The introduction of the Darwin Salties to the NBL One North Conference has been a huge injection of excitement for sport in Darwin.

The NBL One Competition is a semi-professional basketball league in Australia consisting of south, north, central, west and east conferences with both men's and women's competitions.

Attending the round two clash against Townsville Heat, I quickly felt as I walked in to the stadium there was an air of excitement like I have never felt in a Darwin sporting arena.

To witness the amount of kids with Salties tops on and basketball in hand eager to get in to the stadium with their parents was great to see.

I have been watching Darwin basketball for many years, as my wife Sam has had a successful career playing with the Tracey Village Jets in the Darwin Basketball Association.

Dean Rioli.

The DBA Grand Final day has an electric buzz in the stadium, but this is more than that and will be on a weekly occurrence.

The Top End now has its very own local basketball team that we can get behind.

The standard of basketball is incredible and anyone who attends a game will automatically become a repeat visitor.

They will even feel the need to purchase a Salties shirt on the way out for their next visit.

The quality of recruits in both the men and women's team the Salties have been able to attract to play in this competition proves the standard of basketball in this league is worth moving to Darwin for.

The talented locals representing the squads are definitely crowd favourites and it is great to see them strutting their stuff on the big stage.

Former Illawarra Hawks NBL coach Matthew Flinn is now the head coach of the men's team which has been a huge coup for the club.

His profile and coaching credentials have attracted some amazing talent, but more importantly he understands the role his players play in engaging with the community to attract more kids to the game of basketball.

Rod Tremlett is the women's head coach and it is great to see him coaching at this level after a very successful DBA career where he coached the Tracey Village Jets to 12 consecutive Grand Final wins.

There is now a genuine pathway for our youth to play in a quality competition in their home town and have their talents on show to potentially move on to bigger and better things, like Darwin's own Abby Cubillo is currently doing for the Canberra Capitals in the WNBL where she has now won two WNBL championships.

I highly recommend the Darwin community to get down to a game with the family as I guarantee you will be hooked and will be planning your next game.

Dean Rioli is a Munupi man from the Tiwi Islands. Mr Rioli is Bunji Hire's managing director and a former Essendon footballer