Basketball Australia is pleased to announce the Australian Rollers wider squad for 2026, featuring a mix of experienced Paralympians, established leaders and emerging talent as part of the national men\u2019s wheelchair basketball program.<\/p>\n
The squad will form the athlete pool for camps, tours and international competition throughout the year, as the Rollers continue their preparation for the 2026 IWBF World Championships in Ottawa, Canada in September.<\/p>\n
Head Coach Brad Ness said the 2026 wider squad balanced experience with the next generation of talent progressing through the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2026 Rollers squad is one of \u2018win now\u2019, as well as building for the future,\u201d Ness said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are stacked with experience along with three of the most dynamic players in world wheelchair basketball, which brings an element of excitement every time we take the court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ness praised the newer additions to the squad who had earned their place through standout performances over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cKane Downie is a power forward sitting max height who has earned his opportunity to come into the squad and learn the Rollers system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis height gives us the possibility to play with four tall players on court, which is something we have not had before but needed to combat rivals on the world stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell Bond also caught the eye of Ness following a breakout year that saw him named to the 2026 NCAA All-Rookie Team while playing for the University of Texas.<\/p>\n
Bond has also spent time alongside Downie at the Red Dust Heelers, with the pair building a strong on-court connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Bond) brings elite mid-range shooting and earned his place in the squad after a breakout 2025 NWBL season,\u201d Ness said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMitch and Kane formed one of the deadliest scoring combinations in the league last year and we are looking to capture that chemistry in the Rollers moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ness also added that Jaylen Brown and Philip Evans were among the athletes who had particularly impressed over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cJaylen Brown has arrived on the world stage and put everyone on notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople see his offensive flair, but it is what he does on defence that sets him apart from everyone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhil Evans has also continued to improve. His leadership and offensive consistency have been the rock we have built our pick-and-roll game around.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rollers have a busy year ahead, beginning with an international tournament at the AIS in June, before a tour to Canada in July and a pair of preparation camps leading into the 2026 IWBF World Championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to use the Rollers\u2019 World Tournament in June to finalise the roster leading into the World Championships,\u201d Ness said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will give a few of the players who were unlucky to miss out on the AOZ tournament in 2025 another opportunity to press their case for selection, no doubt creating selection headaches for the coaching staff \u2013 which are great problems for the program to have.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to win the World Championships in September, and we have the squad to be versatile and flexible to match up against any opposition we face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Australian Rollers squad for 2026:
Jordan Bartley
Alex Blackmore
Jannik Blair
Jaylen Brown
Jontee Brown
Lachlin Dalton
Kane Downie
Steven Elliott
Philip Evans
Jake Kavanagh
Tomas Klein
Bill Latham
Eithen Leard
Thomas McHugh
Mitchell Bond
Frank Pinder
Luke Pople
Hayden Siebuhr
Sam White
Tristan Knowles
Jeremy Tyndall
Tom O\u2019Neill-Thorne<\/p>\n
Published: 10 April 2026
By: Basketball Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Basketball Australia is pleased to announce the Australian Rollers wider squad for 2026, featuring a mix of experienced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-597157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}