AFTER spending five years in the AFL system, Tom Wilson has enjoyed a tremendous start to his NBL1 campaign with the Melbourne Tigers, the club he played for throughout his junior career.

Despite growing up playing basketball, including stints in the college system in the US and with the Sydney Kings in the NBL, Wilson turned his passion to football, and joined the Collingwood Magpies as a category B rookie.

Throughout the span of 2019 and 2023, he played eight games for the Magpies, impressing with his rebounding ability off half-back. At the conclusion of the 2023 season, Wilson’s services were not retained by Collingwood, and he returned to his junior club in the NBL1, with the Tigers skipper still taking plenty out of his time in the AFL system.

“There’s definitely things I took out of it, mainly just day to day lifestyle and learning how to be a professional, learning when to push, when to pull back and just learning things about your body,” he said. “The intensity and consistency that’s required to train at the top level as well.”

Wilson returned to the Tigers for the 2024 NBL1 season, finding his feet almost immediately, and was given the captaincy for the team’s 2025 campaign. It has been an inspired move, with Wilson starting the season like a house on fire.

Over the first three games, he has averaged 28.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5.7 assists on 61.7 per cent shooting from the field. Wilson has undoubtedly been one of the form players of the competition over the first couple of weeks of the season, and says it is all about helping the team win after a 2-1 start to the season.

“It was a really great team win against Sandringham in Round 1, and then disappointing to lose to Kilsyth after in a game where we really struggled to put points on the board,” he said. “Any time you get to see the ball go through the net its a great feeling and fills you with a lot of confidence.

“I’ll hopefully try to keep that going, and it will hopefully give the other guys a bit of confidence as well in their own game.”

The Tigers have won two of their first three games, with their sole loss coming at the hands of the Cobras and their most recent result a win over Diamond Valley on Tuesday night. Despite some injuries to key figures in the lead up to the season, Melbourne has started the season well, and Wilson said the team is learning from each match.

“It’s a long off-season, so you have a lot of time between games,” he said. “There’s probably a fair bit of anxiety coming into the year because its been such a long time since you’ve played. “We had a few speed bumps with guys getting hurt with long term injuries, with Ellis (Biggar) and Wilson (Amos). “We were really excited for both of them this year, but unfortunately they went down.

“But we’ve had some other guys step up. “We’ve really seen some development in Mason (Gaze) and Jack (Purchase) is really playing his best basketball. “We saw that against Sandy, we had a really good win first up and then a tough loss against Kilsyth. “We take some confidence out of it and some good stuff to work on as well.”

Having been named captain, Wilson is one of the most vocal leaders in the country, constantly looking to make his teammates better in every match and inspire those around him, and he says team chemistry is crucial to success. The Tigers have the best junior program in the country when it comes to producing NBL1 players, and it shows with continuity.

“One of the advantages we have as a group is the fact that we have been together for a few years now,” he said. “Although I have not been around as much, I was a junior here, and we run the same systems. We’ve got a lot of guys that came up through the club, so that’s a really good baseline for us to be able to compete.

“I think that’s going to be our superpower. A lot of teams are going to put more talent out on the floor than us, but our ability to come together as a team is going to hopefully help us win games this year.”

Melbourne’s season continues this weekend when it takes on the Dandenong Rangers at MSAC on Sunday afternoon.