Ralph's motivation as strong as ever upon return

Written for NBL1 West by Chris Pike

Whether it was to prove to himself that he can do it, proving doubters wrong, to let his children watch him play or wanting a second NBL1 West championship with the Geraldton Buccaneers, a knee injury never was going to end Aaron Ralph's career.

Ralph suffered a knee injury late in the 2021 season that ultimately led to an ACL reconstruction, and saw him join the coaching staff at the Buccs during 2022 as they reached another Grand Final with Ralph undergoing his rehabilitation.

The successful return

While he could have been excused if he thought he'd accomplished enough with his hometown Buccs in a career already including 410 games and the memorable breakthrough 2019 championship, that would be underselling the now famous competitive drive of Ralph.

The moment he underwent the knee reconstruction, he dedicated himself to his rehab and to be ready to return for the start of the 2023 season. That's exactly what he did on Saturday night in the 61-point win at home in front of a record crowd against the South West Slammers.

Not only did Ralph successfully return, but in the 411th game of his career, he put up 18 points and nine rebounds, and the second most proficient three-point shooter in league history hit 4/9 from beyond the arc.

"It was a long time coming, but it was fun. I felt like I was playing my first game again," Ralph said.

"I was nervous all day, or probably the whole week leading up to the first game back in 18 months. I just didn’t know if the game had got too quick for me, but it was good fun. I enjoyed every minute of it but there's obviously more challenges ahead and we'll move onto the next challenge."

Where the motivation to return came from

The motivation for Ralph to return was immediate once he knew he would be forced to miss the entire 2022 season, and the rest of 2021 once diagnosed with the ACL rupture.

However, where that motivation came from was on multiple fronts and even though Ralph did take note there were doubters that he could return, it was that motivation from within himself and to get to play for his children that spoke the loudest.

"It was more about proving to myself that I could do it. Having never gone through an injury like that, I wanted to make sure that I could to myself, and to some people, that I still can play," Ralph said.

"I wanted to show that I could get back and put the work in. I'd probably never seen a gym as much as I have over the past 18 months but it was good and the rest of the body really appreciated the rehab too I think.

"My kids are also getting older and they want to be able to see me play basketball. They really only understanding it over the last 18 months and I was on the sidelines coaching and not playing. But now they can finally see me run out and play, and they know I'm not lying to them and actually can play."

Watch Ralph and the Buccaneers tonight against the Perth Redbacks live from 7:00pm AWST via NBL1.com.au or the NBL1 App here.

Getting at least one more season with Wundenberg

While they would never admit it to one another, there's no doubt that in the back of Ralph's mind during his rehab, and during Buccs captain Mat Wundenberg's decision to play on in 2023, playing at least one more season together was a factor.

The pair have been the mainstays of the Buccs since Ralph made his debut in 2006. They have played a combined 886 for Geraldton and Ralph certainly wanted to get back to play with him again to continue that push for a second championship together.

"He is like my brother. We've played together since we were pretty young and you just know what each other's about," Ralph said. 

"He knows what I'm going to be doing, I know what he's doing and we both share the same values as to how we should go about the game. That was bred into us like the older guys like Bunts, Browny and those guys. I don’t know when he's going to call it a day but that’s a question for him to answer I guess.

"We obviously did have a conversation and I had a sense that I didn’t want to finish last year and not play another year with me when I came back, at least I had a sense of that he would never actually tell me that. 

"But obviously if this is the last year we play together, it's cool that we can look back in years to come to know we've played together for so many years now."

Learning as part of the coaching staff

Ralph earned high praise as part of the Geraldton coaching staff under Dayle Joseph last season with the Buccs finishing the season on top of the standings, and then reaching the Grand Final.

He did learn plenty and it might have stoked a coaching fire for the future somewhere, but not right now.

"It definitely gives you a different perspective on the coaching side. There's a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes that as a player you don't really see and I really enjoyed it," he said. 

"But it also showed me that I wasn’t ready to give the game away as a player yet. Maybe one day in the future if the family allows me to, I might be a coach but we'll see what happens.

"There's a lot of work that goes into it but when I do decide to retire, it would more be about putting family in first and then coaching might be a bit of an afterthought later on."

So close last season

Ultimately what has brought Ralph back to the court is that desire to help the Buccs win the championship in 2023.

Having felt how good it was to win the ultimate in 2019 almost 400 games into his career, he now wants to experience it again especially after being there to witness how close they were in 2022.

"I've lost two now that I've played in and we've won one, but the joy of winning that is unreal. It definitely makes you want to get back to the top of the mountain again hopefully before I retire," Ralph said.

"Hopefully this can be the year but there's a lot of hurdles to jump and a lot of good teams this year with everyone getting better. I'm just really looking forward to the challenge ahead.

"When you look at it, we were so close. We played good basketball for three quarters but Rockingham were super tough and in that fourth quarter they just turned it on and pulled away from us. 

"It sounds selfish, but by not playing it didn’t quite hurt as much. If I was playing, it would have hurt a lot more but it still did hurt to be part of it. But we've kept most of our core group together and we've realised what we need to do, and have been working on that all pre-season."

Prospects for Buccs in 2023

On the back of last season where the Buccs were so close to the NBL1 West championship and who knows, possibly the National Championship given Rockingham went on to win that, there has been little need to change much.

Geraldton has added NBL championship winner Zac Gattorna from the Sydney Kings but for the most part, Ralph feels their continuity will be key to their success.

"Our game plan doesn’t really change too much and we stick to what we know, and it's very exciting thinking about what we can do this year," he said. 

"Adding Zac was huge for us and he's an exceptional player, and a great bloke so he's good to have around the club. 

"Then keeping the other pieces especially Shaun and Malik, they are key pieces for us. Then the development of Johny will be pretty good to watch this year I think. His last six months has been really good to see with the work he's put in."

The Buccs will now play their second game of the season this Saturday night in Karratha against the Perth Redbacks, which provides Gattorna the first chance to play against his former team he won a championship with and played 110 games for.

"Talking to him about it the other day, he's pretty excited. I don't think he can wait to get out there and have a run around against some of his old mates," Ralph said.

"But as a group, we're all excited. It's a new challenge taking a home game away from Geraldton but it should be fun and interesting to see what kind of crowd we get up there. It will be a different challenge but it will be good."