ORENA Hume City Broncos have been dealt a major blow, with captain Jermaine Maybank ruled out for the rest of the season.
Maybank, who hasn’t played since the Broncos’ overtime win against Werribee in round 9, had surgery two weeks ago to repair a ruptured patella tendon.
Coach Lanard Copeland said Maybank was looking at a recovery period of between eight and 10 months.
“He’s a very big loss,” Copeland said.
“You don’t replace Jermaine. His stats aren’t as high as in previous years, but he’s the motivational guy pushing everyone at training and in games.
“Hopefully he’ll be okay but it will take eight to 10 months to get him back to where he was.”
The loss of Maybank was compounded by the loss of leading scorer Lee Jeka for four games because he was getting married.
The Broncos lost the first three of those games, including two by 30 points.
The Broncos returned to the winners list on Saturday, when they beat over bottom side Bulleen 98-86.
Luke Egan topscored with 25 points, while Jamal Brown had 24 points.
“I think we were in shock the first game [without both players],” Copeland said.
“Against Eltham we were in the game until the last minute before backing up the next day, which is normally tough.”
Copeland said that while the side could replace Maybank with a new player, it was unlikely after signing Javari Williams and Andrew Saviage in recent weeks.
“Both are great but will take time to get going,” he said. “They are different players to Jermaine but they help out on the board.
“We were lucky to get them both on board.”
He said Shaun Prendergast would move into a starting role in Maybank’s absence.
“The way he shoots the ball he can get hot and he used to start for us,” Copeland said.
“Nick Jones has picked up his game in recent weeks and is playing the three spot, while Brown has moved to the four spot with Saviage coming in.”
Copeland said a topsix finish was still the his team’s aim.
“Give us a couple of weeks to settle down,” he said.
“We’ve been there [finals] before and anything can happen.”
The Broncos women’s side continued on its winning ways, also accounting for Bulleen.
The Broncos found themselves in a position they haven’t often this season, trailing at halftime, but upped the tempo in the second half to win 7557.
Captain Colleen Planeta topscored with 21 points and also had 15 rebounds.
