Basketball Victoria: Waverley Falcons to step up to new elite state competition
Waverley Falcons will make a step up to the big league after being named one of 18 clubs to be granted a place in Basketball Victoria’s new state elite competition for 2019
Local Sport
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Waverley Falcons will make a step up to the big league after being named one of 18 clubs to be granted a place in Basketball Victoria’s new state elite competition for 2019.
The new competition, yet to be named, will replace the now defunct South-East Australian Basketball League and will be made up of former Victorian SEABL clubs, four from the Big V as well as Hobart and Launceston and Basketball Australia’s Centre of excellence.
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Waverley will join fellow Big V clubs Ringwood, Eltham and Knox in making the step up to the league that will be the second tier competition behind the NBL and the WNBL.
Elias Palioyiannis, Waverley’s coaching director and development manager, said the time was right for the Falcons to make the move.
“We’ve really had such success at the Big V level over the last few years,” he said. “I think in the last five to 10 years we haven’t missed the finals in the men’s or women’s.
“(But) it’s a big jump for the boys and girls.”
Beyond the opportunity to test the Falcons’ top flight teams against the very best in the state, Palioyiannis said the club’s juniors would now aspire to play at a level just one rung below the NBL and WNBL and could do so without leaving the club.
“I see it as a big opportunity for our junior pathway,” he said. “I’m most excited about that.”
Palioyiannis is a seasoned Big V veteran, playing more than 200 games before, just last year, logging his 200th as a coach.
In his time at Waverley he has coached the state championship men and women as well as the Youth League women, taking the men to the 2010 championship and the women to four semi-finals.
He is confident his men’s team is well-placed to be competitive at the higher level.
“We’ll bring back the majority of the roster from last year and we’ve signed a couple of imports,” he said. “Seven out of 12 have played juniors at the club. We’re only looking for one player to be honest. We probably need a bit more size at this level.”
Name, fixture and structure of the 18-team competition — whether it will be one or two conferences — has yet to be finalised.
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