Lower South West hosts regional Slammers carnivals

The lower South West basketball scene was thriving at the weekend as Manjimup and Bridgetown both hosted junior regional carnivals. The South West Slammers Regional Carnival series saw Manjimup host the U18s tournament on Saturday while Bridgetown hosted the U12s on Sunday. The Manjimup Timberwolves had a handful of teams competing over the carnivals this month with their U15s development division team making a grand final appearance earlier in November in Harvey. Although the Bridgetown Firetails’ teams were also unable to win any of their divisions, their U12s development division team also made its grand final. Bridgetown Basketball Association president Craig Goulder said it was a positive experience for all the players involved. “Mixed results around but really, really promising signs in terms of how the players are developing,” he said. “No (overall) wins in their divisions but our U12 girls made it to the grand final of the development division which is great. That was a brand new team and a lot of them were not sure if basketball was their thing but they’re all super keen to go on to Country Champs in February so that’s fantastic.” Goulder said the carnivals definitely helped regional clubs “warm-up” as they lead into the Country Championships next year. “It just gives all of the feeder clubs to the South West Slammers a chance to get some game time in, get that experience,” he said. “It’s a bit of a fine-tuning and training run so it should benefit all of the feeder clubs in the South West ... and hopefully allows the region to perform really well up in Perth at the Country Champs.”