WHILE it was an up and down 2023 for Portland’s men’s basketballers, coming into the final three weeks of the season post-New Year they’re in the hunt for a finals spot and will be looking to get the ball rolling in their clash against Colac.

Currently sitting at 7-5, the Coasters have been on the rollercoaster so far this season.

Their season started off on the right note, as they started with three wins out of the gate, before making it to 5-2 after seven rounds.

However, their loss at home to Colac set a three-game losing streak in motion, before a pair of wins to close out the year got them back on the right foot.

Their coach Hayden Annett said while the first 12 fixtures hadn’t gone exactly to script, they were still pleased overall with how the season has played out so far.

“To have our head above water at this stage with a lot of new pieces is a positive, especially since we’ve changed the way we do things a lot since last year,” Annett said.

“We had some great results early which helped with buy in, but I think we all agree we could be in a stronger position than what we are.

“I think ideally, we’d like to be 9-3, but at the same time I’ve maintained from the start that success won’t be linear, there will be set backs.

“Losing three games by under five points is tough but I think we’ve shown we have the ability to bounce back.”

While the Coasters are eager to make their run over these last four games, Annett admitted that post-Christmas fixtures haven’t always been their bread and butter.

“I think we lost five out of the last six to finish the season last time, we can’t afford to have something like that happen again,” he said.

“Realistically we need three out of these last four, if we can do that we should be in good shape.

“It’s not as simple as us playing the four bottom teams, we saw when we played Colac and Terang that there’s no easy games in this competition.”

Annett said he wanted to give props to his bench coach Aaron Lindsey who he said has been a “huge help” throughout the season so far.

“He’s a steady head which has been fantastic through some tough moments… his composure in a couple of those close games has been really valuable to the boys and to myself as a coach.”

The Coasters will face the Kookas at Bluewater Leisure Centre at 2pm on Sunday.