11 Jun Spinners in Brazil
Their preparation has been eighteen months in the making and finally the Spinners are in Brazil, ready to take on the world at the 2025 IWBF U23 World Championship.
The build up, led by Head Coach Brett Stibners has encompassed two junior national championships, several camps plus qualifiers, but the four time Paralympian admits they haven’t had a lot of time together.
“We mainly focus on combinations and style of play within the team and over the last eighteen months we’ve been working out who fits well with who,” said Stibners.
Key to the Spinners success will be Paris Paralympians Jaylen Brown and Ethen Leard.
After an impressive debut in Paris, Brown backed it up at the U23 Asia Oceania Qualifiers, leading the tournament with 23.2 points and 9.2 rebounds per game on his way to tournament MVP and All Star 5 honours.
Leard also joined him in the All Star 5, averaging 14.1 points, 8.3 assists and 7.1 rebounds as the Aussies won the tournament and qualified directly to Brazil.
“What’s important with those two is they embrace their teammates’ abilities as well which is something we’ve been working on.”
Stibners has an array of exciting young talent he’ll be leaning on including Wheelcats Jordan Mouritz and Cooper Spillane, Red Dust’s Mitch Bond and Kane Downie along with Southern Districts’ Zach Binns.
Credit: Basketball Australia
Southern Districts will be well represented with Mitch Duncan and Rhys Higgins also in the team alongside Leard and Binns, while South Australian Alexander Blackmore will also feature ahead of his season with the Darwin Salties.
The Manly Wheel Eagles are represented by Evander Conroy and Jackson Gray.
“We’ve got a tough one first up with Germany, they came second at the Under 23 Euro Championships, but a lot of those kids, I keep calling them kids but I shouldn’t, a lot of those players play some sort of professional wheelchair basketball so they’re going to be very tough.”
Turkiye will also be tough with fast players, good shooters and plenty of size but Stibners isn’t underestimating any of their opponents.
“I just try to take it on board as it comes. I’ve been watching a lot of video. It’s a bit challenging with the juniors because you don’t see a lot like you do with the seniors. I’ve been watching a lot of opposition play a lot of games and talking a lot with my assistant coaches about what we think is going to help these players do the best that they can.”
The main thing is the tournament is here and the coach can now focus on the job at hand.
“I got a phone call from one of the players the other day and I just had dread straight away, I thought ‘Oh, what’s happened’ kind of thing, but it was a nice friendly conversation, I just want to get started.”
FULL FIXTURES: https://www.iwbf.org/events/2025-iwbf-u23-world-championship
LIVE STREAM: https://www.youtube.com/@iwbforg/streams
AUSTRALIAN U23 SPINNERS
Zach Binns [4.5] (Southern Districts Spartans)
Alexander Blackmore [2.0] (Darwin Salties)
Mitchell Bond [3.0] (Red Dust Heelers)
Jaylen Brown [4.0] (Darwin Salties)
Evander Conroy [1.0] (Manly Wheel Eagles)
Kane Downie [3.0] (Red Dust Heelers)
Mitchell Duncan [1.0] (Southern Districts Spartans)
Jackson Gray [3.5] (Manly Wheel Eagles)
Rhys Higgins [2.0] (Southern Districts Titans)
Eithen Leard [2.5] (Southern Districts Spartans)
Jordan Mouritz [2.5] (Perth Wheelcats)
Cooper Spillane [4.5] (Perth Wheelcats)
Head Coach: Brett Stibners
Assistant Coach: Thomas Kyle
Assistant Coach: Jeremy Synot