Perth Wildcats signing Damian Martin is excited to lead the team's aggressive back court defence alongside Brad Robbins and Kevin Lisch as he hopes to back up what he achieved under Rob Beveridge at national level by winning an NBL title.
Martin has joined his former Sydney Spirit, West Sydney Razorbacks and Australian Emus coach Beveridge at the Perth Wildcats for the 2009/10 season, and Beveridge is delighted.
"Damian has played for me a long time now and has been my captain and starting point guard," Beveridge said.
"He is one of the toughest players that I've ever coached mentally and physically, and is a spark plug, of energy and excitement. I love him as a player, as a person and Perth is going to love him as well."
Martin is pleased to be back under Beveridge, but also with Robbins who played in the winning 2003 world championship under-20s team.
"We go back a long time now and it's good to continue playing underneath him. Hopefully we can do a little bit more this year than the last two seasons. We won a world championship together and I know with the right players we can win an NBL championship together," Martin said.
"I'm just excited to come to practice and see people like Paul Rogers, Shawn Redhage and Martin Cattalini, to be back with Brad Robbins and then the younger guys. Stephen Weigh is going to be explosive this year and I'm excited to be in the upper echelon of the NBL."
While the Melbourne Tigers, New Zealand Breakers and Townsville Crocodiles already look as though they'll be hard to beat, Martin is confident the Wildcats can challenge for the title.
"People will look at the Melbourne team on paper and their starting five is as good as it gets, and New Zealand has been able to get back most of their players, but we look just as good and with a new style of play, it should be a successful year for the club."
Martin only arrived in Perth this week, but already has noticed the night and day difference between the Perth Wildcats and Sydney Spirit, who folded at the end of last season. He's excited to be part of an organisation like the Wildcats.
"When we played here last year I had no idea that I'd be playing here, but I remember playing in front of the crowd and it was the best one in the league. To now be on the home team is exciting and with the guys we've got, it will be good to be part of what will be a successful year," he said.
"It's a complete opposite for me. I only got in yesterday and already we have outfits, people that work in the office and that answer their phone. It's really exciting and you can tell the professionalism is a lot different than I experienced in Sydney."
Martin's arm is in a cast, but he was still able to join in training fully on Wednesday and will be right for the next Boomers camp, not to mention the tip-off on September 25 against Wollongong.
"It wasn't the ideal preparation, but at the last Boomers camp I fell on it and fractured the tip of my ulna. I'll be out for three more weeks, but I did a bit of brown nosing by getting a red cast. It shouldn't be too long," he said.
"I talked to Brett Brown and he wants me to come in for the next camp. That's not for another few weeks, so fingers crossed I will heal up fine and I'll at least be able to attend the next camp."