MAY the best man win. Or not.
The Albury-Wodonga Bandits head to Dandenong this weekend for a clash with the Dandenong Rangers that will have absolutely no impact on the looming SEABL play-offs.
For at least two players however, there is still plenty at stake.
Bandits captain Nick Payne and former Bandit Mick Watson will write the latest chapter in a friendly rivalry that involves plenty of hard-nosed play and more than a little trash talk from both guards.
Watson was Payne’s best man at his wedding last year and the Bandits skipper fired the first shot ahead of this weekend when he said he was looking forward to not only taking on his former teammate but also pulling off a shock road win.
“I’ve known (Watson) for quite a while now and it will be good to go down there and play against him and talk a bit of trash, which always makes the games more enjoyable,” Payne said.
“We’ll probably have to put something on the side, I already owe him (for a previous bet) so I might have to go double or nothing.
“But his role this year is to take on the scoring guard on the opposing team so there’s no doubt he’ll be matched up on me whenever he’s out on the floor, so it should be good fun to go up against him.”
Watson agreed there would be no backward steps when the pair walked on the court and said he was more than happy to hand out plenty of his own advice.
“I think I’ve only played on him (Payne) a couple of times when he was with Knox, but it should be really good,” Watson said.
“We’ve had plenty of training sessions together and yeah, it’ll be lots of fun, there’ll be a bit of talking for sure.
“We’ll be going hard at each other but there will be lots of trash talking under the breath going on.”
On a more serious note, Payne said the game represented a genuine chance for the Border outfit to break through for its first road win of the year.
Dandenong has been one of the bigger disappointments of the SEABL season after a tough early-season schedule condemned the Rangers to a 0-5 start, despite a roster that includes former South Dragons forward Brent Hobba, import Vince Inglima and Melbourne Tigers signing Lucas Walker.
“They’ve got a decent list but they haven’t been travelling too well,” Payne said.
“They lost to Bendigo last weekend which put them out of finals contention so it would be great to get a win.
“They are a pretty up-and-down team, they’ve got a fantastic looking roster but they haven’t been playing too well together.
“They’ll beat a good team one week and then be horrible the next so there’s every chance we can go down there and get our first road win of the season.”
Conversely, Watson believed if there was a time the 10-13 Rangers could finally show some consistency, it was now, with no real expectations left for the season.
The Rangers are not only doomed to miss the play-offs but also suffered the surprise resignation of coach Warren Dawson last month, leaving assistant coach Andrew Sherwell to take the reins for the remainder of the season.
“We’re out of finals now and we’re pretty disappointed but that might take the shackles off a bit,” Watson said.
“Since that 0-5 start we’ve had the pressure on us the whole time and cracks have started to show late.
“But knowing that we’re not going to play finals now, we might play at a better level, the pressure is off and we want to get some wins for Andy (Sherwell).”
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