Behind the scenes with Buccs coach and players

Geraldton Buccaneers coach Dayle Joseph takes us behind the scenes and into his week - post the Eagles and pre the Tigers.

Our attention turned to the Willetton Tigers in the change rooms straight after our 39-point win over the Eagles.

On Sunday, assistant coach Scott Rubery reviewed some film of the Tigers’ previous games, and shared it with other coaches and players.

I reviewed the East Perth game and highlighted some of the good things we had been working on at practice, and also the things we didn’t do so well. We go through this with players before Tuesday training.

On Monday, the team had a fitness session in the gym with Todd Teakle at Central West Heath & Rehabilitation. This stretch of four home games gives us an opportunity to get some extra fitness, before seven games in four weeks in July.

Tuesday was our normal scheduled session. Some players got there early to get treatment and strapping done by Brendon from Chapman Physio, while some chose to get a massage from Maria at Connect Massage.

Before that, we spent 10 to 15 minutes reviewing the game just gone. Then we hit the court, focusing on a lot of our structures, including a lot of transition defence and offence. We alter this slightly from week to week, depending on our opposition and what we think will help us get an advantage. The last 30 minutes is time scrimmage, where those structures are put into practice.

On Wednesday, I planned our Thursday session: writing a scout report on the individual players from the opposition from the film of other games we have watched. This is handed to the players to review.

Last night, we got up a lot of shots and got into some game play scenarios we may come up against on Saturday. The last 15 minutes we scrimmaged against each other and played brand basketball.

Today, after a quick visit to Spirit 98.1 (radio station), the day is fairly free. Tonight I will spend checking and looking at scores from games being played in Perth.

Tomorrow, it’s a visit to Radio Mama, before a 10.30am training session. The players run this session, mainly doing shooting drills for 40 minutes. We then will look at the Willetton game film that has been cut during the week and the scout report of individual players. We will discuss match-ups, the strength and weaknesses of players and review how we can react to different circumstances which may confront us.

The players and coaches arrive at Activewest Stadium about 6pm. Players go through their set routines of getting strapped and getting massages.

At 7pm, we review our game plan and match ups and by 7.10pm the team is on court getting ready for tip off.

Then it is game time. I have a really good relationship with the coaches, Aaron Ducas, a long-time friend, and Scott and Mick Surtees. These guys share the duties of keeping an eye on the statistics of the game, opposition structures and match ups. They will throw ideas and let me know what they see — which will make things very easy and helpful to make decisions on the run.

Game over. Hopefully it’s smiles. Next week it’s Lightning. The routine starts all over again.