Isaac Mourier: Leeds Force stars need to be accountable for their actions

The end result – a 125-91 loss didn’t reflect how close the game was – we ran out of steam but we were very competitive throughout the entire contest.

We worked hard to open up a lot of good shooting chances, received a lot of open shots and reaped the rewards of our offensive efforts.

Everyone chipped in, we made plenty of difficult shots and that kept us alive.

Unfortunately, being under-manned and under-sized left us exposed defensively – if we can recruit some players of a bigger size and stature to fill in some holes, we’re more than capable of matching up against sides like Glasgow.

As an experienced player and team leader, I understand that I have to step up and fit in any role that needs filling, which is something that I’ve been doing for a number of years. I’ve had to learn all of our offensive plays from every position on the court – where I’m slotted in the line-up doesn’t matter to me, I’m here to do a job and I’m a proud guy, so I always make sure I can help out wherever I’m needed to the best of my abilities.

It’s important that the guys who are coming in now are aware of the Leeds Force culture, and understand the type of player and person that we’re looking for to join our team.

There’s a really strong core of guys who want to be here, and any new additions to the squad will be able to see exactly what it means to be a Leeds Force player.

Every player we have as part of our cohesive unit right now is willing to fight for one another, and I think that level of determination and willpower will be obvious to see to any players thinking of joining us.

Being entirely honest, having a lack of players who were willing to fight for the Leeds Force jersey is something we struggled with in the first half of the season.

Those players are gone however, and we’re now in a position where everyone is willing to fight tooth and nail – we’re all trying to prove ourselves and, most importantly, we’re desperate to improve our team record in 
the second half of the campaign.

We need to continue to improve week in, week out – eventually the results will start to come if everyone at Leeds Force works hard enough to earn them.

Realistically, we’ve already lost a lot of games, and making the play-offs will be a very hard task now, but it’s important that we still build and grow as a team in the run up towards the end of the season.

We have to make sure we build our team here in Leeds, our culture and ourselves as individuals.

If we can do that, then I’m confident the wins will come, we’re taking it step by step and every day brings a new challenge – we want to see how far we can go.

As I always say, our fans are incredibly important to all of us here at Leeds Force. We feed off your energy, you spend your hard-earned money to come and watch us play and we’re determined to give our all to show you how much you mean to us.

That’s it for this week’s column, make sure to come and join us on Sunday when we take on London Lions at Carnegie Sports Arena in Leeds (4pm), and we’re looking forward to you being a part of the rest of our journey this season.

#FeelTheForce

Interview: Seb Gigner