Basketball Victoria announces the first 18 clubs in elite competition to replace the SEABL
The basketball landscape in Victoria is set to undergo a dramatic change next season with the announcement this week of the inaugural 18 licensees to take part in Basketball Victoria’s new senior elite league.
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The basketball landscape in Victoria is set to undergo a dramatic change next season with the announcement this week of the inaugural 18 licensees to take part in Basketball Victoria’s new senior elite league.
With the demise of the South-East Australian Basketball League, former SEABL clubs faced something of an uncertain future.
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But, after rapidly considering a number of expressions of interest, Basketball Victoria announced a new elite league, yet to be officially named, that will feature existing Victorian SEABL clubs — Albury-Wodonga, Ballarat, Bendigo, Dandenong, Diamond Valley, Frankston, Geelong, Kilsyth, Melbourne Tigers, Nunawading and Sandringham — plus Eltham, Waverley, Knox and Ringwood from the Big V.
Tasmanian teams Hobart, North West Tasmania (men) and Launceston (women) have also been admitted along with Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence.
In announcing the 18 clubs, Basketball Victoria chief executive Nick Honey said the successful organisations would create a strong league that will attract premier talent for the coming winter season.
“These teams will form an exciting, new league that offers extensive playing opportunities to high-calibre athletes throughout Victoria, Tasmania and for Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence scholarship holders,” he said. “Throughout metropolitan Melbourne, regional Victoria and Tasmania, players can aspire to be part of this elite competition and we look forward to creating the No. 1 option for winter basketball in Australia.
“Our efforts will ensure this league captures the attention of the basketball community and be aspirational for those who want to join this competition.”
Certainly, the short time frame Basketball Victoria has had to get a competition off the ground has been a challenge, but Honey said planning was well and truly underway.
“We’re very excited about it and, yes, we really are flat chat at the moment,” he said. It’s been a busy time.
“A lot of hard work over the last three or four weeks. There’s been some pretty robust process involving all the expressions of interest and our committee of evaluation.
“But we’re very happy with it. It’s pretty high quality, it certainly won’t dilute the quality (from SEABL). But it’s still an aspirational league where clubs and players can develop.”
Honey said the new competition is still a work in progress and wasn’t, as yet, linked to any promotion/relegation involving the current Big V competition.
“There’s no automatic right to belong (to the new league),” he said. “There’s no set number of teams. We’ll review and evaluate and I’m sure it will evolve.”
The competition starts as something of a clean slate with the league’s name, fixture, structure and how teams will line-up (two conferences or one league of 18) still to be determined.
“We’ve got to look at everything,” Honey said. “But we’ve got some pretty good models to look at.”
The announcement of the initial 18 clubs has seen a number of longtime rivalries reignited with the Knox Raiders again set to tackle the Kilsyth Cobras and Nunawading Spectres.
“We’re really happy with that and we’re really keen to promote those great historical rivalries,” Honey said. ‘That real suburb v suburb is historically important.”
Further information about the league will be announced in coming months in the lead up to the season tipoff.
Foundation teams: Albury-Wodonga, Ballarat, Bendigo, Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence, Dandenong, Diamond Valley, Eltham, Frankston, Geelong, Hobart, Kilsyth, Knox, Melbourne Tigers, North West Thunder/Launceston (co-licensees), Nunawading, Ringwood, Sandringham and Waverley
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