We often hear about today’s sporting clubs doing their so-called “due diligence” before signing players. It’s one of those corporate-sounding buzz phrases that has crept into the sports lexicon, referring to the reluctance of clubs to welcome anyone into their inner-sanctum until they know all about their strengths and weaknesses as athletes as well as what they eat for breakfast, what time they go to bed and all that important stuff.
When it came time for the Waverley Falcons to do their due diligence on
Daniel Dillon, they didn’t have to look too far for the inside word. It was only a couple of years ago that their star guard, Sedale Threatt Jr., played alongside Dillon at the Sandringham Sabres, and it was only last year that they shared backcourt duties for the Rush in the High Stakes Hoops tournament in Adelaide. It’s safe to assume, therefore, that Threatt Jr. knows a thing or two about Dillon, and, after some sounding out, so too do the Falcons as they now prepare to reunite the pair as part of their tilt at a second straight championship.
“They played together at Sandringham and he also played at the tournament up at Adelaide, so there’s a bit of a relationship there,” says Waverley coach Eric Minerve. “We’ve gained a little bit of an insight in terms of his (Dillon’s) character and what he can and can’t do on the court and all the rest of it, so we sort of know what we’re getting.”
There’s no doubt that any appraisal of Dillon’s game would have been highly complimentary of his work at the defensive end of the court. That’s where he initially made a name for himself and it was no coincidence that it was the South Dragons, coached by the defensively-minded Brian Goorjian, who snapped him up as a development player upon his return from college.
Yet, while Dillon’s reputation as a defender may have been what kick-started his professional career, it was his subsequent improvement on offense that most recently saved it. Without an NBL team after the South Dragons withdrew from the league, Dillon was one of many players who headed to last year’s High Stakes Hoops tournament hoping to not only claim a share of the $250,000 in prize money on offer, but also to impress the handful of coaches seen scouting from the stands.
One coach he clearly managed to impress was Cairns’ Aaron Fearne.
Announcing Dillon’s signing just two months after seeing him light it up at the tournament, Fearne heaped praise on the guard’s evolvement into a more complete player.
“Daniel brings a very well rounded game to the Taipans with his ability to flat out defend as well as provide a scoring punch in a number of different ways,” Fearne said at the time.
“He’s really developed his perimeter shooting the last couple of years. That was an area of his game he really needed to improve,” he told the Cairns Post.
Fearne’s faith has since been vindicated, with Dillon playing a key role in the Snakes’ 2010/11 campaign. He’s so far featured in all of their 26 games for an average of 24 minutes, compared to his previous NBL season where he played just 12 games as a rookie with the Dragons for an average of seven minutes. He’s scoring nearly eight points a game, including a season-high 18 against Wollongong in January, and is equal-second on the team for assists.
As the Taipans move closer to a playoff berth and the NBL season heads towards its crescendo, it’s now the Waverley Falcons who look forward to reaping the rewards of Dillon’s improvement.
“If they don’t make the finals we envisage having him at the end of March or early-April. If they do make the finals, I guess it all depends on when they’re knocked out,” says Minerve, who swooped on Dillon when he heard the Melbournian was looking to return home after the NBL season.
“Given that everything’s gone well at Waverley and he’s wanting to come back to his home town in the off-season, there were offers for him to play SEABL but he wasn’t too keen to be travelling both in the off-season and during the season of the NBL.” “Luckily it was a really good fit for him.”
With Dillon’s former backcourt colleague Sedale Threatt Jr. already on their roster and the comfort that the two will know each others’ games pretty well, it’s not a bad fit for the Falcons, either.
by Michae l Scibilia
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