Mount Gambier Pioneers given one-season licence in NBL1 and will leave Adelaide’s Premier League
They were the once the team without a league to play in but now this SA basketball club has finally got its wish and will join a competition considered the best in Australia below the NBL.
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The Mount Gambier Pioneers’ wish to join the Victorian-based NBL1 next season has been granted and will end its one-season stint in Adelaide’s Premier League basketball competition.
After a period of uncertainty, which included being left without a league and then denied a spot in the New Zealand National Basketball League, it was announced Tuesday the club was given an initial one-year licence.
Mount Gambier president Tom Kosch said the Pioneers were grateful to Basketball SA and the Adelaide clubs for the opportunity to play in the Premier League.
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But he acknowledged the club’s underlying desire was to move to NBL1, which is considered Australia’s pre-eminent semi-professional basketball league.
“The team at the Pioneers has worked incredibly hard to get to this point, and we look forward to fielding a competitive men’s and women’s squad next season,” Kosch said.
“NBL1 has taken winter basketball in Australia to an unforeseen level of professionalism and we are excited to contribute to the growth of the league.”
In November, the Pioneers were left without a competition to play in after the South-East Australian Basketball League disbanded and was replaced by NBL1.
Mount Gambier was then denied a spot in the new competition but accepted into SA’s Premier League for 2019.
The Pioneers attempted to join the NZ NBL and had a bid accepted in July, only for the move to be blocked by a national regulation regarding multiple clubs joining interstate and international competitions.
Tasmanian team Southern Huskies had already been accepted into the NZ NBL.
The competition, set enter its second season in 2020, features teams from Victoria, NSW, Tasmania and the ACT and is a partnership between the NBL and Basketball Victoria.
NBL1 general manager Dean Anglin said the Pioneers had “put in a power of work over the past 12 months to ensure their club is compliant with NBL1 rules”.
Mount Gambier was a force in the Adelaide Premier League competition in 2019, making the men’s grand final and losing to Forestville and reaching the preliminary final in the women’s.
It was the club’s first season fielding a women’s side, with both senior teams to compete in NBL1 next season.