What we learned from the Australian Emus campaign

• Complete list of every Under-16 boys player at the 2025 National Championships
• How to watch every 2025 NBL1 game LIVE and FREE
• Complete list of every Under-16 girls player at the 2025 National Championships
• By the Numbers: Australian Emus player snapshot

The 2025 Australian Emus were put together with high expectations, filled to the brim with sought after recruits and expected to do some significant damage at this year's Under-19 Men's World Cup.

After being placed into the competition’s toughest pool, Australia had a mixed bag of results.  A relatively competitive result against the US, losing 73-88 and a solid 71-63 win against France were two encouraging indicators, but Cameroon proved to be more challenging, with the game often looking lost at points.

Gift wrapped a second chance via Amadou Seini own-goal dunk late, Australia rallied, including a big shot by Alex Dickeson late in regulation to tie things up. They would go on to win 101-96.

Handling business against the Dominican Republic 106-96, the Emus faced Germany in the quarter-finals, a talented team led by projected first round pick Hannes Steinbach and guard Christian Anderson. A strong third term rally led by Luke Fennell closed the gap, but the final 80-67 scoreline doesn’t tell the full take — Australia were outscored by 25 points in the other three quarters.

No loss felt particularly egregious — the Australian’s fought well in a tough draw. However, a win against Germany would have proved a nice route to the gold medal match, it’s hard not to be left thinking what could’ve been.

The Emus finished 6th after losing their final game to Canada. What did we learn along the way?

ROMAN SIULEPA’S STOCK

‘Enigma’ has been the word used to describe Roman Siulepa by myself and others throughout the years, but at this point it could probably be said that we know what we’re getting from Roman.

As per usual, Siulepa starred for the Australian’s, leading the team in scoring, and finishing top five in points per game across the event.

That’s no mean feat, and in an event littered with professional talent, Siulepa’s combination of power and athleticism were undeniably effective against some of the top youth competition in the world. Versus the US, Siulepa was the only player that didn’t look out of his athletic depth, his electric dunk around American big man Morez Johnson Jr. in the team’s opening game an emphatic statement of the point. Too strong for wings and too quick for bigs, Siulepa continues to be a physical matchup nightmare.

On the biggest stage thus far in Siulepa’s career, and the first major event of his young career since rumours of his connection to Pitt University have started swirling, the forward created a wave of buzz online, elevating his name in mainstream draft conversations.

Simultaneously, however, those that have been watching him for years will likely have come away increasingly discouraged by a lack of meaningful change in Siulepa’s game.

Somewhat evident at the Australian Under 20 National Championships, but compounded at this level, Siulepa’s game has increasingly reduced to a series of head-down, right hand dominant finishes at the rim. It’s a credit to Siulepa’s world-class athletic gifts that this largely worked, but he was relegated to playing on one side of the court, scarcely taking a left hand dribble all tournament.

These drives will only get harder at the high major college, NBL or NBA levels, and it wasn’t the only limitation evident. Siulepa has shown flashes of playmaking through the years, but his drives were largely taken head down — for his high usage, only credit for 1.1 assists per game. His tendencies stifled ball movement and momentum with his teammates, and we saw Australia’s key run against Germany in the third quarter occur with Siulepa on the bench.

Siulepa’s shooting also continues to be a challenge. Despite streaky results at this year's nationals, including a seven-triple game against the ACT, the World Cup setting exposed his shooting challenges, going 1-from-9 from the three point line in seven games. While his free throw shooting improved as the event went on, he finished at an unremarkable 63.9% from the free throw line. For someone that thrives off drawing fouls, that’s a lot of missed scoring opportunities.

I love Roman as a basketball player, and seeing the excitement online around Siulepa’s play this event is a strong reminder to see the wood from the trees — Siulepa is still an incredibly talented basketball prospect, a top five scorer at the FIBA Under-19 World Cup, and a promising professional talent. He may be one of the most exciting athletic prospects we’ve had in years, and I sincerely hope he’s able to make good on his limitless potential and become a star of the Australian game.

However, so far as progress is an indicator of future growth, it’s hard not to be disheartened by lingering limitations in Siulepa’s game.

It’s hard not to wonder if those raving, having seen him for the first time in this event, would feel the same having seen the same player two or three years ago.

JACOB FURPHY IS UCONN READY

This one isn’t exactly a revelation — those that have followed Furphy through his junior career have known him as as consistent a performer as you can find across every age group and setting — but as a modest athlete, and standing 6’5 on the wing, it’s certainly reassuring that Furphy was able to produce against some of the top athletes of the age group worldwide.

Furphy almost matched Siulepa’s scoring output, finishing with 16.7 points per game, He was also the team’s equal most prolific outside shooter, knocking down 16 threes, and making his typical good reads as a connective playmaker.

I had Furphy’s shooting splits ready to fire here as a point of merit, but a 3-from-18 game to forget against Canada blew apart his averages — a good reminder not to get too hung up on stats in this event one way or the other across such a small sample of games.

It’s hard to pick apart Furphy’s skillset — he’s a polished scorer and facilitator, but it’s his poise and feel that stands out the most. When Australia looked rushed or flustered, Furphy demonstrated a level head by comparison, and as such his production was similarly reliable.

That quality is going to bode well as Furphy challenges himself in the Big East next season. He’ll be outmatched athletically as much as he ever has been, but under head coach Dan Hurley, Furphy’s in a perfect spot to find his shots, handle the ball and let his strengths shine through.

