Mick Hall will take to the court for Knox Raiders this season.
By Greg Oakford
KNOX Raiders have clinched two top players to shore up the list for the pre-season.
Mick Hall and Cameron Rigby have joined the ranks in time for the first game in March.
The Raiders take on reining SEABL champions Hobart in the Apple Isle on 13 March.
Coming off a successful year in ’08, the team will again bolster a formidable line-up with veterans Hill and Rigby.
Both will be keen to add strength to the existing core group of players from last season.
Hill and Rigby fell victim to the NBL’s much publicised demise of foundation club Brisbane Bullets last year when long-time owner Eddy Groves off-loaded the team, due to financial troubles with his ABC Learning Centres.
Hill, who would have been entering his sixth season with the Bullets and his eighth in the NBL, was in his second year of a two-year deal and was left with nowhere to play in a smaller team competition.
For Rigby it was much of the same, as the big power forward signed a deal with the Bullets after leaving Wollongong.
Hill first played for Knox in 2000, after coming from Dandenong where he played junior basketball.
Under head coach Damian Cotter, Hill made a name for himself in the SEABL competition in his first two years and would be given the nod up to the NBL by the now extinct Canberra Cannons in 2001.
When the Canberra Cannons went bust in 2003, the Brisbane Bullets pounced on Hill’s services.
The move to Brisbane would be good for the NBL player, in a permanent rotation with the Bullets’ squad. Hill would also be named runner-up in the sixth man-of-the-year award in 2004.
The 196cm (6’5”) guard-forward cited family and the professionalism of Knox Basketball as major factors in returning for ’09.
“I came back to Melbourne for family reasons. I was keen to get back to Knox after playing NBL. The club has always been very professional and in an area where I grew up in,” he said.
For Rigby, it will be an opportunity to play alongside long-time friend Hill. Like Hill, Rigby was given his opportunity to play in the NBL with the Canberra Cannons in 2001 after a strong showing in his time with the Raiders.
With the Cannons downfall after the 2002-03 season, Rigby would continue his NBL career with the newly established franchise, Hunter Pirates for the 2003-04 season.
After only a year with Hunter, the 6ft 7in big man moved to Wollongong in 2004-05 before having a two-year stint for the West Sydney Razorbacks from 2005-07. Rigby then returned to Wollongong for the 2007-08 season before signing a contract to play for the Bullets, where he would have played with Hill.
“It was a combination of being close to the city. With not playing NBL anymore, it was time for me to join the workforce and look for a ‘real job’ and Melbourne had more opportunities for me to consider,” he said.
