The Newcastle Falcons will be coached by Pete Astley and Marty McLean in next season's expanded NBL1 East.
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Astley continues for a second campaign at the helm of the men's squad while McLean returns to his 2020 role with the women's team, taking over from Chloe Mullaney.
NBL1 East officials announced on Thursday the arrival of four clubs in 2023 with Basketball NSW awarding licenses to the Sydney Comets, Basketball Australia's Centre of Excellence (CoE), Penrith Panthers and the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Spiders.
This means 16 sides in both the men's and women's state competitions next year.
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Astley feels the Falcons can build upon a recent appearance in the play-offs and hopes to retain key trio Ryan Beisty, Myles Cherry and Jaidyn Goodwin.
"We had a good year this year and we think we've got some improvement with the young blokes in the squad, so really keen to see how they develop and grow," Astley said.
"There's probably one or two moving parts that we'd be looking to add, but first priority is to secure a few really key individuals that were with us this year."
McLean, an NBL player with the Falcons during the 1990s, rejoins the Newcastle coaching ranks after "time away" establishing a local business.
"The heart grows fonder, missed it and wanted to get back into it. A lot of the young ones who were there at that stage [2020] are now more established," McLean said.
In terms of the upcoming group, McLean says "we haven't really found our feet" or "had trials yet".
"You're always going to be faced with challenges like Chyra Evans heading over to the States and Emily Foy will leave for the States at some point this season, but at the same token players might be coming home who are currently over there," he said.
McLean's daughter Cassidy begins her own WNBL campaign with the Bendigo Spirit on Friday (6:30pm), away to the UC Capitals in Canberra before backing up against the Perth Lynx at home on Sunday (2pm), while fellow Novocastrian Lara McSpadden goes around again for the Townsville Fire.
Next year's NBL1 East is scheduled to get underway across March 11-12 with the title decider slated for August 12. Winners advance to the NBL1 national finals.
Basketball NSW boss Maria Nordstrom released a statement on Thursday saying: "We are proud of the success of the inaugural season of the NBL1 East and expanding the league to include more teams has always been in our planning".
Elsewhere, the Maitland Mustangs unveiled Luke Boyle (men) and Mark Wawszkowicz (women) as their NBL1 East head coaches earlier this week.
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Josh Callinan
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
