Kop puts team first in Mooney blow up

New Zealand Breakers coach Petteri Koponen has said he will always protect the team after a blow-up with Matt Mooney in the club's final game of the season on Wednesday night.

During the defeat to the Illawarra Hawks, Mooney lost his cool and had a public spat with Koponen on the bench in the second quarter, after a turnover midway through the term. Mooney was subbed out and very quickly let Koponen know what he thought.

Koponen wasn’t going to accept that and told him to sit and then Mooney was asked to not come out for the second half as the Breakers eventually lost to the Hawks by 14 points.

Afterwards, Koponen was matter of fact when running down the events.

"It's simple, nobody is bigger than the team and it's my job to protect the team," he said.

"You can yell at me, but you have to respect your teammates and it's kind of the heat of the moment and we're going to have a conversation with Matt about this.

"This can't happen and that's it, I have nothing else to add. There are just some things in a team environment that you can do and what you can't do, and we are humans and sometimes we make mistakes.

"You just have to learn from this and we're going to talk through with him and move forward."

Koponen wasn't concerned Mooney was venting his frustrations at him, but when it was having a negative impact on his teammates, that's when he knew he couldn’t tolerate it.

It doesn’t mean it isn’t something everyone can't put behind them and move on from though.

"It's not about me. I've been a player and always with a coach and player there are heated moments so I don’t have any problem with my players," Koponen said.

"But I have to protect the team and that's it. We will talk through with Matt and make everything clear, nothing else from my side. It's nothing you can't put behind or talk through but it's just simple things that sometimes if you go over the line, it's enough and that's it."

Given it's had countless injuries, suspensions, a roster change that meant they had to completely revamp everything, and then the schedule and travel load, and it's hard to imagine a first year coach ever having more to deal with than Koponen has this season.

"We knew coming into the season that everyone picked us last and for our group that was great motivation because we knew we were the underdogs, and would need to play well collectively to find that competitive advantage," Koponen said.

"We found a way and were playing with the energy defensively and offensively we had a clear idea of how to play, and the guys were clicking but then obviously there was the change and we had to change how we had to play.

"It took time and then during this crazy schedule that we had all year, you don't have time to practice and you travel a lot so it took a long time from my point of view to get the guys a little bit on the same page.

"Then we found a way how to be again competitive and were in many games that were close, and of course it was frustrating, and I know the players also felt that as did us coaches, but we kept working and I really enjoyed working with this group all year."