News

The crazy week

RKS Melbourne Tigers, News

One week ago, the Melbourne Tigers fundraiser was in its last hours and fans were rejoicing that the team reached its goal of raising $100,000 and then passed it’s bonus goal of $120,000.

The team managed to raise $125,450 in 24hrs and that amount will do so much good for the Tigers as the SEABL teams prepare for 2017 as well as giving the juniors the best possible equipment for them to play with.

The $125,450 came from a variety of people and businesses showing that the Tigers have supporters from pretty much everywhere for example a former AFL boss, the Champions League Basketball organisation, Former Tigers players, current Tigers players, parents of players, decades long fans, Tigers broadcasters and more.

We saw lots of Andrew Gaze stories over the last week as he brought his Sydney Kings down to Melbourne, the fact he was coaching against Melbourne United was a big selling point for the NBL though Andrew was quick to speak of the differences between Melbourne United and the Melbourne Tigers in several articles including his column in the Daily Telegraph.

Andrew and his Kings came away with the win and Bo Liu got time on the court and while he only gets a minute or two when the game is secure or is a certain loss, it is valuable experience for the Tiger and it will be a win for the Tigers in 2017.

It should be noted that the now famous Kings celebration now features Bo as an enthusiastic Locker banger and singer and it will be interesting to see what the Tigers come up with in 2017.

Lanard Copeland was also in the news as he was appointed coach of the Sunbury Jets for the 2017 Big V season, Lanard’s appointment is a good decision by Sunbury as he has had success with the Broncos and is currently assisting the Sydney Kings.

Tigers fans discovered a very amusing Wikipedia entry on Ray Gordon with the piece describing his ability to get in the face of the opposition as well as calling the SE Melbourne Magic the C word.

So there we have it Tigers fans, all of that in seven days and we’re still months away from the 2017 SEABL season.

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Tigers celebrate successful weekend

RKS BigV, News

Tigers fans were energetic this weekend as the VYCW and VYCM teams played their Grand Finals against Bulleen and Ringwood respectively.

For many Tigers fans this was the first opportunity to see the Tigers play for titles since the 2008/09 NBL season which is a really long time.

Thankfully this weekends action was broadcasted on FalconsTV so Tigers fans near and far got to watch although there was signal loss every couple of minutes which required a refresh of the page.

Both games were filled with highlights, there was great plays and great scoring shots and everyone played their part.

When the Tigers won both titles, fans were rejoicing over social media for as mentioned earlier it’s been a long wait for many and the success of this weekend proves that the Tigers have a solid future ahead.

The Tigers SCW team (or SEABL team if expansion happens) will benefit from the players coming up from VYCW and the SEABL Men’s team will benefit from VYCM and they already have as Billy Hughes who had a good game today has played for the SEABL team over the course of this year.

In all honesty, the off season is a sad time because for two years before this SEABL and Big V season things were very dark times for Tigers fans and then this year with all the action it was as good as the NBL days and now that it’s over for many months it plain sucks.

However the Juniors are still going and we’ll cheer their attempts and then cheer on Andrew Gaze’s Kings as he, Lanard Copeland and Dean Vickerman bring the Tigers experience to Sydney and hopefully success before we start the SEABL fun again.

It’s great to be a Tigers fan!

It’s been tough

RKS Melbourne Tigers, News, SEABL ,

The Tigers have had a tough season in SEABL this year but fans are still hopeful that every game they play next is the one when there is a win at the end of the game.

It is easy for a fan to feel despair after watching loss after loss either live, streamed or by reading stats but we the fans have to stick around and give the SEABL boys the best possible support no matter the result.

When the season is over, the Tigers will have gone through an entire SEABL season for the first time since 1983 and the club will then know what they need to do for 2017, SEABL is no small fries competition where dominance is established instantly by a Johnny come lately club and the Tigers knew that right from the start and so the team will improve over time.

The Tigers have Dandenong this coming Sunday afternoon on Dandenong’s turf and they are known for being a good club, Tigers fans around Dandenong should go and check out the game because watching a SEABL game is a great experience and the boys will appreciate the time taken to go see them play.

Even better news for fans is that Dandenong stream their matches and that makes it great for Tigers fans to tune in and watch the game.

Go Tigers!

Mixed Weekend for Tigers

RKS News

It was a mixed weekend for the Tigers as the YCM and YCW teams had a tough Saturday with both sides losing to Dandenong whilst the SEABL team had one win and a loss as they continue to tune up for next Friday’s season opener against Nunawading.

The SEABL team won 77-75 against the Albury-Wodonga Bandits at MSAC on Saturday in front of many Tigers fans and Tigers royalty, the bad news from the game is that Thomas Chambers sustained a knee injury and we all hope he recovers well from his injury.

