Teamwork Is What Is Needed

JUST a few weeks ago, the Crocs were 4-7 and heading into arguably their toughest portion this season's NBL schedule.

It has to be said, things were looking pretty dismal.

Fast forward to today and we are riding a five-game winning streak going into tonight's game against the Adelaide 36ers. What has been the driving force behind this remarkable turnaround?

I think it would be difficult to pinpoint one thing, but I will give you the run down on a few things that may have helped.

First, as with any team that goes through a form slump, the Crocs held a (for lack of a better term) `crisis meeting'.

The results of meetings of this nature can go one of two ways.

Players either take to heart the messages being sent their way and you start to see improvement or they get increasingly frustrated with the situation and end up capitulating.

Fortunately, for us, our guys took on board the message that was being sent.
The timing of our slump was another thing working in our favour. It was still relatively early in the season and, in a competition as close as this year's NBL appears to be, we had plenty of time to turn the ship around.

It would be hard for anyone who has watched us play our past five games to argue the team is not showing a greater improvement in our urgency and teamwork.

It is amazing how just a little teamwork makes everyone look better.

But I think we know that we are not out of the woods yet. The Crocs have already seen their share of highs and lows – we are only halfway through the season.

And, again, in a competition this close it is important that we keep our eye on the prize. We must continue to approach our upcoming games in the same way we have our last five. We must continue to work as a team. We do much more damage with a well-rounded attack instead of relying on one or two players to get the job done.

Our more recent contributions have been very even across the board and it does not take a genius to figure out that it becomes a lot more difficult to stop 10 guys than two.

It is also great for team morale to have everyone putting in a helping hand. Everyone feels like they put something towards the success and it spills over and makes our day-to-day routine easier.

Our attitude at practice has picked up dramatically as the winning streak has gone into full swing.

Everyone is enjoying practice and getting stuck into it because they know they will be rewarded come game time. But momentum can disappear as quickly as it comes and we are not in a position to start taking our foot off the accelerator.

You can find my column in the Townsville Bulletin every Wednesday.