Mystro
Years ago

NZ Breakers face playing whole season in Australia

The NZ Government were planning on allowing Double Vaccinated travelers entry into NZ without MIQ in mid January but with the new Omicron variant this decision will now be pushed back to late February.

This may cause the Breakers to have to play out the remainder of the season in Australia or at the very least, the bulk of the season.

The team have already had their share of hurdles this season. A Covid lockdown in Auckland disrupted their pre-season with the team unable to train together and then once in Australia they had Hugo Besson & Yanni Wetzell test positive for Covid-19 along with members of their travelling group including the Head Coach Dan Shamir.
Captain Tom Abercrombie, Imports Peyton Siva & Jeremiah Martin have all missed games with injury and Peyton Siva has an injury replacement suiting up in his absence next game against Tasmania.

The result is they are now 0-5 to start the season and the prospect of not playing at home in front of their fans, friends and family won't do anything to help their cause.
Generally when a team hits a purple patch after a couple of L's on the road they get to go home, sleep in their own beds, regroup and come out firing in front of their home fans. NZ again look like they won't have that luxury.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Not certain how they can stay afloat, it's been a very tough couple of seasons for the breakers.

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Mystro
Years ago

Yeah you wonder how deep Walsh & co's pockets are when they have a massively reduced revenue stream with no ticket sales and then the reduced visibility to sponsors with no home games or community appearances.

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Perthworld
Years ago

I've never felt this sad for an NBL club. What a nightmare.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Next season they should play all their games at home. It's only fair

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Anonymous
Years ago

It's going to be a tough year, but I'm refusing to put a fork in their season yet. It's a talented team that's played well in patches and, apart from Adelaide, they've been against good teams and had their backs against the wall with players out. If they can go on a run with the softer schedule over the next few rounds and get up towards .500 they could contend for that 4th playoff spot. However, as they're 0-5, this bad news could permanently derail their engagement. Poor form from the NZ Government.

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koberulz
Years ago

Yeah, the NZ government should cause hundreds of thousands of deaths just to keep ten blokes happy.

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loungefly
Years ago

i actually want to buy some Breakers merch in the hope it helps in some way to keep the team going as merch sales is probably the only thing that'll bring profit in for them.... hopefully their supporters do the same casue we can't have another team fold

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Anonymous
Years ago

This is a really tough one, I do hope they make it home for some games.

But regardless I'll still support the team regardless of where they play or if they get the W or the L.

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Mystro
Years ago

This decision doesn't just effect 10 blokes, it effects every Kiwi living or travelling abroad.
NZ's MIQ system is inadequate to cope with the volume so there are thousands and thousands of kiwi's who are unable to return home.

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LoveBroker
Years ago

I want to start off by saying that this situation is unfortunate and no one should have to play away for a full season.

However before people cry about how this impacts their season, let's look into the context of this inconvenience.

The New Zealand Breakers were allowed to play their final 7 games at home once the bubble was established last season. They rewarded their fans by going 3-4.

If NZB had played ALL their games at home and extrapolating that sufficient sample size of results, they would have elevated themselves.......ONE rung up the ladder to leapfrog Adelaide.

Well done Breakers...well done. *claps*

So while I remain sympathetic of their situation, I also remain diligent of the fact that it made SFA difference.

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Anonymous
Years ago

NZ has more than 90% of its eligible population vaccinated. The Government is maintaining restrictions for political, not health, reasons. This has been evidenced by the Government maintaining stronger restrictions for longer than that which was Recommended officially. Don't let facts get in the way of your narrative Koberulz. Hundreds of thousands of people are not going to die By allowing travel between New Zealand and Australia.

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hoopie
Years ago

yeah, sure, #345, whatever you say - unlike Australia, of course

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Anonymous
Years ago

"Yeah, the NZ government should cause hundreds of thousands of deaths just to keep ten blokes happy." Wow you are on a roll. Perhaps rename yourself to the GRINCH. First it's an horrific event where 6 kids die and now it's NZ.

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Hoops

NZ Breakers face playing whole season in Australia

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