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"Completely unacceptable": Copeland slams Thunder's BBL season
Sam Kosack • January 15th, 2026 5:27 pm
Sydney Thunder GM Trent Copeland has labelled his side’s season as “completely unacceptable” after failing to back up from their success in BBL14.
The Thunder are 2-7 heading into their final game of the season, sitting on the bottom of the ladder.
It’s a far cry from last season, where the Thunder made ‘The Decider’, only to be beaten by the Hobart Hurricanes.
There were high hopes for the men in lime green approaching this season with their fall from grace slammed by Trent Copeland, who believes the side’s potential is far higher than what’s been shown.
“Where do we start is probably the way I think about it,” Copeland told SEN 1170 Afternoons.
“(It’s) completely unacceptable and disappointing is the ultimate sentiment given that we made the final last year and the list looked, in my opinion, on paper, in a really good position to attack that same sort of trajectory this year.
“(We’re) really disappointed that this is the end point that we're looking at.
“Hopefully we can finish off with a bang and knock the Sixers' hopes out of finals tomorrow, but I think you get in a rut early, and it's difficult in this competition to get out of it.
“Had you told me 12 months ago that we'd have matches where we'd have Sam Konstas not play, or Tanveer Sangha not play, or Lockie Ferguson doesn't set foot in Australia, I would've said you were joking.
“Even (Ravi) Ashwin… we were well set up with four internationals… it just has not gone to plan but that's okay.
“We just need to look at things and process, including myself, make sure we aim up next time around.
“I don't have one moment that sticks out, but I think it was pretty obvious to me early on in the tournament that things weren't clicking and performance wasn't up to scratch.
“There's been some losses that haven't necessarily been last over losses, there've been thumpings in the context of T20 matches.
“I think everyone in the playing group and the coaching staff knows that it hasn't been good enough, and we're certainly striving for that.”
One of the biggest calls in the Thunder’s season came when Sam Konstas was dropped ahead of a match against the Brisbane Heat.
Konstas, who broke onto the Australian cricket scene in last year’s Test series against India, has been one of the most talked about cricketers over the last 12 months, and his partnership with David Warner was set up as one of the stories of the BBL season.
But, along with the Thunder, Konstas has failed to live up to expectations, averaging 20.54 this season and scoring three 50s.
Copeland backed the decision to drop the out-of-form batter, but revealed his response to being left out gave him faith that the 20-year-old would still succeed at representative levels for years to come.
“Whether you believe it was the right decision or not, we're playing professional sport,” Copeland said.
“In that moment, his first comment was, ‘I get it. I haven't scored enough runs. Tell me what I can do to get back in, I’m hungry for it’.
“He was exceptional in the sort of in and around the group, the man standing and cheering loudest in the dugout when guys were scoring runs that day. It shows his character.
“People can say whatever they want on whether it's the right call or not, but, quite simply, the team was 1-7 at that point, and already out of finals… so it wasn’t really about Sam Konstas.
“I know for a fact that he's made of the right stuff, and he's gonna be a serious player for us, and no doubt Australia in all formats for a long time to come.
“There's some things that are really poor and need to change, but there's some things like that where I look around the room and I feel like we do have a good core and a lot of them are really young, and they're gonna be good players for a long time.”
The Thunder take on the Sydney Sixers in their final game of the season, with the Sixers boosted by the inclusion of star Test duo Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc.
