Geraldton Buccaneers to face Giants minus star Johny Narkle

The undefeated Buccaneers will look to take down the Goldfields Giants this week without star Johny Narkle, who has been sidelined with injury.

Geraldton has been on a roll since the start of the season, but they will be without their grand final MVP for at least the next two matches.

Coach Dayle Joseph said they would get a better idea of how long Narkle will be out for later this week.

“Anywhere from two to six weeks at this stage, so we’re hoping he gets an assessment during the week and it just says two weeks,” he said.

“But at this stage his hand’s in plaster from sort of a broken bone in his arm.”

With Narkle out, it gives more opportunity for other players to step up, and the inclusion of US import Josh Braun will help alleviate the pressure on offence.

Braun appeared in the Lakeside Lightning win on Saturday not long after joining the team, where he scored nine points off threes.

Joseph said Braun would bring diversity to their game plan and help clear the paint for a tall Buccs team.

“He’ll add another dimension to our team that we haven’t had for a few years,” he said.

“Bit of an elite shooter, he can pretty much get a shot up when he needs to, I think he’s going to help us stretch the floor.

“Hopefully open up a little bit on the inside for our guys that can penetrate and drive, open it up for our bigs in Liam (Hunt), Ryan (Blanchett) and Mat (Wundenberg), I’m hoping it gives us a new dynamic to our team.”

While offence gets people excited, defence wins games and that was the big point for Joseph on his team going into last week’s match.

It paid off as they were able to hold the Lightning to just 70 points on the weekend.

“We gave up 100 against Mandurah, which is not sort of the way we like to play,” Joseph said.

“Pretty much keeping them to 70 was a bit of a bonus for us, made a little bit easier for us at the offensive end . . . good signs of the defensive side of things.

The reigning champs will look to stop the Goldfields Giants this week, who are looking like a much different side than years past.

“They’re a bit of a new-look team, they’ve got a couple of new imports in and a new coach with a different sort of game style,” Joseph said.

“It will come down to defensive structures, a lot of on ball, lot of hand off stuff that they do in their offence.

“We’re trying to come up with a few plans to try and restrict them on that, then at the other end try and take advantage of it with some free-flowing offence.”

The Buccs will host the Giants at Activewest Stadium on Saturday, at 7pm.