April 7 2019

Today was Round 2 of the NBL1 season and the second home game for the Tigers.

Both the Men and Women were looking to get their first win of the season to get going before both teams play a stretch of games on the road.

The Women’s game was Frankston’s midway through the third quarter as they held an eleven point lead.

The Tigers turned it around in the quarter to narrow the gap and then played excellent basketball to win by 6 points.

The Men had a 11-2 start against Frankston and led at QT by 8 but it was Frankston was leading at Half Time by 3 points.

The Men found their first quarter form in the third quarter to lead by 12 at 3QT and the fourth quarter was almost a stalemate as Frankston was only able to narrow the gap by one point.

Both games were well attended as viewers could see the seating area filling as the Women’s game continued on and was almost full by the end of the Men’s game.

Both games had over 100 live viewers with a maximum of 125 viewers at one stage of the Men’s game.

So both Tigers teams are 1-1 heading into the series of away games, it is going to be a great season of action.

March 7 2019

We’re only a couple of weeks away from the start of the NBL1 season which starts on March 31 against the Bendigo Braves.

Who would of thought five years ago that the Melbourne Tigers would be associated in any way with anything that Larry Kestelman’s NBL touches?

In 2014, the Tigers spin off club was renamed United, retired jerseys were no longer retired and history seemed to have disappeared.

But while Tigers fans were originally brokenhearted, the original club was starting to go places as they went within six months from Big V to SEABL and slowly but surely as the years gone things were getting better.

The Tigers seniors went from the Men going from 3 wins to just missing out on the Finals by their third year.

The Tigers 1993 look was a hit in 2018 as it stood out against the rest of the league jersey offerings.

The Tigers women got a club in 2017 and they went from 7 wins to making the finals in their second season (2018) and they scored a win against Nunawading which was the first against a former NBL club.

SEABL is now gone but the challenge remains with NBL1, the Men have finals to chase and the women have a chance to make finals twice in a row.

The Supercats and Spectres are still playing too and maybe one day the NBL1 will see the Coburg Giants come in and make things more interesting, forget about SE Melbourne Phoenix in the NBL.

The good news about this season is that all games are going to be streamed, no more watching a scoreboard online or waiting for an away game for a broadcast.

So fellow Tigers fans it doesn’t matter where you live in Australia or overseas because if you can’t get to MSAC then sit back, relax and cheer on your Tigers from home and don’t forget your membership.

Go Tigers.

November 6 2018

It has been some time but I’ve really missed writing about the Melbourne Tigers.

SEABL is all but dead but the Tigers have a competition to participate in for 2019 which is good because Saturday nights without the Tigers in top competition would not be great fun.

It sucks that the Pioneers aren’t part of the new competition, they are a great side and the Tigers had some great games against them, we almost beat them in the final round for 2018.

Today is this site’s birthday at least according to the bill it is, it has been standing for four years and started back in the days Tigers fans were full of sadness after the NBL era was over but the club recovered and fans were rewarded with the Women making Finals and the Men made life difficult for their competition.

So it is a couple of months before we see some basketball action, hope time really goes by quickly.

August 4 2018

The Tigers Women are in the Semi Finals and tonight they take on the Nunawading Spectres.

Nunawading have had great success against the Tigers but the Tigers did beat them only a few weeks ago to make it an even battle at least in the eyes or machines of the bookies.

The Women’s success this year should build fan confidence in the Melbourne Tigers, people love success and this year the Tigers have been successful and have seen the club go from a club with a famous name to a club that can cause trouble to sides.

Isn’t it amazing that just four years ago we had no SEABL teams and our Tigers were playing in BigV largely unnoticed to the casual fan and our spin off NBL Tigers became Melbourne United.

It’s hard work at times convincing fellow Tigers fans that the Men and Women who play for the club in SEABL are worthy of the same level of support that fans gave the NBL club over 30 years of competition.

They are totally worth it and things can only go up from here, the Men were just a few points away from finals this year and if the Men and Women can retain their lists and perhaps add another player or two then 2019 could be a season of double success.

Regardless of the result tonight, our second taste of finals should be enjoyed because we have earned the right to be semi finalists.

July 6 2018

This weekend will be the Tigers most important weekend since rejoining SEABL in 2016.

