Fire still burns for United sharpshooter

At 35 years old, Chris Goulding is ageing like a fine wine. 

But in the back of his mind, he knows he’s a lot closer to the end than the start, and time is slowly running out to claim his fourth NBL championship.

The Melbourne United star admits last season’s heartbreaking loss to Tasmania in the Championship Series still burns deep, and he and his teammates are desperate to bounce back in NBL25.

“The focus will be us going one step further than we did last year and it starts with a good foundation, building up, trying to find yourself at the top of the ladder and really make a push, come finals,” he said at the official launch of SuperCoach NBL.

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Goulding isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. He was an All-NBL First Team member and averaged 16.9 points a game in his most recent campaign.

The sharpshooter was somewhat surprisingly overlooked from a Boomers outfit that lacked three-point shooting at the Paris Olympics, but has quickly switched his focus to the upcoming NBL season.

“Of course, I’m disappointed that that’s how my international career finished but, for me, I think I know what I bring to a team, and I don’t need to go out and prove that I should have been on that team or anything like that,” Goulding added.

United still has one spot to fill on its roster, but Goulding wouldn’t be drawn into predicting the final pick, which could be one of Malith Machar, Akech Aliir or Campbell Blogg. 

“I’m a SuperCoach manager, not a not an actual NBL manager,” he joked. 

“From what I understand we’re looking to fill that from within the guys that have been with us and keep that familiarity of personnel.”

Melbourne is in action on night one of the NBL Blitz on Saturday on the Gold Coast, taking on the Cairns Taipans at 7.30pm AEST.

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