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In the Tasmanian jungle, Roth's lions sleep tonight
Tasmania JackJumpers players celebrate their win against Melbourne United in Round 3 of NBL27 at MyState Bank Arena in Hobart on October 1, 2026. Photo: Steve Bell/Getty Images.
Highlights
Four players injured, two replacements brought in, and Scott Roth's Tasmania are still 4-1 in NBL27
- All 165 games of the NBL27 season in one list
- Every NBL27 roster, squad list and projected depth chart
- Every injured NBL player, with expected return dates
- Hammer Time: Who is leading the league in dunks
In the words of late legendary ESPN anchor Stuart Scott: "Booyah!"
Tasmania JackJumpers head coach Scott Roth delivered NBL27's first mic drop after his injury-riddled team handled the Illawarra Hawks 122-112 in Round 4 on Friday, October 9, 2026.
"I don't ever really consider what other people say," Roth said.
"You know, when lions go to sleep, they don't wake up wondering what sheep said about them."
Eeeee-lite.
Roth was "as cool as the other side of the pillow" as he sat at the press conference table after American import David Johnson ($232,900) became the first player in history to score 30+ points in under 21 minutes.
The JackJumpers are 4-1 despite missing injured import star guard Bryce Hamilton ($293,100), Majok Deng ($214,500), Anthony Drmic ($97,800), and Ben Ayre ($117,700). Roth has brought in live-wire guard Biwali Bayles ($78,000) and Kody Stattmann ($116,800) as injury replacements.
Miami's Heat Culture is often talked about in the NBA, but the same goes for Roth's JackJumpers.
Rookie big Ben Gold ($69,000), who had a career-high 14 points in 16 minutes, sat next to Roth during the press conference.
He was asked: "What's it like playing for Scott Roth?"
"It's a lot of fun," Gold said.
Roth chimed in: "You've already got playing time, so just tell them the truth."
Gold continued: "He lets you have fun out there. You can do what you want - well, not necessarily do what you want - but you can go out there and play, and play to your style.
"He's not going to drag you or pull you out for going outside of your box, I guess, necessarily. You can go out there and play as a team.
"He encourages you to be aggressive. Today I knocked down a couple of shots early on.
"Continuously, him and the rest of the coaching staff build that confidence in me to keep being aggressive, keep looking for my shots.
"It's not always just on the offensive end. Just doing the small little things on the defensive end helps me build my own confidence."
It helps to have one of the league's best point guards in Taran Armstrong ($304,700). The born-and-bred Tasmanian point guard is averaging 19.4 points (50%), 5.0 assists, and 2.8 rebounds.
"He's a great role model," Roth said.
"He's Tassie Tough, and that's why he's with us. It just gives kids hope and something to aspire to.
"I think he's done everything that we've obviously asked him.
"Obviously, he's our first official Tasmanian on our roster, so we're quite proud.
"The impact he's going to have and continues to have throughout Tasmania to the youth is hugely important to us as we defend the island for the entire state.
"His presence back home has been great for us. The MVP stuff is mythical at this point.
"It doesn't really matter, again, to us. We don't think about those things.
"We just tell our guys to show up, and we'll go again on Monday and start our process over again."
Gold revealed he chose to join the JackJumpers after playing NCAA Division I basketball for Marquette in the Big East because of the club's "values".
"That was a big thing when deciding on where I was going to go," Gold said,
"Everyone kind of looks at how you'll fit in as a player, and the on-court stuff, but one of the things that really stuck with me is the values and how everyone goes about their business on the team.
"Everyone's bought in. Everyone has the same mindset.
"Everyone's got that underdog chip to them, but they just go out there and do what they need to do every single game.
"No one's necessarily going out there to get their game off or look for their individual accomplishments and stats and everything.
"That was obviously a big thing for me. Coming to a team, you want to make sure that you're getting better and you're challenging yourself every single day.
"That's what I think we do really well as the Jackies - the development side of things. Being able to match up, whether it's against Bannan, Majok or Mags, if you're pushing yourself and you're committed to it, you're going to get better every day.
"That's on the court and off the court. They've helped me a lot through these first three or four months I've been here.
"It's good to be able to look up to them and have them help me every day.
"They know how to get their message across, whether it's different for each of them.
"It's been really beneficial."
Roth's commitment to Tasmania extends well beyond his own team. He said the Tasmania Jewels' first WNBL game against the Geelong Venom on Thursday, October 15 at 7pm AEDT at MyState Bank Arena was "a huge moment for the state."
"Now we have the Jewels in market, so that now gives the ladies something to aspire to. As I said before, with Taran in market, it's a huge factor.
"But for five years I've travelled throughout Tasmania, and one of the number one questions I get, no matter where I am - in a business setting or in a school - is, 'When's the girls' team coming?'
"For many, many years in Tasmania, everyone had to leave the island to go find sports, whether it be in media, coaching, whatever it may be. They had to leave the island.
"They don't have to do that anymore.
"The women now have something to aspire to, whether it's coaching or playing.
"Those things are going to be wonderful for the young girls growing up in Tasmania and another pathway for them.
"The (AFL) Devils are coming in here shortly. The island's cooking, and we're excited about, I think, us raising the bar for all the sports teams in Tasmania.
"It's no longer a punching bag. We all defend the island for the right reasons.
"It is the grit and grind of what we do, and the Jewels will just fit in seamlessly with us.
"But it's going to be very inspiring for the young ladies to have something to look forward to."
Point guard Bayles is in his fifth season in the league, after debuting with the Sydney Kings in 2021-22. In 78 games, he's averaged 2.2 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists in 8.3 minutes.
