Basketball: Forman, Trueman axed from Breakers

The Breakers have axed Oscar Forman and Jeremiah Trueman for the next ANBL season.

The moves came as the club firmed up its roster before yesterday's publication of the league's free agent list.

The club has retained the core of its talent, with Kirk Penney, CJ Bruton, Paul Henare, Corey Webster, Tom Abercrombie, Dillon Boucher and Alex Pledger all confirmed on the roster.

American-born centre Rick Rickert has been offered the final local player spot subject to the success of his citizenship application.

That would leave the club requiring two imports and two development players to complete the 12-man roster.

Forman's exit following a campaign where he lost his starting place and featured less and less off the bench is no surprise. A frustrating player to watch at times, the lanky Australian seldom seemed to make the most of his outstanding physical attributes.

A good but streaky shooter from the perimeter, he was at times a defensive liability. "Oscar has been with us for four years and has made a great contribution to the club," coach Andrej Lemanis said. "It was a very hard decision to release him. In terms of the game I want us to play and the type of player we need it would have changed Oscar's role significantly so it was decided to let him look for a contract with another club."

Trueman's release is more surprising. Little used for much of last season, the Tall Black forward appeared to be improving rapidly and played some solid minutes over the six-match winning run that closed out the season. Providing an Australian club does not pick him up he could return if there is a snag with Rickert's naturalisation.

"For now we have told him that he should see what else is available," Lemanis said. "But depending on what happens with our final local roster position we have not ruled out the chance of him being back."

General manager Richard Clarke was happy to have retained the core of a side that substantially under-performed in missing the playoffs last season. "At the end of last season we think we were playing very good basketball, and that style of game is what we want Breakers basketball to look like," Clarke said.

"We have looked to retain the majority of that group, while also bringing the exciting young talent of Corey Webster and Alex Pledger into the main roster."