Conor Quinn admits he could not have conceived of the chaotic start to Belfast Star’s season but now believes the great reset is complete and they can target making a major impact on the All Ireland Superleague.
In the midst of an unpredictable League, Star have navigated their way through a storm that has seen a change of coach, both American professionals replaced and a serious eye injury to stalwart Liam Pettigrew.
Despite the upheaval they find themselves joint sixth with a record of five wins and five defeats but with games in hand on some of those above them in the table.
Captain Quinn has been to the fore in making sure Star have remained in contention for the top eight Play-Off spots but now with new Americans Darweshi Hunter and Dre Jackson already clicking and coach Sean Ingle making his presence felt there is a renewed optimism as the club approaches the halfway point in the season.
“There’s no getting away from it, it has been hard. We’ve had the change of coach, the change of Americans… when things like that are happening it obviously makes it hard to have consistency,” said Quinn.
“But we have a lot of good leaders in this team and I’m a big believer in having the right perspective whatever is happening because the last thing you need is negativity. We all know that it’s a privilege to play this sport at the top level.”
“We have got through this period of adversity and it could have been a lot worse. There are teams below us in the League who haven’t faced the challenges we have.
“Now I feel that we have things a lot more settled — Darweshi and Dre look like they’re going to be a very good partnership. It’s great to have Dre back because he always has a smile on his face, he brings energy to the court and we know what he brings. He had some great performances last year for us.
“We have a great group of guys so as far as I’m concerned we have to be targeting the top four which means home advantage in the Play-Offs.
“The way this League is going you just don’t know how things are going to turn out. At one stage Tralee looked really strong and then they lost five on the bounce.
“I feel that when it comes to the end of the season there are going to be very fine margins between fourth and ninth, for example so it just means that every game really counts.”
Last weekend Star enjoyed a very impressive victory away to Neptune but were unable to follow that up with a win against second-placed Demons despite looking as if they were ready to make it a double in Cork only to see the game slip away in the final two minutes.
Now they head to Sligo on Saturday night hoping for a win that could push them to the brink of the top four and make sure their Christmas dinner tastes that little bit better.
Quinn, whose twin brother Aidan has been in good form for Star, added: “I felt we could have won against Demons, we probably should have nicked it. But we move forward and I think we all know that the area where we have to get a lot better is defence.
“Last weekend over the two games we gave up an average of 100 points a game and that is very uncharacteristic for a Star team.
“We know we have the players to shoot the ball well, that even if someone is closed down there are guys who can step up and deliver. But we need a conscious effort to be better defensively. Everybody needs that focus when they’re guarding their man, there’s an individual and a collective responsibility to improve.
“I think this is an area that will improve the more time we spend together and the more we work with Sean. As a team I believe we are only going to get better.
“We want to go down to Sligo and get the victory which would put us on a winning record going into Christmas. We can enjoy our Christmas dinner and then get right back at it the following weekend.”