Basketball: Tamworth Thunderbolts lose nailbiter as McGann relishes fatherhood

Noah Anne McGann's arrival sent her father "over the moon".

And though he nonetheless took to the court to captain the Tamworth Thunderbolts on Saturday night, McGann admitted that his thoughts were still with his partner and first child, at least initially.

"I started really slow, I wasn't very focused in the warm-up," McGann said.

"It was a bit weird, after the first couple of nights [of fatherhood] I'm a bit sleep deprived. It took me a little bit to get going."

McGann's battle to find his groove was not shared by the rest of the Tamworth team, who began with their typical blitz in the first quarter against Blacktown at the Sports Dome.

The scoreline was 22-12 at the first break (and at one point it was 17-1), before the Thunderbolts fell away and Blacktown picked up the pace.

27 points to the visitors in the second quarter proved the death knell for Tamworth, who only managed 10 in the same frame.

From there, they were left to play catch-up and, despite visible improvements from their opening-round loss to Canberra, fell short again 77-70.

"The first game, and tonight's game, there's definitely areas we can improve," McGann said.

"It's just about coming into practice, working on those things, and taking them into games."

Their towering captain was one of the better players on court for the Thunderbolts, with 16 points to his name (second only to Allante Harper's 32) and a couple of dismissive blocks which elicited deafening cheers from the crowd.

However, he almost didn't feature.

Given Noah Anne's birth just days before the game, McGann said he would not have taken part if it had been played anywhere but in Tamworth.

"I'm always going to put my daughter first, but it turned out we had a home game this week," he said.

"I want to be in both places, but if there's a conflict of interest, I'm going to be [at home]."

But, McGann added, Chillingworth is entirely supportive of his senior role within the team and has encouraged him to focus on captaincy when needed.

"She's pretty accommodating and looks after me ... she lets me do what I need to do, she's great," he said.

And though he was disappointed by the result, McGann's dismay was vastly outweighed by his love of fatherhood.

"It's so good, I haven't been this happy ever," he said.

"Everyone told me it'd change my life. It's amazing."

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