NBL23 Debrief: Chris Goulding

Written by Melbourne United Media 

While United fans will remember NBL23 for a lot of things, one of the lasting memories of the season will be the brilliance of MU’s captain, Chris Goulding.

CG43 had one of his most spectacular seasons to date, playing all but one game while registering his best scoring numbers since the NBL20 season.

The sharpshooter led the league in three-point makes, which saw him climb up the all-time leaderboard for made triples, ultimately finishing the season with the equal 10th-most long-range makes in NBL history with 1,049.

Not one to get caught up in individual accolades in the midst of a season, Goulding said looking back on what this feat means across the course of his career is pretty special.

“I made 1,000 three-pointers which is pretty cool… I think I said it at the time but it’s not something I’m too worried about now,” he said.

“You get so engulfed in a season and trying to win games, the individual accolades don’t matter too much.

“I’m sure when I’m older and when I’m retired and I’m talking about ‘I used to be that good’ and trying to make myself sound better than I was, I’ll bring it up a bit more. It’s cool to think about the longevity I’ve had in the game but hopefully there’s a hell of a lot more to come.”

With his side falling short of the playoffs for the first time in five years, Goulding said while he views the season as disappointing, he remains proud of how United were able to propel themselves back into the mix over the second half of the season.

“I think anytime key pieces of your team are unavailable, it puts pressure on every other aspect of the team. I thought early on we probably didn’t deal with that as well as we could,” he explained.

“Once we started to find out who we are and people became more accustomed with the Melbourne United style of play and what was expected I thought we really started to turn the season around and got to a stage where we had to win a lot of games but we were a chance to make that play-in and give it a real shake.

“I think from the start of the season to the back-end we were a completely different team and the back-end was definitely more the team we wanted to see on more occasions.”

With his eyes already firmly fixed on NBL24, Goulding’s motivation to lift United back into championship contention is greater than ever.

“The motivation is to get right back into (the playoff) mix and get this club back to competing for championships.

“That’s why we’re here, that's why the owners are here, that’s why people work and play for this club.

“We’ll do some things with the roster and hopefully get some guys back that have been injured or unhealthy and give it a shake… the motivation is to get back to the top by any means.”