United win built on "sacrifice"

Sacrifice and hard work are key pillars of any successful sporting team, and Melbourne United had that in spades in their season-opening win on Thursday.

Two of their inspirational leaders set the standard early, with Chris Goulding handing over his starting spot due to illness, and Matthew Dellavedova showing his trademark relentless approach to win. 

“He obviously came in under the weather being sick,” Vickerman said of Goulding.

“We highlighted with our group that this year there’s going to be different groups that start and if everybody’s willing to sacrifice like he  did today, to say ‘yep, I’m a little bit under the weather, someone else go and start for me’ … you’ll see different groups come out and there’s an acceptance that anyone’s willing to take a few minutes on the bench and not start.”

Dellavedova took the rare step of subbing himself out at one stage in the third quarter, exhausted, as he piled on 12 points to break the game down. 

“He put the team on his back … he went and cooked himself and called his own sub, and that’s a credit to our group that people are willing to play that hard that they’ve got to sub themselves out,” Vickerman said. 

“We’ve got a lot of leaders on our team and when one of them, like he did today, goes to a next level, everybody sees that standard and certainly can all rise to that level.”

Former MVP Derek Rucker said Dellavedova was at his dominant best.

“With his new physique and his aggression and confidence, and intent on ensuring that the ball gets at the basket, he’s really hard to stop,” Rucker said on NBL Now. 

“He handles the ball well enough, we know he’s great in distributing, he distributes out to shooters and also throws a great lob.

“He knocks down enough three-pointers like he did in this game … if he does that just enough, Melbourne United look much better on the offensive end. 

“He and Shea Ili really spearhead that defence.”

Vickerman said he was delighted with the way his team started their NBL25 campaign, getting a little bit of redemption for last year’s Championship Series defeat at the hands of the JackJumpers.

“I’m pleased with the way that throughout the game, we weathered some storms,” he added. 

“We rebounded at a much higher level than I think we have for a little while and our foul discipline was much better than the Blitz, when people were living at the line. 

“The way we protected the rim, the denial of their key guys down the stretch, to make it hard just to get a catch … our commitment to the scout was pretty good.”

United also saw strong performances from returning star Jack White, as well as Marcus Lee and Rob Loe, going a long way towards easing the loss of Ariel Hukporti and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr in the off-season.