Eager Molloy takes over as coach of Tall Ferns
New Tall Ferns coach Guy Molloy is licking his lips at the prospect of battling his home country for gold at the upcoming Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
Basketball New Zealand, going for quality over nationality, announced Melbourne-based Molloy as the new Tall Ferns coach on Tuesday, with the well credentialled Aussie pledging to make an immediate impact in his first assignment with the team.
Molloy succeeds Kennedy Kereama as head coach of the New Zealand women’s programme, and the experienced Victorian sees the upcoming Commonwealth Games as the perfect opportunity to set his stall out with the underdog Kiwis.
‘‘The Opals will be going hard for gold, particularly at home,’’ he said. ‘‘Any first tournament for a coach with a new team is a great way to establish your game style and a great way to talent ID and instil the values you want to have.
‘‘For me it’s a really important one. I want to get off to a great start and want to build our culture. We want to hit that tournament at full steam.’’
Molloy will not have Italy-based star Jillian Harmon or any of the large group of young Kiwi women currently plying their trade on the US college scene for the Gold Coast, but is confident he still has a group capable of giving a good account of themselves.
‘‘We have a lot of star players out of the Australian WNBL such as Micaela Cocks, Toni Farnworth and Kalani Purcell, and these are girls of international experience and well attuned to playing for different coaches and different styles. We have to maximise our time, with not a wasted second.’’
Molloy said he was encouraged to apply for the job after spending last year working with Kereama as a mentor and assistant coach during the failed tilt at qualifying for the Fiba world cup out of the rejigged Asia zone.
‘‘The team compete brilliantly, they’ve got a wonderful culture and it was a really gratifying time.,’’ he said. ‘‘The mission is to upskill the team and then over time we can cause a few major upsets. We’ll be in there.’’
Molloy has a strong knowledge of both the Kiwi and Aussie scenes and rates basketball IQ as his most important measuring stick as he assesses talent.
‘‘The Tall Ferns for a long time existed in a basketball qualification world where you had to beat Australia. Nowadays it’s a different world, and competing through Asia you’ve got to have a really robust style that can deal with the quickness of the Japanese, the size of the Chinese and the overall skill of the Australians.
‘‘But I really believe we’ve got a terrific senior group who have been Tall Ferns campaigners for some time now and are very good players, Then there’s an emerging younger group of stars either in the US college system or just coming out of it. It’s a rlealy interesting blend.’’
Molloy is coach of the Melbourne Boomers in the Australian WNBL, guiding them to the grand final series this year. He is a sixtime WNBL finalist, two-time coach of the year, and previously led the Perth Breakers (now the Perth Lynx) to the grand final in 1993. He was also assistant coach with the Australian Opals between 1990 and 1994.
In men’s basketball, Molloy coached the fledgling Cairns Taipans in the Australian NBL from 2000-05, leading the club to its maiden finals appearance in 2004. He was assistant coach on four NBL grand final teams from 1997-2000, and a South Dragons ANBL championship team in 2008-2009.