NBL1 boss Jeremy Loeliger is excited about the new competition’s bright future
Australia’s newest basketball competition tips off this weekend with NBL1, which replaces the former South-East Australian Basketball League, taking the court for its inaugural season. And suburban clubs are ready to activate their great rivalries
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Australia’s newest basketball competition tips off this weekend with NBL1, which replaces the former South-East Australian Basketball League, taking the court for its inaugural season.
With the demise of the SEABL last year, member clubs faced something of an uncertain future.
But, after rapidly considering a number of expressions of interest, Basketball Victoria announced a new elite league that features the 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.
Jeremy Loeliger, NBL chief executive, said he’s excited about the new league and its potential for growth.
“It’s so pleasing that there’s so many WNBL and NBL players in there,” he said. “I’d never followed a lot of SEABL in the past but they’ve got one more supporter now in me, particularly after I’ve seen some of the line-ups.”
Loeliger said the NBL’s decision to partner the winter competition had been driven by two important targets.
“We wanted to make sure basketball is front of mind for 12 months a year, not just the six months of NBL and WNBL,” he said.
“And we really wanted to invest in the sustainability of our pathway.”
With the end of the SEABL, and Basketball Victoria looking for a new competition for its elite clubs, it was a marriage made in heaven.
“Most of this is due to the proactive efforts of Basketball Victoria,” Loeliger said. “And we’d been looking for a concrete way to invest in a pathway.”
And, with the NBL enjoying a bit of a boom of late, the time is perfect to develop a second tier structure.
“TV audiences and match day audiences have been up for four seasons in a row,” Loeliger said. “No other sport can boast that kind of growth.”
And, with winning margins as narrow as they’ve ever been, the close nature of national league matches makes for exciting competition.
“Hopefully that will replicate itself in NBL1,” Loeliger said.
The inaugural season of the second-tier NBL in Victoria and Tasmania will be something of a test case, with the great passion for basketball in suburban Melbourne and its local rivalries — Knox Raiders v Kilsyth Cobras v Nunawading Spectres — a possible forerunner of NBL1 conferences in other states.
“We’ll be working with other local state associations to roll out a conference model,” Loeliger said. “We really want to focus in on those great rivalries.”
It is also hoped that NBL1 will become a viable option for NBL and WNBL players in the off season and they will remain at home in the winter months rather than heading to other parts of the world to play.
“We’re still going to lose players in the off-season, it’s great that they can get overseas and earn a living,” Loeliger said. “But hopefully one day, NBL1 will become a viable economic model that players can stay here.”
NBL1 tips off this weekend with two massive local derbies the feature of Saturday night’s men’s and women’s double-headers.
The Knox Raiders will tackle the Kilsyth Cobras at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna while the Diamond Valley Eagles will roll out the welcome mat for the Eltham Wildcats at the Diamond Valley Sports and Fitness Centre in Greensborough.
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