Northland Sun players ready to shine

It is a short turnaround for Northland Suns players, who will be back on court this weekend, kitting up for the Super Six Club competition, after a challenging Super City campaign.

The Suns failed to gel early in the Super City season, however they improved throughout and avoided the wooden spoon thanks to a tremendous 104-52 victory over Auckland on Saturday.

With the rep season behind them, they are focusing on the Northland-wide club competition which proved popular last year, with a good standard of basketball produced each weekend by defending champions Raumanga Royals, runners-up Portland Blazers, City Hawks, Kaikohe Cougars and Maunu Lights.

This year, Whangaruru enter the mix as the sixth club, and should be a team to watch out for, with Suns skipper Aaron Saddler and several of the Raumanga team transferring to the new club.

The Royals will still be strong throughout the two-round competition, however, with the likes of Suns import and power forward Niasi Malua joining the 2010-11 title holders.

Meanwhile, Kaikohe Cougars have been quietly training for the past three months in preparation, under Taal Smith's coaching prowess.

Consistent performers for the Suns, Travis McIlroy and Warrick Siddall, will be back playing for the City Hawks among a young line-up, while Maunu see the return of Josh Martinac, a New Zealand Under-17 Koru last year, along with Justin Friedrich.

Like last season, Suns players have been spread evenly across the teams, to make it a fair and competitive contest, as well as ideal offseason game time for the Suns players.

All teams are hoping to build on the progress made in last season's competition. Seven round-robin games will be played before Christmas, then seven round-robin games in the new year, plus semifinals and finals.

In round one, Maunu Lights are up against Portland tomorrow, tipping off at 7.30pm, and on Saturday, Raumanga play Whangaruru at 1.30pm, and City face Kaikohe at 3pm - all three games will be played at Kamo High School.