The Tigers then travelled to Frankston on Sunday to take on the Frankston Blues and the Blues dominated the first half 48-28 before the Tigers had a better second half before going down 92 to 71 which was a one point increase on the half time margin of 20.

Whilst the final score may concern Tigers fans, several Tigers players were out with injury or personal reasons leading the Tigers to be undermanned against a Blues team with a longer bench.

The good news for the Tigers is that Rhys Carter top scored for the Tigers with a 21 point haul whilst import Rob Jones scored 13 for the Tigers and there were plenty of other good signs throughout the match with some good rebounding and three point shots made.

Fans at the game (or watching the game live on YouTube) noticed that Tigers defensive work may need to be worked on more with Frankston players been given too much space during the game but the fans are also confident things will be sorted by the time April 1 rolls around.

Go Tigers!

Dragons fans flock to WANMU

RKS News ,

South Dragons fans have today proven they are hungry as ever after flocking to our story ‘Dragons p###sed off by HS mistake‘

Our first story on the Dragons was back ironically in October 2014 when we reported on the success of ‘Save our South Dragons’ with this story then we reported on the page reaching 800 likes then it got really quiet and so we wondered if the Magic and Dragons stopped their charge for the NBL then the Dragons page recently wrote an article on The Pick and Roll which inspired this answer from the Tigers fans point of view and then the HS made their mistake.

Today the story on the Herald Sun mistake was reluctantly shared with the Dragons page and reluctantly is because you never know what response one would get being this writer is a Tigers fan who doesn’t buy into hatred etc that most people say about Victorian basketball because every side deserves to get their opinion heard even if somebody says hell no to it.

Almost immediately the link was shared by the page and boom the Dragons fans flocked to this blog site like fire breathing Dragons spotting a group of hapless Knights in a fantasy movie, so much so the current total has broken all records for this blog site.

The amount of readers (60+ and still rising) has shown that their is a lot of interest in the Dragons and it is advised Dragons fans that you mine the interest for all it is worth, start a petition on Change.org calling on the NBL to admit the Dragons into the NBL or do some more of that great art that is made for the page like the picture in this story, do stories on how Dragons players are doing now, anything to get the interest piquing further.

This is your time to do something, if you are truly hungry for it to happen then you got to make it happen, it only takes one person to stand up and take a chance to start things rolling, are you the reader of this story that person?????

Moral of today’s story is that Dragons fans love to read.

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Tigers fans stand tall as results show promise

RKS News , ,

This week Melbourne Tigers fans have once more rallied together in support of their proud Basketball team.

Two weeks ago, the petition calling on United to give up the Tigers name, colours and history was on 15 signatures, now it is on 121 and that number is advancing up a couple of signatures every day, readers can still sign or see the total on the link provided in this paragraph.

The exciting part of this week has been that it is no longer a case of one or two people banging the drums but three or four and even more and that shows that the message is getting through to Tigers fans that we are not dead in the water, we will not be swept under United’s carpet because we will keep aiming and working to have a team that can freely choose it’s own destiny.

The Pick and Roll have today been tweeted asking them to do a story and it’s not certain if they’ll answer, it’s really hoped that they will because they are an excellent place for Basketball fans to get their news from and we truly believe our story is worthy of being told.

Other places will be contacted and hopefully they will answer and pass the word about us on therefore giving people the potential to see and sign the petition and while being more widely known is increasing the chances of running into trolls etc, it is part of life when you want something that people don’t want you to have.

Chris Pimm has offered to upload for Tigers fans a selection of Tigers footage if the petition reaches 200 by tomorrow, with the total 79 away the petition would need it’s most successful day to make it but nothing beats the lure of watching great Tigers highlights whilst dreaming of future highlights to come.

Enjoy your weekend Tigers fans.

Go Tigers!

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The sun is still up for the Tigers

RKS News , , ,

As the last of the weekdays for the week is drawing to a close, there is a lot to be pleased about Tigers fans.

The Tigers launched their website at melbournebasketball.com.au/girls and will be expanding it to include a seniors link in the future.

The Tigers also answered our questions and it is pleasing that they are still working towards getting the team back into the big time and talked of the strength the Tigers have particularly in the juniors where hundreds of kids play for the Tigers every season.

They are working hard on giving us the fans the best possible experience, The Tigers may be playing VJBL and BigV competition but those competitions are our home and we should like our family homes make the stay very comfortable until we leave for a bigger home own the track.

