Boomers-Philippines basketbrawl: Former Basketball Australia boss Anthony Moore looks at ugly incident

Anthony Moore watched the Australia-Philippines basketbrawl unfold on TV. Five years on, the former Basketball Australia boss lifts the lid on BA’s response to the ugly incident.

The first statement out from Basketball Australia came as the nation was waking to news of the frightening brawl between the Boomers and The Philippines.

Then-chief executive Anthony Moore wanted to get on the front foot after stars including Chris Goulding and Nathan Sobey were assaulted by Filipino players, officials and fans during an ugly fracas in a 2018 ‘friendly’ against Gilas Pilipinas.

Just before 1am on Tuesday, July 3, 2018, BA issued the below statement:

“Basketball Australia deeply regrets the incident in tonight’s match between the Boomers and the Philippines in Manila. We are extremely disappointed with what happened and our role in it. This is not the spirit in which sport should be played and certainly not in the spirit in which we aim to play basketball. We apologise to our fans and will await the penalties to be handed down.”

Former Basketball Australia chief executive Anthony Moore fronted the media in Brisbane the morning after the infamous Philippines ‘basketbrawl’. Picture: AAP

Five years on, Moore told Code Sports there was heated debate among powerbrokers about how the organisation should respond.

“For me, the critical thing was we needed to make a public statement because the Australian public was going to wake up in the morning and see this incident,” Moore told Code Sports.

“My view, as chief executive at the time, was we needed to acknowledge our role in the incident and BA needed to take ownership — Still remains my view.

“I can remember being told at the time the playing group wasn’t overly happy with the ‘regret’ part.

“As ugly as it was, we were involved in it, so it was my view that we actually had to apologise for being involved.

“You can peel away the layers of the onion and go, there was niggle the whole game and the reaction from the Philippines team and crowd after it was way out of the norm.

“But we actually had a role.

“So that was quite an interesting internal conversation and machination about what we should do.”

Daniel Kickert was punched several times. Picture: AFP

Chris Goulding in the aftermath of being set upon by several Philippines players and officials. Picture: AFP

Nathan Sobey wore a chair during the confrontation. Picture: AFP

Moore, who was watching the game from Brisbane where he was meeting with CEOs from basketball’s state and territory governing bodies, said his phone began to ring the moment the brawl ignited in the Philippines.

“Our principal concern was the safety of our players and actually making sure they were OK, then getting them out,” Moore said.

“That was our sole concern at that point, the welfare of our athletes, coaches and administrators, including our chairman Ned Coten, after they’ve been through a pretty traumatic incident.

“Ned was at the stadium and our players were holed up in the changerooms for several hours and the communication was sporadic.

“You felt helpless at times.”

Former Basketball Australia chairman Ned Coten was on the ground in Manila when the fight broke out. Picture: David Crosling

Moore revealed BA had hosted Australia’s ambassador to the Philippines Amanda Gorely — who left at halftime before the brawl broke out — but, in a stroke of luck, there were still several diplomatic staff at the venue who stepped up to help manage the situation.

“They were fantastic — They told the players and staff ‘you need to stay. Do not leave the changeroom’,” Moore said.

“They got the flights arranged for everyone to get out as soon as they could.

“My understanding is that either the team manager or someone with the team went with an escort to pack up all of the bags in the hotel and put them on the bus.

“It was someone who wasn’t recognisable to Philippines fans, because the conversation at the time was that the fans knew where the players were staying, so they couldn’t go back to the hotel.

“It was pretty tense. They were inside the stadium for a long time, several hours, trying to make sure they could get out.”

The players were eventually escorted to the team bus — with the curtains drawn — and taken to the Australian embassy, before another police escort to the airport and a flight out.

Anthony Moore speaks with Daniel Kickert at Brisbane Airport. Picture: AAP

Once safely back on home soil, Boomers legend Luc Longley, then an assistant with the team and heavily involved in protecting his players, was adamant he wanted to speak to media about the incident — delivering an interview that didn’t go down well with some at BA.

“There was a presser at the airport. Daniel Kickert spoke, (coach) Andrej (Lemanis) spoke and then Luc spoke,” Moore said.

“He just went ‘I need to say what I need to say’.

“I was standing next to him and my view was that you can speak as honestly as you like.”

Some Boomers were subjected to vile online abuse, trolling and death threats, forcing BA to engage Victoria Police.

When charges arrived from FIBA, BA went about compiling a finely-detailed response that Moore said was around 800 pages.

Once the fines were handed down — BA was branded soft for not fighting Goulding’s fine and suspension after he was whacked with a chair and piled on by opposing players — Moore launched a review of BA’s critical incident response.

That was led by sports integrity expert Iain Roy, who conducted the initial inquiry into Australian cricket’s 2018 Sandpapergate scandal.

“Although it started as an on-court incident, it very quickly morphed into a board review of systems and capabilities to understand whether the organisation had reacted appropriately,” Roy told aicd.com.au

Former Cricket Australia integrity officer Iain Roy was commissioned to probe BA’s handling of the basketbrawl fallout. Picture: National Cricket Centre

“I spent a few weeks with them, providing recommendations on how to strengthen their internal processes and governance arrangements.”

One of the key failings that emerged was BA did not have an up-to-date list of contact details for players and their significant others — they were forced to rely on Australian Basketball Players’ Association head Jacob Holmes.

“Jacob was phenomenal, he had a better direct line into the players than we did,” Moore said.

Moore hints that the brouhaha might have endeared the Boomers to the public.

“It was an ugly incident, there’s no escaping that,” he said.

“But it was more the fact that the crowd went over the top, way beyond what the average Australian would view as acceptable behaviour.

“Did that endear the Boomers to them (Australian public) a bit more? I’m not sure, but this was a core group that helped pave the way to World Cup qualification that almost got us a medal and then paved the way to getting that bronze medal in Tokyo.”

For Moore, personally, it was a “bizarre” period in life.

“I lost my mum after a battle with ovarian cancer in June, we had this incident in July, we had a great board meeting in August where I got a lot of support from the board for the way it was handled and the job I was doing and, in September, I was gone,” he said.

“It’s hilarious, in a black comedy sense.”

Originally published as Boomers-Philippines basketbrawl: Former Basketball Australia boss Anthony Moore looks at ugly incident