BASKETBALL

NBL

By BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

MOE basketballer Austin Shelley knows a thing or two about getting buckets.

That’s why he’s currently living the life of an NBL athlete, with the young star being inside the inner sanctum of the Cairns Taipans as a training player since the start of the 2024/25 season.

Shelley flew up to Queensland to attend the Taipans trial camp held a few months ago towards the end of his NBL1 season with Mt Gambier Pioneers.

The intense and large session included a mix of players eyeing for development spots and for roster spots.

After that, Shelley was invited back to do a week’s worth of preseason training with the squad before being asked by head coach Adam Forde to pack his bags and move up to the glittery coast of Cairns.

“I got feedback from the trial initially and then the head coach gave me a call and pretty much said they were impressed, it’s just they didn’t need my position out of the spots they were looking at, and he asked if I was interested in coming for that week (of preseason),” Shelley said.

Training twice a day across four days that week, Shelley more than earnt his stripes.

“(Forde) asked me if I wanted to move up and said they’d help me out as much as they can which was good,” he said.

In terms of what a training player is, they function as standard rostered players bar playing in the game.

They are treated to all the perks including all the training resources and rehabilitation facilities available in a professional organisation as well as taking part in film sessions with the team.

During home games, Shelley also gets to sit behind the bench, getting the best seat in the house being able to listen in on team huddles and pick up on any minute details to improve his game while in perfect view of the court.

This is just one step closer to an opportunity Shelley said has been a dream of his.

“I feel like coming up here was, in terms, for one, help myself for next year with Cairns but also training in this type of environment against higher-level guys (so) that you get better naturally,” he said.

Taking up this opportunity wasn’t that difficult of a decision for Shelley given the journey that he’s already been on.

Fresh out of a stellar junior career in high school, Shelley spent two years playing college basketball for West Texas A&M while also splitting time with the Knox Raiders in the NBL1 back in Australia.

Following that, Shelley has spent the last two seasons with the Pioneers and has even returned to his roots having played for his hometown Moe Meteors in the CBL that cumulated with a title and MVP award at the end of 2023.

All of this effort and perseverance for a sport has to stem from something.

Basketball has always been in his DNA given the family he was born into.

His mother and father, Carolyn and Phil Shellley are well known figures in the surrounding basketball area.

Austin isn’t the first of their children to shoot hoops overseas either – his older brother Luke attended Kentucky Wesleyan for four years and his sister Jaz played five years of college hoops including three starring seasons at Nebraska University before being drafted into the WNBA.

Austin spoke to the influence his family has had on his game and his love for basketball.

“I was around it growing up, like Mum was still playing when I was younger, I was around it all the time,” he said.

“Seeing Jaz go off and being successful over there in the US and have the success she did as well, it was something you try to aim to do yourself, so just sort of seeing how she goes about things and the stuff that she’s been able to achieve through basketball definitely helps you to be motivated to try and achieve something like that,” he said.