Delly declares himself fit for Round 9

Matthew Dellavedova has confirmed his availability for Melbourne United’s next NBL clash following a successful scrimmage in training today.

United’s roster was put through its paces in a five-on-five clash ahead of this weekend’s mid-season break. Dellavedova was part of ‘Team Blue’, which was defeated by ‘Team White’ 72-70.

The Olympic bronze medal winner has been hit hard by injury this season. A concussion earlier in the season saw him miss four games, while a calf injury has kept him sidelined since United’s overtime defeat to Perth.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">White team (72) def. Blue team (70)<br>A good intra-club scrimmage today <a href="https://t.co/avtK0SSdys">pic.twitter.com/avtK0SSdys</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1727146942638014821?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“I’m fully ticked off,” Dellavedova said. “Today was my first five on five full court so I’m fully cleared. If there was a game this weekend, I’d be playing.

“It’s obviously been a little bit frustrating but the great thing is we’ve been winning games. That makes it easier when you’re missing games if the boys have been keeping it rolling.

“I think this break has come at the perfect time to just build up a bit of load in the legs and I should be good for the second half of the season.

“I feel good. It was a lot of fun getting out there with the boys so I’m looking forward to the next game.”

Head coach Dean Vickerman said while Dellavedova was still restricted during the scrimmage, the mid-season break will give him time to get back up to speed.

“We put a little minute restriction on him today but we’re a couple of weeks away from a game, so I think by the time that comes around he’ll have a few more of those kinds of runs and he’ll be ready to go.”

Melbourne has played a total of six games without their starting point guard this season, and has emerged victorious in all six of those contests.

Flynn Cameron has stepped up in the absence of the star veteran, while Chris Goulding has emerged as a genuine MVP candidate for his match-winning performances so far this season.

“I think his last stretch has been as high level as it gets, and last game he took it to another level,” Dellavedova said of Goulding. “The defences are all over him but he doesn’t need much time and space.

“You almost get a different perspective being on the outside looking in. You don’t have the adrenaline or fatigue of a game and I think the thing I’ve been most impressed with is everyone’s will to win, and being positive and solution based when we’ve been in tough situations.

“I think that is going to help us down the road.

“As individuals I think we feel like we all have a lot to prove, and the way to prove that is by winning games.”

While Dellavedova took part in the intra-club scrimmage both Shea Ili and Ian Clark were absent from proceedings.

Vickerman says the pair are both on track to likely play in next week’s game against Cairns, and he’s backed the buy-in of his entire group to fight for court-time when everyone is fit to play.

“Shea has a bit of a shoulder [issue] throughout the year and he just needs to be rested for a couple of days. Ian is making the progress we hope for and he’ll hopefully get into team practice on Friday,” Vickerman said.

“People are challenging what it’s going to be like for me as coach when everybody’s healthy because we haven’t seen that.

“We’ve done a pretty good job of communicating what’s needed from everybody and I’m really happy with the performance of people who have played more minutes during this period and hopefully once everybody is back we can go to another level of intensity and work rate.

“That should be difficult for other teams to deal with if everyone can buy in.”