A string of losses caused by fading out in the last five minutes of a game have sent the Men’s team from being comfortable in the Top 8 to now being on the outside looking in.

Last Saturday’s loss against the Supercats was devastating particularly after opening up a 10 point lead with five minutes to go, the loss was so upsetting it still hurts.

The Men seeming have four weaknesses, the last minute of each quarter, the last five minutes of the last quarter, turnovers and securing rebounds.

The team does have a wide range of scorers but if one players goes cold in scoring and nobody takes his place in keeping the scoreboard ticking over, it is all over.

Turnovers have been deadly for the Tigers, the Tigers can play fast but if the timing is slightly off the ball will end up in the hands of the opposition.

Rebounding is important, despite having Deng on the team, the team is still struggling to get the rebounds needed especially on offence.

Snagging more rebounds could offset some of the turnovers and keep the scoring going for the Tigers (or preventing the opposition from scoring more).

The Men have to win this weekends games to stay in the hunt for Finals, now that fans have the taste of success they want more and this year has to be the year.

The Women’s team have been in erratic form but early performances have kept them in the Top 8.

They got the Tornadoes and then the Rangers, Dandenong should be weakened thanks to an Opals camp picking players from most of the opposition to come.

The Tigers have three main scoring options in Rebecca Cole, Monique Conti and Louella Tomlinson and when they on a roll they can score 20 points or more each but they need the others to score too especially if the opposition halts one of the three.

A clean sweep weekend can give the side a little space before trying to beat Nunawading for the first time, meet Dandenong again and finish against the Sparks.

July 20 could be a very tense night for Tigers fans, both teams will be playing in two different locations and both games are overlapping so expect the possibility of some very nervous Tigers fans.

But wins this weekend and perhaps the next two weekends can prevent such a tightrope from happening, time will tell and everything is in the Tigers hands.

April 23 2018

Saturday was a mixed bag of results for the Tigers.

The Tigers Women’s SEABL team were expected to at least in the bookies eyes lose to their Kilsyth opponents, the bookies were offering $10.50 odds and this writer happily put his betting account’s last $2.60 on the Tigers to win.

Tigers fans who either went out to Kilsyth and there were some judging by the cheers got to see the Tigers at their very best.

The team had plenty of contributors and the game was all but secure at half time with the Tigers keeping pace with Kilsyth in the second half to ensure victory.

Those who watched the live stream were amused when Courtney Gaze and Peri Kalka were repeatedly called the other persons name in the online broadcast, it is believed that their similar hairstyles caused the confusion.

Overall the Tigers are now rolling after dropping their first game to Nunawading with it now certain that only poor shooting and foul trouble could dent the sides chances of success throughout the rest of the season.

The Men came onto the court next and to be honest it was horrible to watch as the Tigers fell apart after quarter time and were even held to just two points in the third quarter.

In total honesty, the Tigers were up against it as they were playing against a team filled with NBL experience with six players either in the NBL, had been in the NBL or are going to the NBL in 2018/19.

Tom Wilson couldn’t get space and efforts to break through meant he lost control of the ball a half dozen times and you could see how frustrated he was during the game.

Kilsyth managed to get their players into long range space with the side managing to get 12 out of 24 three point attempts in, the Tigers could only manage 3 from 21.

Deng Acouth had more blocks than the entire Kilsyth team and had more rebounds than any other player so his height has proven to be great value, the bad part was that he could only score from 14% of his attempts.

Lack of accuracy killed the Tigers,  Patrick Bines had 16%, Tom Wilson 20%, Ben Dixon 25%, Maxwell Viitalla had 22% whilst Billy Hughes and Jack Bines had 0% from their combined total of four shots.

The best for the Tigers was Dejan Kostur who had 50% success from his four shots and Jimmy Todd had 42% from his seven shots including two of the three 3 pointers the Tigers had.

There was some good news in that the Tigers got 15 out of 17 Free Throw attempts through the hoop for an 88% success rate.

In the end it was a 55 point loss but while it was horrible to watch there is the good news that this week is a new week and there is a new opponent and they are Diamond Valley.

It looks like there is a chance the games will be streamed as Diamond Valley streamed their home games on Sunday.