Meanwhile our rivals Melbourne United are playing NBL and are not doing too bad a job at it, our attention tonight was focused on our lonely retired jerseys that hang up in a very darkened spot of Hisense Arena, while this is disheartening we should take comfort in the belief that the Tigers will rise again and those jerseys will be more respected on our own turf.

Watching United winning and getting praise and all the rest in the media sometimes is worrying but then we choose to look on the bright side that people are always looking for opportunity to give people an alternative option and we are one of those options and we must keep aiming for the best and keep working to our best because that’s how the best get to be the best.

Thank you to those who pushed so hard to get signatures for our petition, Chris Pimm in particularly has done a wonderful job of bringing in fans and supporters for our effort and we’ve gone from 15 to 65 signatures this week, could we get past 100 by the end of next week? We certainly can.

Lastly, no matter what happens just think of those two words that have carried the Tigers and their fans so far for so long ‘We Believe’.

Go Tigers.

Power of the Passion

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Greetings rebellious Tigers, Dragons, Magic, Giants and Supercats fans,

Some of you have been campaigning for your side to re-enter the NBL for some time and there are times that you must feel like you are a Drongo for doing so because you might be the only one in the crowd at times but you’re not because you are showing two of the best elements in sport and they are passion and emotion and that is something attractive to people.

The other day this writer was having a discussion with a man who said that pro sport is business and we should get over the Tigers and get behind Melbourne United, not surprisingly I said ‘No thank you’.

People don’t follow teams because they are the richest and are flowing with stars and fancy stuff, they follow them for their great times and the bad times, the iconic coaches, the unforgettable players, the hard working staff members and their fellow passionate fans.

Passionate Tigers fans moved to support the BigV Tigers and begin the climb again to top level Basketball, Giants fans can still see their team out in Coburg and I still hope they’ll awaken from their NBL dreams soon, Dragons and Magic fans are still working on returning to the big time and Supercats fans are making SEABL their playground and no doubt if they had the cash (maybe they do) they could look at the NBL.

If fans band together they can make things happen, you never know whose eyes and ears your efforts you reach because nothing is set in stone, opportunity opens doors every single day and if you believe in your team, if your fellow supporters back you up or get inspired themselves then outer space is the limit.

Don’t just dream and hope, do something and see what happens.

Tigers Women get first win for 2015

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The Melbourne Tigers Women’s team have scored their first win of the 2015 BigV season by downing Warrandyte 64 to 58 in front of their home crowd last Saturday night.

This win will no doubt be a major morale booster for the Tigers who were belted the previous week by Hume City, This win shows that the team can rebound from disheartening losses and it is hoped this win will give the Tigers the confidence and belief to continue to win games this season.

Meanwhile the Melbourne Tigers Men’s team failed to capitalize on it’s win against Hume City by falling to the previous winless Whittlesea 76 to 66., With both Diamond Creek and Whittlesea winning games on the weekend it means the Tigers battle to stay off the bottom of the ladder has tightened back up.

Round 5 will tip off for the Tigers on Saturday night with the Women travelling to Eltham High School to take on Eltham Wildcats at 6pm while the Men are once again at MSAC from 8pm taking on the Sherbrooke Suns, WANMU will report on the game as soon as news comes to hand.

Gaze returns fire on Worthington’s comments

RKS News , , ,

Andrew Gaze taken to 1116 SEN today to counter Mark Worthington’s claims that he had made the previous day on the station.

From the opening second Andrew Gaze counter attacked the claims with passion and most importantly factual points, Andrew Gaze explained what had happened at Basketball Australia board level in 2009 when Basketball Australia merged with the NBL to save the league and what happened when BA and the NBL largely parted company.

Andrew Gaze was passionate in his defense but also used logic to defend his stance and was not afraid to admit to admit any faults when he made his original comment several days ago.

Melbourne United is no doubt now stuck between a rock and a hard place, do they support and back their captain’s comments, do they stand back from what is going on or do they publicly and/or privately chastise their captain for his comments?.

This is not a battle between Melbourne Tigers and Melbourne United fans but instead a battle over a great sportsman’s honour and reputation, Mark Worthington for all the good he had done for the Tigers has no doubt lost plenty of respect with his attack on Andrew Gaze and fans of the sport and the Melbourne Tigers will be remembering his comments for a very long time to come.

Fans can politely give @SENNews on Twitter (click on the link) their thoughts on the comments made by Mark Worthington and Andrew Gaze’s reply to them, WANMU advises fans not to hurl abuse at Mark Worthington, SEN, the NBL or Melbourne United despite the temptation to do so in defense of their sporting hero.

Readers can listen to both Mark Worthington and Andrew Gaze’s comments at http://www.sen.com.au/audio and WANMU will continue to update readers on the latest developments as they happen.