Championship desire spurs Jelly on

Featured image: Dan Cowley | @imagesby_dan

Why Jordan Forbes joined Forestville Eagles was simple as he felt it would provide him the best chance to compete for an NBL1 Central championship but he is just as hungry to help his veteran teammates achieve more glory.

Forbes had already well and truly established himself as a star in the NBL1 Central including being MVP in 2023 and making the All-First Team over the previous three seasons with the Sturt Sabres, but it was team success he was craving.

When he was thinking of where he would have the best chance at success, he thought that the experienced brigade of Daniel Johnson, Alex Starling, Greg Mays and Adam Doyle might just be able to benefit from his services as their point guard.

It's certainly working out that way with Forestville currently on top of the NBL1 Central at 12-2 and with Forbes starring with 18.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.7 steals a game on 50.3 per cent field goal shooting.

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There's now just four games remaining in the NBL1 Central regular season and two of those take place for the Eagles this weekend firstly away to the Central Districts Lions on Saturday night and then at home to the Norwood Flames on Sunday.

Forbes is looking forward to the challenges both teams present with Forestville needing to keep winning to stay in top spot.

"It's definitely good activity for us and we're playing the fifth and sixth seeds this week, Centrals and Norwood, and obviously they're still fighting to get into the playoffs so I'm expecting good competition this weekend," Forbes said.

"It's definitely our goal to stay where we are even though South and Sturt kinda helped us out by losing their games last weekend to give us a bit of extra space.

"But we don't really want to get comfortable feeling like we can lose a game now just because of that, and we want to continue to show why it's going to be hard to beat us when finals come around so we want to keep winning stay at No. 1."

Joining old rivals in 2026

While Forbes had enjoyed his time with Sturt over the past three seasons following his college career at Salem and then a first overseas stint in Georgia, he wasn’t quite sure where the Sabres were heading in 2026.

So when he knew he wanted to come back to the NBL1 Central, he wanted to be at the best place to have team success having already achieved everything he hoped on an individual perspective, and Forestville jumped off the page.

Then when coach Andrew Simons and his rival point guard Adam Doyle were recruiting him heavily, Forbes felt wanted and was excited to help them to try to win a championship as they did back in 2024 at the expense of beating his Sturt team along the way in the preliminary final.

"I've definitely had my battles with them and I always liked competing especially against Adam Doyle because that was somewhat of my match up point guard on point guard," Forbes said.

"So I've definitely always had good battles with those guys, but after last season when got back to Sturt for the second half of the NBL1 Central season after playing in Azerbaijan, and we didn’t make the playoffs.

"(Jacob) Rigoni was hurt, we had a new coach and I just felt like there was a lot of change going on.

"I honestly didn’t know coming into this year what Sturt would actually look like even with me on the team so right after last season, Andy Simons and Adam Doyle were in constant communication wanting to know what I was doing and talking about how they wanted me and had a spot open for me.

"It was really constant communication over weeks and months, and then I realised how much these guys really wanted me and I hadn’t heard too much back from Sturt.

"I did talk to Dean (Nyberg) about coming to West but that didn’t go too far and then when I thought about it what I wanted to do was compete for a championship."

The desire for a championship

At 28 years of age, Forbes might be young compared to the rest of his starting five teammates at Forestville, but still he is now at a point at his career where being part of team success is going to trump everything.

But on top of wanting success for himself, Forbes also wants to help his more senior teammates enjoy some more glory before their careers are over.

"I've won MVP before, I've won All-Star but I haven’t played in a championship game," Forbes said.

"I've seen Forestville doing that and I've seen them, and seen them lose before, and I just know they can get there. So that was the main thing for me, as long as I can get there and win or lose a championship, you kinda just have to live with it but you have to be in a position to give yourself a chance.

"I wanted to go and play for a championship and I felt like Forestville would give me the best opportunity to do that. I just want to win a championship and I've seen these guys do it, and seen them also lose in the finals, so they have that motivation from not winning last year too when they added Starling and DJV.

"They didn’t win a playoff game either and lost to Centrals and to West, so I think they have hunger to get back, and I have hunger just to show up to the championship game for the first time so I think it's a mutual balance of locking in together this year to take advantage of this opportunity we have.

"These guys are a little bit older so I know they want to squeeze the orange to get that last bit of juice out so if I can help them get back to a championship that's what we're all hoping for."

Settling into experienced, star studded team

While Forbes felt not only would joining the Eagles give him the best chance of success, but he also thought that having his relative youth, athleticism, explosiveness and playmaking would be the ideal fit.

After all, Doyle, Johnson, Starling and Mays all have their own significant strengths, but pushing the pace isn’t necessarily high up there. So now having Forbes being able to do so much of running the show is a big reason why they are currently on top of the standings.

"It's definitely different and it's been a learning curve I feel like for all of us really. Not to really compare myself to DJV, but we don’t really play alike and he's more of a gunslinger who can score the basketball and win you games with his shooting," Forbes said.

"But with me, I can do that too and I also pride myself on being a point guard and passing and sharing the ball, making plays and I can flirt with a triple double any night.

