Basketball Wagga attributed a referee shortage as the reason behind the team's withdrawal from this year's Waratah League division two, which was ultimately rendered moot when the competition was cancelled due to coronavirus.

Maloney, the team's incumbent captain, said he would have withdrawn his coaching application had incumbent coach Matt Bishop or assistant Rob Edwards put their hat in the ring, but decided to take it on after they opted not to do so.

"A few years ago I thought I was ready to coach and then I felt I wanted a few more years playing," Maloney said.

"But the position we're in, I think I'm more than capable of getting the boys back, getting a team formed and getting back on court.

"That's the most important thing and that's our initial goal."

Maloney said they risked losing talent to other sports if they didn't have a men's representative program.

"The main priority is to get the team back out there, see what players turn up to try out and assess our goals from there," he said.

"This year we had a solid 18s team, two under-16s teams and under-14s and 12s too. We've got a lot of youth coming through and it's important to the association to have something for them to aspire to.

"We've always competed with other sports here, it's always been a big issue. We're a country town and every kid plays every sport so we need something to set us apart, and having a state league side helped that.

"If you don't have these things for kids to aspire to you'll lose them to footy or something else around here."

Maloney said a lack of coaching consistency, with Bishop replacing John Norman after he quit seven games into the 2019 season, plus internal politics on the previous board had been a drain on some senior players.

He wants to continue the pillars put in place by Bishop and keep building a culture which doesn't tolerate short cuts.

"Before 'Bish' came in there wasn't much accountability in the Heat team, players could just come and go from training as they pleased and no one was held accountable," he said.

"A big stepping stone will be creating a new culture where you hold people accountable. There was always going to be a bit of a lull with juniors, we'll lose a couple of key players to Albury due to the year off, but we've got strong teams in the junior reps.

"There wasn't a division one league in Wagga for three or four years, but after two years of the Z-League we're up to 40 players and we're adding a fifth team in."

Peter O'Leary, who has guided women's team the Blaze to the past two championships, will remain as coach next year.

Blaze and Heat trials will be held on Sunday, November 29 at Equex Centre, with women's trials at 1pm and men's at 3pm.

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