By Jamie Thomas
Sitting sixth in the table with three games in hand on the teams directly ahead of them, it hasn’t been a bad season by any stretch for the Essex Rebels who are already on course to match their output from a breakout 2020/21 season, but Head Coach Tom Sadler feels much more is to come.
In the middle of the pack at present, the Rebels play-caller feels his side can and should be competing with teams higher up the standings, as he reflects on the team’s season so far and their progress since Christmas in conversation with the WBBL.
“We’ve shown a lot of progress since Christmas, for sure, and there is a lot of basketball left to play so I’m still very confident that we’ll be competing at the top at the end of the season, but mid-table is probably where we deserve to be right now, based on what we’ve shown so far.
“There have been games that have slipped away from us, of course, such as Leicester Riders at home and the Sheffield Hatters at home, and if you win those games then suddenly our position looks a lot different, but we’ve just got to take it one day at a time and focus on progress, because it is coming.
“We want to be contending for silverware, but our first aim is to finish higher than we did last year, and we do have what it takes within this group to be a top three or top four team. London and Sevenoaks are in a league of their own, but beneath them is a realistic goal for us.”
“Our offensive rating was great … but that wasn’t matched by our defensive performance.”
A free-flowing, straightforward offensive system characterises the enjoyable nature of Essex’s performance when the Rebels are at their best, and early in the season the team’s fluidity on that end of the floor really paid dividends as they were amongst the league leaders in terms of efficiency with the ball in their hands.
It is on the other end of the floor that Sadler has had to spend much of his time assessing, he says, as he discusses the challenges of developing his roster throughout the year.
“I am the eternal optimist and despite having to play London Lions and Sevenoaks Suns back-to-back in the first four games of the season, I actually think that was a great challenge for us to see where we were at and what we had to do to improve, and we’ve worked on that throughout the year.
“We give our players a lot of freedom on the offensive end, trying to teach them the right reads and so on and I think it has taken the new players time to adjust to that and find their roles, but the biggest problem I think is that in the first half of the season we were pretty terrible defensively.
“Our offensive rating was great, we were being aggressive and getting to the line, shooting a lot of threes, but that wasn’t matched by our defensive performance and I spent a lot of time over Christmas trying to figure that out and how we can maximise what we’ve got on the roster.”
“We just have to put it together on both ends of the floor.”
The most recent performance by the Rebels on a WBBL court came last week in the Trophy Quarterfinals against the Sevenoaks Suns, where Sadler’s side showed real spirit and determination to take the fight to a side that has only been bested by the all-conquering London Lions this season.
The result didn’t go the Rebels’ way, and Sadler identified areas within the game where there is clear room for further growth, but the performance characterises a development in the team since the Christmas period that the Head Coach is very pleased by.
“The team has shown a lot of fight and fire since Christmas, which is pleasing for me because it is one of the things I questioned them on prior to the break if they still had that, especially on the defensive end.
“Our defensive effort and how we’re defending has been a focus and has improved, but now our offensive effort is a bit disjointed, sometimes hesitant, so we’ve got to get that back to its fluid best and what we know we’re good at. The team have shown me what they’re capable of, we just have to put it together on both ends of the floor.
“I don’t like talking about potential, because everybody has potential, but for sure it will be very interesting to see what we’re capable of when we get everybody back on the court together and fit and firing, because we haven’t really had the opportunity to see that yet.”
“If we can bring it all together we’ll be a completely different team.”
Injuries and Covid-19 Protocols have affected the Rebels as well, of course, but the ‘eternal optimist’ that is Sadler has seen the opportunity in that adversity to give more responsibility to developing players, and with almost half of the season in the books now for most teams, the Rebels Coach discussed what his aims will be for the team in the weeks and months to come.
“It has been really pleasing to see players stepping up in the face of this adversity we’re facing, and I have a lot of confidence and faith in the likes of Megan Haines, Jade Mbam and Tia Freeman to take their opportunities and have responsibility, which is helping them grow and develop as players.
“The goal for the rest of the season simply has to be to improve our overall performance. We’ve shown that our defence can be really good or our offense can, but now we have to bring it all together and if we do that then we’re going to be a completely different team.
“I want us to get back to being aggressive on both ends of the floor, finding our rhythm and our confidence and developing that balance within the team that’ll enable us to bring it all together.”