Roth said his 7.9 minutes, 1.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.3 assists belied his impact in his first three games.
"The other one I'll give a quick shout-out is Biwali," Roth said.
"He came in and steadied the ship for us. Unfortunately, him and Kody have gotten labels, but we do very well with guys that get labels. When they come down to us, we live up to our standards.
"We've had good conversations with Biwali about where he is in his career and what he needs to get done. For him to come in here and just keep his mouth shut and do his job, which we ask all our players to do, and Kody too, two guys who were basically on the street about 10 days ago and are playing in an NBL game for us with hugely important minutes.
"It's a great credit to the coaching staff, but it's also these guys trying to change the label of what maybe people might think about them.
"So, shout-out to those two kids. We just keep reloading and we'll keep finding players that want to do it the Jackie way."
Return dates for Hamilton and Drmic are TBA; Deng is between Rounds 8 and 10, and Ayre is also TBA.
"We talk about it as a team - the next-man-up mentality," Gold said.
"On any night it could be anyone's game.
"Tonight DJ had 32, but we needed everyone else to do their job.
"With us, you're not always going to see the same one person dominating the scoreboard.
"We're a deep team, and we have a lot of players that play for each other. Everyone gets open shots, everyone gets open looks.
"That's why it's so fun to play for us."
The JackJumpers have six days off before taking on the wounded (2-4) Adelaide 36ers on Friday, October 16, at 7.30pm AEDT at MyState Bank Arena - a day after the Jewels create their own slice of WNBL history.
Tasmania JackJumpers: NBL27 player stats
| Will Magnay | C | 5 | 4 | 30.1 | 16.8 | 4.8 | 7.6 | 63.2 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 50.0 | 6.8 | 9.4 | 72.3 | 1.8 | 6.2 | 8.0 | 4.8 | 1.0 | 2.6 | 1.8 | 1.6 | +2.8 | 26.0 | 213 | 42.6 | $269,300 | $319,800 | +$50,500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taran Armstrong | G | 5 | 4 | 33.8 | 19.4 | 7.2 | 14.4 | 50.0 | 1.4 | 5.2 | 26.9 | 3.6 | 5.0 | 72.0 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 5.0 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.4 | +3.2 | 17.6 | 154 | 30.8 | $304,700 | $309,300 | +$4,600 |
| David Johnson | G/F | 5 | 1 | 22.7 | 20.2 | 6.6 | 10.6 | 62.3 | 3.0 | 5.2 | 57.7 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 80.0 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 3.8 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.2 | 2.4 | +13.6 | 20.2 | 138 | 27.6 | $232,900 | $222,300 | -$10,600 |
| Dakota Mathias | G | 5 | 4 | 31.0 | 12.8 | 4.0 | 10.8 | 37.0 | 2.6 | 6.6 | 39.4 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 91.7 | 1.2 | 3.4 | 4.6 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 2.6 | +6.8 | 11.4 | 101 | 20.2 | $145,200 | $173,400 | +$28,200 |
| Josh Bannan | F | 3 | 2 | 29.1 | 17.7 | 7.3 | 16.3 | 44.9 | 1.3 | 4.7 | 28.6 | 1.7 | 3.7 | 45.5 | 2.7 | 4.7 | 7.3 | 3.7 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.3 | +5.7 | 16.7 | 99 | 33.0 | $317,500 | $317,500 | $0 |
| Nick Marshall | G/F | 5 | 4 | 32.3 | 9.0 | 3.4 | 8.0 | 42.5 | 1.2 | 3.6 | 33.3 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 71.4 | 2.4 | 2.0 | 4.4 | 3.0 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 2.0 | +2.8 | 10.6 | 91 | 18.2 | $203,400 | $200,400 | -$3,000 |
| Ben Gold | F/C | 5 | 0 | 16.2 | 6.2 | 2.2 | 3.8 | 57.9 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 62.5 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 80.0 | 0.4 | 3.4 | 3.8 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 3.0 | +5.2 | 9.4 | 68 | 13.6 | $69,000 | $80,500 | +$11,500 |
| Biwali Bayles | G | 3 | 0 | 7.9 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | – | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | +4.3 | 3.7 | 17 | 5.7 | $78,000 | $78,000 | $0 |
| Majok Deng | F | 1 | 1 | 15.9 | 6.0 | 2.0 | 9.0 | 22.2 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 100.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | -14.0 | 3.0 | 12 | 12.0 | $214,500 | $214,500 | $0 |
| Kody Stattmann | F/G | 3 | 0 | 11.7 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 1.7 | 60.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 66.7 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.7 | -17.0 | 2.3 | 10 | 3.3 | $116,800 | $116,800 | $0 |
| Nicholas Stoddart | G | 2 | 0 | 12.4 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 | -4.5 | 0.0 | 1 | 0.5 | $69,000 | $69,000 | $0 |
| Jed Richardson | F/C | 1 | 0 | 2.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | – | 0.0 | 0.0 | – | 0.0 | 0.0 | – | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -13.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 | $58,500 | $58,500 | $0 |
| Ryley Haywood | G | 1 | 0 | 4.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | – | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -10.0 | -1.0 | 0 | 0.0 | $58,500 | $58,500 | $0 |
How these figures are worked out
Every figure comes from the NBL’s official box scores and covers all 5 of Tasmania’s games, the latest against the Hawks on Friday 9 October. Shooting percentages are made from season totals. GS is games started, PF is personal fouls per game and EFF is the league’s efficiency rating.
Start price is each player’s SuperCoach price at the start of the season. A current price in green has risen since then and one in red has fallen. SuperCoach scores can change if the league corrects a box score in the days after a game.
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