Basketball: New Zealand Breakers confirm season to be based in Australia

Matt Walsh. Photo / Photosport

The Breakers will head to Australia at the start of December for a mid-January tip-off to the Australian Basketball League.

The club has announced it will fly out on December 1 and will be across the Tasman indefinitely.

Club owner and CEO Matt Walsh said that will put them in the best possible position to win a championship come the end of the season.

"It doesn't make it easy on us as an organisation but we're leaving December 1st to ensure we have a full six-week pre-season to prepare," Walsh said. "We believe if we have that, we have a normal runway into a season, we're going to win a championship.

"We don't know when we'll be home, it's not going to be easy on our guys but our staff and our player's number one goal this year is to win a championship and if that means we're in Australia for the next five or six months, that's what we're going to do."

Walsh said where in Australia they'll be initially based is yet to be determined.

"Some things are being worked on behind the scenes, this is something we've been working on for the last month or so, obviously it's going to be somewhere where we can go in with no quarantine," he said.

"One of the things we're working through now is exactly what the schedule will look like. If we're just on the road bouncing around for the first three months or if we're going to have a 'home' over there.

"We've been in constant communication with the NBL and they've been doing their best to find a solution for not just us, but for a while, it looked like the Melbourne team were going have to be relocated, so it's going to be a joint effort. This isn't something we can do on our own."

So far, the entire team are set to embark on the trip.

Rob Loe could be the only exception though, with the arrival of his first child with wife Kelly expected in January.

The most likely competition start date is January 15.