400-gamer Aaron Ralph returns as Geraldton Buccaneers captain after lengthy lay-off

After more than a year-and-a-half Geraldton Buccaneers fans will welcome a legend back on to the court when Aaron Ralph plays his first game in more than 600 days this weekend.

Ralph was captain of the Buccaneers when they won their 2019 championship and with more than 400 games to his name, few have more on-court experience.

“It feels a bit weird that was my first real game hit-out for 18 months, training only does so much, but it feels good and I’m really looking forward to the weekend,” he said after Saturday’s scratch match.

Ralph went down with an ACL in the middle of their difficult 2021 season missing the rest of the year and all of 2022 when he was instead seen on the sidelines helping to coach.

“It was pretty tough to start with but I knew I couldn’t help them on court, but helping coach and knowing the ins and outs of everything we run was good, but I’m ready to play.”

Despite the long-term injury, Ralph was always confident in getting back out on the court.

“I was fairly confident I could always work my way back, being a guy that doesn’t really run at a fast pace I knew I could get back to where I was,” he said.

“And my kids are a little bit older and they want to watch me play so I got to do it for them as well.”

“I’ll definitely be on a restriction to start the season and nurse into the season a little bit and then progress as the season goes on.”

However, Ralph wasn’t certain he would retain the captaincy.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to get it but I’m really keen to lead the boys this weekend,” he said.

“To still have Matt (Wundenberg) to bounce ideas off and support in that leadership is a huge bonus.”

Coach Dayle Joseph said it was always the plan to hand the captaincy back to Ralph once fit.

“He was always the captain of the team, and he has that respect from everyone in the team and it worked pretty well for us,” he said

“It was always the plan to have him back as captain but we have a lot of leaders in our squad.”

Having seen the squad develop from the sidelines Ralph is bullish about this year.

“I think we’re licking our wounds from last year’s grand finals but we’ve added some really good pieces and these guys got another year of experience in the system and I think we’re in really good shape.”

“Come round one we will just look to play our brand of basketball and to rebound well with the stifling defence that we’ve been working on from last year.”

The Buccs will get their season under way at 7pm on April 1 at Activewest Stadium against the South West Slammers.