Ninnis hints at further rotation changes

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Scott Ninnis has said while his side's game plan won't be altered much from last time Adelaide played Melbourne.

Interim Adelaide head coach Scott Ninnis says the 36ers will not alter their game plan too far from the last time they played Melbourne United.

United defeated Adelaide 82-74 when they met back in Round 1. Matthew Dellavedova and Chris Goulding each had 19 points in the victory, while Jason Cadee added 18 points from the bench for Adelaide.

“I thought our gameplan was fantastic against them,” Ninnis said.

“I thought we made incredible adjustments and they only scored 82 points. If you can hold Melbourne United to 82 points you probably take it.

“I thought we were up and about so we don’t need to make wholesale adjustments to the last time we played them because we had a pretty good game plan last time going in.

“I like the fact now we’ve got a week on the training track to make some adjustments and corrections, I’m really pleased at the way the guys have handled it as professionals and the way we’ve been able to train this week.

“We’ve got a big game against the best team in the competition but I’m excited to get away and see what we can do.”

Ninnis’ appointment as interim coach has coincided with the slashing of minutes for club captain Mitch McCarron, and the benching of veteran pair Cadee and Sunday Dech.

McCarron played just 10 minutes in last week’s loss to Cairns, while Dech and Cadee remained rooted to the bench for the entirety of the game.

Cairns outscored Adelaide by 14 points in the final quarter to emerge from the game as 15-point victors, and Ninnis says he’ll make further adjustments to the rotation to ensure his side can keep up the pace against Melbourne.

“I obviously shortened the rotation last week and there are some guys that didn’t play that have been amazing players for us in the past,” Ninnis said.

“I will still shorten the rotation but we might get some extra minutes into a few other guys.

“I thought we ran out of steam a little bit in that last game and guys like DJ and Trey Kell played major minutes, so perhaps reducing some of their minutes a little bit to ensure we’re able to keep up the intensity and make sure we’re rolling all the time.

“Mitch has been up and about and has been fantastic this week on the training track, as have Sunday and Jason Cadee and the guys that didn’t play.

“We’ll make some adjustments to some of the playing time of those guys, and we need all hands on deck. If I ask someone to go they’ll put their hand up and be ready to do that.”

Adelaide will play Melbourne on Saturday night at 8pm AEDT.