South East Melbourne's unprecedented opportunity

South East Melbourne is facing a near unprecedented injury crisis heading towards the Finals, and while Mike Kelly would certainly rather have his entire roster fit and firing in the hunt for a Play-In position, the Phoenix roster has been presented with an opportunity.

Craig Moller and Alan Williams were already confirmed to be sidelined for the remainder of the season prior to Round 17, with knee injuries, but now fellow starters Matt Kenyon and Gary Browne have been added to the injury list, with hip and groin issues respectively.

Abdel Nader has also been listed as a game-time decision for Thursday night's clash with the Kings.

NBL champion Peter Hooley says South East Melbourne’s rotation and development players are set to be presented with an extraordinary opportunity.

“The one thing that often holds back development players and guys who get very limited chances in a season is that mindset and confidence, because you get thrown out there for a couple of minutes and if you mess up or don’t play the right way you might not play for four or five games,” Hooley said on NBL Now.

“They don’t have that luxury right now, so Mike Kelly will be saying ‘it’s as much of a free swing as ever, so just go out there, have some fun, play your way, play through mistakes and if you start feeling confident you can make a game of it’.

“The bench that could potentially suit up if Nader is out of this game, they could potentially have all four development players playing rotation minutes and then a training player is going to have to become active.

“We saw what they did on Christmas Day – albeit with a couple of other starters and stars in the lineup. It’s hard to see that happening, but the NBL throws up some wild things. Who knows what we’re in for tonight, I’m actually looking forward to it.”

This season’s injury woes are just the latest in a long line of ‘what might have been?’ seasons for the Phoenix.

South East Melbourne has struggled to reach the pinnacle it set in NBL21, where a fourth quarter collapse against local rivals Melbourne United robbed the Heartland side of an opportunity to compete for its maiden NBL title.

“Three years ago this team was 20 minutes of basketball away from being NBL champions and they laid that egg in the second half at Qudos Bank Arena against Melbourne United in the Covid season with no fans,” Hooley said.

“If they had won that Semi-Final Game 3 they would have won the championship because of the injuries Perth had ... we all knew that whichever team won that Semi-Final series was going to be the champion.

“It didn’t happen and everyone wants to see them get back to that level.

“You’re looking at the history and what happened with (Ryan) Broekhoff last year and a couple of other players it starts raising the question of ‘what is happening?’. I’m sure they’ll be looking into it [but] I do think it is more on the freak side and just unfortunate.”

South East Melbourne takes on Sydney tonight at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.