our players to season ending injuries,” Gaze said. “It could not have come at a worse time for us, but we feel like we’ve got a good foundation of players we can draw on.

“It’s that ‘next man up’ mentality and it might be a shaky start as we try and recalibrate some of our systems for some of the losses to our program, but we feel good about our prospects and we are looking forward to the challenge.”

Some of the injuries include Ellis Biggar, who was the team’s big (quite literally at six-foot-10) off-season signing and had spent the last two seasons as a development player with the SEM Phoenix at NBL level. The big man recently had surgery on his foot.

The other big loss for the Tigers is Wilson Amos, who is one of the brightest prospects in the Tigers program. His 2024 season was seriously impressive, leading the Big V Youth Men’s team to a top four finish, but was unfortunately cut short due to a wrist injury, which has again plagued him in 2025 and will see him spend the fixture on the sidelines.

“Its going to be a tough start to the season, but we feel good about our younger guys that are coming through,” Gaze said. “What it does is provide those guys the opportunity to get a bit more court time and we feel as the season rolls on we will be able to make some adjustments.

“Hopefully by the end of it, we have got some more quality time into some of our junior players and it will hold us in good stead for the future.”

The Tigers are highly regarded when it comes to their junior pathway, with most of the current playing list beginning their basketball journey in a Tigers uniform through the junior program. It is something the club is very proud of, and has reaped the rewards of this, with more Olympic players coming from the Tigers than any other program.

While the injury crisis is far from ideal, Gaze says it does provide the opportunity to fast track some development to some of the young talent coming through the program, which is certainly exciting for Melbourne.

“We’re going to use the opportunities with our senior team to maybe see some of those younger guys come through,” Gaze said. “Reece Bray has been with our junior program since he was 10, my son Mason has also been playing for the last couple of years and we can hopefully continue to develop him.

“Then with our Youth League program, its just about seeing form and then providing opportunities at the higher level and see if they can make the adjustment. Kai (Garnaut) is the starting center and he is likely to be the starting center in the NBL1 team as well because we have lost some players.

“Its a tremendous opportunity to see these guys and how they develop and it will be a work in progress as we go throughout the course of the season.”

The Tigers have always been a side that has stuck to their structure throughout the course of the match, backing their tactics to eventually get the better of the opposition, and that trend looks set to continue in the 2025 season.

“We have a variety of offensive and defensive sets, and we stick to them,” Gaze said. “The way the game is played throughout the world these days is very ‘read and react’, and teams will be going out there less predictive.

“We are more predictive with what we do and for us, its about building counters to what the defence will do. We want to be up tempo, but we also want to be fierce on the defensive end. If we’re not fierce and ruthless and kamikaze on the defensive end, its going to be hard for us to compete. In order to do that, you have to temper what you do offensively, in order to be in reasonable defensive situations on every possession.

“There’s a balance in there somewhere, we’re still working that out, but we feel over the course of the season, we’ll get better at it.”

The Tigers will kick off their 2025 campaign with a big clash against the Sandringham Sabres this weekend.