AFTER two seasons of near misses, Ian Ozolins and his Shoalhaven Tigers Waratah League division one men's side believe 2019 is the year they could finally put it all together.
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With the return of point guard Alex Brown into the team, as well as the additions of Dane Jensen, Joel Smith and Brent Nementh (in May), Ozolins side have enjoyed a very strong pre-season.
"It's great to have the same core group as last year, minus Kieren Corbyn and Connor Rowe, so we can just build on what we had," Ozolins said.
"Alex [Brown] obviously adds a lot to the team at the point guard position and Dane [Jansen] and Joel [Smith] will add some size and hunger on the boards, combating the loss of both Connor [Rowe] and Kieren [Corbyn].
"As such, most people already knew our offensive sets, allowing us to just fine tune a couple of things.
"The biggest thing for us during the pre-season has been working on our fitness and defence - we know we can score as good as any team in the league, but we need to be able to stop points, which has been our achilles heel in previous season."
Ozolins will be the first to admit his team 'let themselves down' the past two seasons - an aspect he hopes his team can use as motivation in 2019.
"The past two seasons, our destiny has been in our own hands but we've let ourselves down on both occasions," he said.
"Everyone is now a year older and has another year of experience in this league - knowing what is needed to be successful week in, week out.
"As a group, we know who we are and we are hungry to prove we have what it takes to go all the way."
This season, the Tigers are grouped in the southern pool with Bankstown, Canberra, Dubbo, Orange, Sutherland, Wagga Wagga, Illawarra, Lithgow and Queanbeyan - who they'll face in the opening round.
"As confident as we are, we are under no illusions the competition has gotten stronger in the off-season," Ozolins said.
"It seems like the Sydney teams have added a couple of players and teams like Lithgow, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga will again have imports in their lineup, but I don't think it's anything we can't handle.
"It's up to show that, which all starts on Saturday against the Yowies, who we always seem to have grudge matches against.
"We know it's a big test but we are ready to make an early statement this year.
"And with road heavy schedule to start the season, stealing a couple of wins early could set up our season."