This weekend's double-header against Brisbane is a bit of a mystery as they have so many new players on their squad and have yet to play a game in the 2009 season. Of special interest is the news that they've bought in Great Britain's 25 year old Paralympian big man Joe Bestwick. Reports say that he played extremely well in last week's Queensland Classic tournament so he may give some grief to the visiting WheelKings in his first taste of the NWBL.

Bestwick's biggest problem will be finding other contributors on his own team. Australian Rollers Adrian King and Tige Simmons are always dangerous but Brisbane still needs to find an efficient 15 to 20 points each from a couple of its newer players. Maybe some of the mid and high pointers have developed over the off-season but we won't know until Saturday.

Meanwhile, the WheelKings are looking dangerous. They took last year's grand finalists Wollongong to overtime in the season opener and then convincingly beat 2008 bronze medallists Sydney Razorbacks in their last outing. The addition of Great Britain captain Jon Pollock has been the key to the WheelKings early form. He's averaged 19 points in his first 2 games and he opens up the court with his long-range shooting. The defence has to respect him out past the 3 point line and that means Wenty's bigs can work more easily to get free inside. And if they're free, Pollock is sure to find them with a bullet pass for the easy basket - he's averaging 11 assists per game.

Another big factor is the form of Jonathon Simon. He's been promoted to the starting 5 in 2009 and it seems Coach Hewson has injected him with a dose of confidence and unlocked the potential Jono has been showing for years. He's shooting a tidy 50% from the field, playing strong defence and is the second highest rebounder behind Koen Jansens. Jono was uncertain as to whether he'd play this year but the WheelKings are certainly glad he suited up.

Brisbane will have to find a way to stop Koen, Bill Latham, Kylie Gauci and Craig Cannane if they're going to get a win this weekend on their home court. Maybe they have a chance with Bestwick in the side because it was afterall an import that led the Spinning Bullets into the NWBL grand final in 2003. If young Joe can provide 50% of what (now retired) world's best player Canada's Patrick Anderson bought to Brisbane back then, they'll be competitive.

A special mention goes to 16 year old rookie Keegan Oh-Chee who will be making his first road trip in the absence of Jeremy Doyle who is still recovering from injury. Keegan is progressing quickly and is a strong, smart young player. He was in Brisbane just 10 days ago with the NSW Juniors for the Queensland Classic and will have already played against the Spinning Bullets players, although they were spread across several teams. No doubt master Oh-Chee will again acquit himself well against the northerners.

Match details:

Game 1 - 7pm Saturday, 20th June

Game 2 - 9am Sunday, 21 June

Venue - Brisbane (Vince Hickey) Basketball Stadium
            16 Dixon St
            Auchenflower
            Phone  07 3371 0200

Referees - Nigel Wiggins, Adam Tipping, C. Reimann (Sat.), L. Whyte (Sun.)

Wenty Leagues WheelKings		(1-1 record)
		Classification
6	Bill Latham	4.0	J
8	Koen Jansens	4.0
9	Jon Pollock	2.5
11	Kylie Gauci	2.0	F
12	Craig Cannane	3.5
13	Jonathon Simon	3.5
15	Keegan Oh-Chee	2.5	J
	Coach: Gerry Hewson
Brisbane Spinning Bullets		(0-0 record)
		Classification
4	Joe Bestwick	4.0
5	Eric Horrie	2.5
6	Josh Horner	1.5
7	Adam Bates	4.5
8	Jason Holohan	3.0
10	Adrian King	2.0
11	Tige Simmons	1.0
13	Dean Rhodes	2.0
22	Stephen Pettinato	3.0
23	Matt Le Busque	2.5
31	Nick Benjamin	1.0
32	Scott Wintle	1.0
40	Steven Fell	4.0
	Myles Skelton	3.0
	Damon Jaenke	3.0
	Coach: Tom Kyle