"I like to get out in transition and whether I'm laying the ball up or shooting a pull up three or throwing it up to Greg Mays, I have fun with these guys for sure.

"It's been a learning curve and obviously I'm playing with older guys too and I'm the youngest in the starting line-up so that's a different look for me even going from Sturt to Forestville.

"The Sturt offence was based on taking a lot of threes and spacing the court out and a lot of driving and kicking, but here at Forestville we're the biggest team in the league so we're going throw it inside and make people deal with our size type of thing.

"Even Alex Starling has had to adjust to playing on the wing with this team but he's still leading the league in rebounding but on this team they are looking at me to play in transition and I like that.

"It's an instant outlet to me because Starling's not doing a lot of transition work, Greg will run the floor, DJ obviously he's not doing a lot of slicing and dicing in transition, and Doyle can definitely surprise you with his speed and quickness still.

"But I take that on my shoulders as the youngest on group so I push the ball and use my fresh legs to get guys some easy points, and put pressure on the defence to score. I like playing on this team and shout out to Andy too, he's a hell of a coach and I enjoy playing for him."

Another former teammate also thriving

After sharing a back court together last season with the Sabres, both Forbes and Sharif Black are now shining at different clubs in separate conferences in 2026.

Forbes is doing what he's doing at Forestville where he's again in the MVP mix while Black is having an outstanding season in the NBL1 West where he's also in the MVP discussion with the Joondalup Wolves.

That's on the same team as another former NBL1 Central MVP, CJ Turnage, and Black is thriving including being fresh off 46 points, 10 rebounds and five assists last week, and Forbes is happy to see him doing so well.

"I only got to play with Sharif for half a season but I can remember coming into the season and just telling him even before I got back to Sturt and letting him know that I didn’t need him to change anything about his playing style for me," Forbes said.

"He's just about leading the scoring over there now and I want to say was pretty close to doing that over here with Keanu (Rasmussen) last year too so everybody knows that Sharif can put the ball in the basket.

"I feel like he's a good rebounder for his size as well, he can play make and shoot the ball or take you off the dribble with how quick he is.

"I enjoyed my time playing with Sharif and if we ever got to match up on the court against each or play in the same jersey again, I'd definitely be happy about that opportunity for sure."

Keeping on coming back to Adelaide

While basketball is obviously a key reason why Forbes is now back in Adelaide to play in the NBL1 Central for a fourth straight season, wife Jana calling it home obviously helps too so it's only a natural for him to wanting to come back in between playing elsewhere.

"One of the main reasons obviously is definitely because of my wife for sure, that's a big reason, and she's the main reason I can definitely call Australia home," Forbes said.

"And I think just over the years I've had good season everywhere I've gone, but I like NBL1 Central and I think it's a good friends space I've developed.

"I know a lot of people over here now and a lot of people know me, and the fan base is good, and I feel like even getting to coach younger kids over the years when I was at Sturt and being involved in that younger generation community was a good thing.

"Those 10, 12 year olds, they can see themselves playing NBL1 Central one day and scoring points like they see us doing, and they look up to guys like Jeremy Smith, myself, DJV and other guys who are well established.

"So it's good to give back and I enjoy that side of things where you can show them what it would take for them to make it as far as they want to go.

"So I like coming back here and I'm not really here during the summer, but I still like the weather and Australia has a lot of thing to offer that I do enjoy coming back to."

National Finals coming to Adelaide

The added bonus if Forbes achieves his goal with Forestville this season and wins the NBL1 Central championship will mean he gets to take part in the National Finals for the first time.

And it just happens to be hosted in Adelaide for the first time in 2026 and while Forbes wouldn’t have minded a trip away with his team, he sees plenty of benefits to having the National Finals at home too.

"I think me personally might prefer to get to travel out somewhere to see a different part of Australia but there's nothing wrong with home court advantage you know," Forbes said.

"I feel like Adelaide is one of the smaller parts of Australia so I do think it's good and it will bring a lot of people to the event, and bring some good community interaction for everybody so it's going to be a nice sight to see.

"I think everybody at Nationals is pretty excited to be there and pumped about it, and being the champs and having the chance to face other champs.

"It's an exciting time and I've never been in a championship game let alone win one, so that would be a nice reward if we're able to be there."

The origins of Jelly nickname

If you've ever wondered where Forbes' nickname 'Jelly' comes from and you don't have to look hard to find it with it emblazoned on his shooting sleeve thanks to his sister, it dates back to high school in Virginia and it all falls back to jelly donuts – what else.

"That's been with me since about when I was 16, 17 years old and it started when I was in high school and has just followed me everywhere since," Forbes said.

"Literally before practice one day, I went to Dunkin Donuts and I grabbed 12, 16 donuts of whatever it was and I just remember putting the box down on the table after practice, and a couple of guys came to get some donuts and the last four left were all the jelly ones.

"From there, it just stuck that all the donuts I left were the jelly ones so they decided to call me Jelly and that's really where it stemmed from.

"I know a lot of people think it stemmed from something to do with basketball but it really came from getting some jelly donuts and it stuck from there.

"And I've just ran with it and even that sleeve I wear, a shoutout to my sister who customised that for me a year or two ago, and everywhere I've been I've not taken that off."