How Will United Fill Big Void?

Friday, September 30, 2022

Ariel Hukporti sidelined with a season-ending achilles injury, new Melbourne United signing Isaac Humphries is now firmly entrenched as the team's number one centre for the NBL23 season.

Humphries, who is returning from a serious injury of his own, is now the only fit Melbourne United player who stands over 6’10”. When Humphries is off the floor, United will now be forced to attack the opposition with small ball lineups.

Melbourne head coach Dean Vickerman has alluded to who he thinks will be able to help fill the void at centre.

“The re-signing of David Barlow makes a whole lot of sense for our program right now,” Vickerman said. “We can also use Jordan Caroline as a small ball five as well, so we’ll continue to mix up those combinations.

“Isaac is certainly the prime guy at centre for us right now … we’re not going to play him for 35 minutes – we’re going to make sure we maximise him in smaller bursts.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">HE'S NOT DONE! <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidBarlow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DavidBarlow</a> <a href="https://t.co/EakZscscYB">pic.twitter.com/EakZscscYB</a></p>— Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1572534096710234112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The difficulty of filling the void left by the injured Hukporti has been echoed by United captain Chris Goulding, however he’s backed his team to be able to cover the loss of the Next Star.

“Obviously we lost Ariel for the year which is a big dampener on the things we want to do,” Goulding said.

“But to be able to respond and show guys can play different positions [and] cover that a little bit, what he does totally is hard to cover but we’re going to have to shift some things around.

“We showed some things at the back end of the Blitz that were promising, so I think there’s a little bit of nervous energy in the fact we’ve been waiting to … get in front of our fans. It’s been a long time.

Humphries has found himself in the news cycle this week after criticising the league’s referees during a radio interview.

The United big man was hit with a $1500 fine, $500 of which has been suspended, for his comments.

Vickerman says the club is in constant dialogue with the league’s referees.

“We’re trying to work together to continue to find a better solution,” he said.

“I think they’re (the referees) doing an amazing job for where we’re at as a sport right now.

“Can at some point we have more referees that are full-time and continuing to work on their craft and helping others get better? I’m sure it’s going to happen.

“They’re (NBL) bringing in mentors from overseas and they’re doing everything they can to make sure they’re upskilling referees as far as the game is continuing to grow.”