Like all Australian high major recruits, the question should be asked — is Furphy an NBA prospect? One thing we’ve learnt over recent years is that there are always highly skilled exceptions to what we believe the athletic prerequisites are for NBA play — look at Kon Knueppel, drafted 7th this year, Reed Sheppard, drafted third in 2024, or even the successful career of Joe Ingles, who Furphy shares many similarities to.

Furphy lacks the height of an Ingles, nor the shooting dynamism of Sheppard or Knueppel to reach similar heights, it could be assumed. If he was a few inches taller, I’d be almost assured of an NBA future in some capacity, but those minor measurements can be major differences in the difference between a very good pro and an NBA player. The former is almost an assurance, the latter feels like a very long shot, but I dare to count out someone that has displayed such mastery of his skill-set up until now. Whatever his projection, expect him to squeeze every ounce of his potential into reality.

AUSTRALIA PRODUCES TALENT… BUT SO DOES THE REST OF THE WORLD

There’s no doubt that Australia has, and continues to, punch above its weight in population, and has rightfully established itself as one of the modern basketball powerhouses.

But as we’ve seen a growing number of Australian players enter the NBA ranks, it’s worth appreciating this as a larger trend of growing international talent pools and scouting, as opposed to a unique reflection on how special we are.

For every potential fringe draft prospect we had on show — essentially just Siulepa at a pinch, and Furphy at an even bigger pinch — opponents had players like Hannes Steinbach (mocked #26, per ESPN), or Noa Kouakou-Heugue (rumoured NBL Next Star candidate).

Even New Zealand, our fiercest frenemy, have been outdoing us at tournaments lately — coming 5th (compared to our 15th) at the Under 17 World Cup last year, and now a 3rd placed finish, relative to our 5th.

It is admittedly an abnormally talented age group for the Kiwi’s, but it does feel notable.  With a roster of almost exclusively Division 1 level NCAA talent, it would’ve been fascinating to see a Trans-Tasman face-off. Expect many to be future Tall Blacks.

The takeaway? Australia has a talented group that should be celebrated, but don’t think that we’re head and shoulders away from the rest of world basketball, nor did we necessarily ‘underperform’ by losing to Germany - other countries are also really, really good, and we can’t afford to rest on our laurels.

ROCCO WAS SORELY MISSED

It could be argued Australia’s biggest roster deficiency was in the front-court this World Cup. Australia’s starting five man, Goc Malual, was not even on the initial roster, coming in as a last minute replacement, and it should be noted that both he and Jack Whitbourn did a fantastic job on the inside, helping Australia to the third highest rebounding total of the tournament — but it was clear that there was a broad lack of firepower from our big men.

It’s not a fair game to play, because other nations may have easily been in the same situation with their own drafted talent, but there’s no getting around the fact that the inclusion of Rocco Zikarsky would’ve been a massive addition, both in terms of talent and specifically addressing some of the team’s weak spots.

While a little green for the NBL game, Zikarsky has consistently been a dominant force in youth competition, and is only a year removed from leading Australia to gold in the Albert-Schweitzer Cup in Germany last year, scoring 20 points and adding 9 rebounds in his grand final effort.

Bigger and better things led to Rocco’s omission, and it must be noted that not playing due to being drafted is standard practice, but it sure would’ve been fun seeing Rocco man the middle with this squad. It’s very possible a medal could’ve been the result.

It’s worth noting, the centre position didn’t feel like Australia’s only hole — a lack of elite point guard play would also have elevated this group. Perhaps a running theme, when you look at recent prospects like Ben Henshall, or Tyrese Proctor, and the same applies for players such as Dash Daniels, Alex Dickeson and Luke Fennell - we are producing skilled guards, but by and large not those with the ability to truly handle and create in tight spaces, run an offence and facilitate at an elite level. Admittedly, Che Brogan ticks some of those boxes, but with limited scoring ability it left Australia without a true high level initiator, and non-creators like Jacob Furphy and our bigs struggled at times for it.

DASH DANIELS IS A PROJECT

Dash Daniels came into this event with perhaps the most pressure on his shoulders out of anyone — FIBA themselves listed Daniels as the #3 prospect throughout the entire tournament, and as we know, his name graces the top 10 of ESPN’s illustrious 2026 mock draft as well.

That being said, Daniels was also one of the youngest players at the event, and broadly a year or more older than the rest of the Australian roster. That is some significant context.

There’s no way around it, Daniels struggled this tournament, and in areas we largely knew were works in progress — particularly scoring inside the arc, where he struggled mightily (25% on two point field goals). There were flashes of the three point shooting we’d seen at NBL1 level, including five threes against Cameroon, but he was a largely ineffective offensive player, who demonstrated deficiencies as a ball-handler, facilitator and finisher, through an NBA lens.

His defense also had mixed results, and ultimately we saw his minutes take a downward trend as the event continued.

In a vacuum, Dash is a promising young talent with a bright future ahead, and his inclusion in the squad given his age should be lauded, as should his flashes of great contributions. With that said, in the scheme of the Dash Daniels hype machine which has rightly or wrongly been created around him, it was a disappointing showing, and evidence that Dash has a lot of development still to do.

In theory, he’s a big two-way wing with a great frame and length, but there’s a lot of refinement still to be made, and without a truly dominant showing at any youth event thus far, including those against his own age, this should be a statement we can make with confidence right now.

We shouldn’t expect Dash to come into Melbourne United ready to put up big games next season, and given United’s guard depth, I don’t believe they expect it either. But with patience, he will be under a fantastic environment to turn into the player everyone’s excited about in theory — it’s just going to take some time.