Basketball
3 October, 2025
Hornets’ men ready to defend title
The Horsham Hornets’ men’s Country Basketball League side will begin their South West Conference premiership defence in the opening round of the 2025 season this weekend.
This season’s side will be without several players from the 2024 side, including Matt and Jono Lovel, Freddy Frew, Charlie Campbell and 2024 grand final most valuable player Austin McKenzie.
Despite the side losing key experienced players, they are bolstered by new and returning youngsters, including Micah Livingstone, last year’s conference MVP, and Levi Munyard, both of whom helped lead Victoria country to victory at the under 18 national championships earlier this year.
Coach Scott Benbow says he's excited by the new-look squad, comprising a mix of experience and up-and-coming young talent.
“We’ve still got our leaders in Mitch Martin and Cody Bryan and some of the core from last year” Benbow said.
“Micah is going to be important for us when he’s available; Levi Munyard coming into the side is a big inclusion for us.
“We’ll be looking for consistent improvement from Tarkyn (Benbow), and Judd Wright’s coming into the side.
"He will take Charlie Campbell’s role and is a hell of an athlete.
“Zak Smith’s coming in too and he’s an electric guard so he’ll be very good for us as well.”
Mitch Martin will captain the side again, and helping Benbow in the coaching ranks are assistant Matt Lovel and playing assistant Tim McCormick.
While the side intends to defend last year’s championship, Benbow acknowledges that progression in the early rounds is important.
“The exciting part of it is that we’re a bit of an unknown so it’s going into the year with no real expectation,” Benbow said.
“We want to try to defend the crown, of course, but we're looking forward to seeing how we develop for the next few games and it's going to take a few games to get us back into what we need to be and players knowing their roles and all that.”
An encouraging preseason is giving the Horsham coach confidence ahead of their opening two games this weekend: away fixtures against Terang and Warrnambool.
“It didn't take too long to start to feel like we're a team again,” Benbow said.
“We’re shooting the ball well, we're moving fast, we're running hard, we're training hard, so we're giving ourselves the best chance we can this weekend.”
Horsham Hornets' men’s 2025 CBL squad is Tarkyn Benbow, Cody Bryan, Hugh Dougherty, Toby Lakin, Micah Livingstone, Mitch Martin, Timothy McCormick, Levi Munyard, Ryan Pfitzner, Zak Smith and Judd Wright.
Harry Millar, Aiden Reinheimer, Jeremy Williamson and Jaxon Crooks will serve as development players.