Where it went wrong for Boomers

They say “time heals all wounds”. 

But when Jock Landale went down with an ankle injury on August 18, it was always going to be a race against time for Brian Goorjian and the Australian team. 

Eight days later, they were playing their first game at the FIBA World Cup, and while they overcame an early scare against Finland, it’s fair to say the Boomers never quite found their groove in Japan. 

A three-point loss to Germany was tough to swallow, but it was a clinical Slovenian performance that hurt the most, and ultimately knocked Australia out of the tournament ... even with Luka Doncic in foul trouble and Josh Giddey playing one of his finest ever games. 

A win over Georgia gave the Boomers a winning record, at 3-2, but according to Pete Hooley and Ryan Broekhoff, it was an uphill battle from the start.

“Everything looks like it went out of whack,” Hooley said of Landale’s absence.

“You kind of just have to fix it on the fly when you don’t have anyone else to bring in.”

“It’s such a short turnaround time from when Jock got injured and you’re on the flight,” Broekhoff added. 

“There’s not a lot of time to make too many tweaks … Joe (Ingles) in the four [power forward], it should make sense, he can roll, he can set screens, he can pop and shoot the three, but Joe’s the best with the ball in his hands, using the pick and roll and creating for others.

“For whatever reason in the tournament he just looked a little hesitant to shoot at times. I think everyone was screaming at the TV, ‘shoot!’ … you’re one of the best shooters not just for Australia, but in the world. 

“It just didn’t feel right.”

Ingles averaged just 6.6 points a game, including going scoreless in 26 minutes against Slovenia. 

“Everyone else just kind of got slid up a position to fill for Jock’s absence … it’s just not a lot of time, there’s not been that continuity you want going into a tournament like this,” Broekhoff added. 

Much of the narrative across the World Cup was the changing of the guard at the Boomers, with Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova left out of the squad, and veterans Joe Ingles and Patty Mills playing alongside the next generation – Josh Giddey, Josh Green and Matisse Thybulle among them. 

“Olgun Uluc [ESPN commentator] wrote a piece before the game around this whole World Cup squad was about the passing of the torch … before the old guys move on and the young guys take over, how do we get it all together and try to make it click to go out on a high for the old guys and the young guys getting started?,” Hooley said. 

“That is a lot harder to do than just roll out with talent and get it done.”

“There’s always that period of time when the old guys still have enough juice in the body, but you’ve got the young up-and-coming talent and how does that mesh and mix? It takes time and it takes preparation and training … they’ll take a lot from this World Cup,” Broekhoff said. 

“They’ll be able to sit back and really review it, not just in the short period, but ‘Goorj’ (Brian Goorjian) will go back and look at what he did right, what he did wrong, where he sees the mistakes and how to address with this evolving, changing dynamic in the group.”