News

Be a Tiger by showing your outer Tiger everyday

RKS News

This writer this morning woke up and decided to go to TAFE a little differently by pulling out my Melbourne Tigers jersey and going to TAFE with it on, I’ve seen many people particularly teens going around wearing NBA jerseys but Deniliquin, NSW today was seeing me walk around in an NBL jersey.

I felt really good, it’s no lie that the last week has been a struggle as Tigers fans have been swamped by the Ballers winning their first regular season game and attempts to link up with Dragons and Magic fans have largely failed although Magic fans have been more receptive to our plans to help get the Tigers name released and begin the long journey back to the NBL or the Ballers become the Tigers again and we can do so much with pictures, we can make a picture film showing the many Tigers fans out there who want the above to happen, people can finally see people power coming together and everyone can participate no matter where in the world they are.

Wearing the jersey game me an idea why not we show our Tigers colours everyday, it can be a sign, it can be a hat or a jersey or a onesie if you are adventurous, a picture can be taken inside or outside and not only will it make you proud to be a Tigers fan but it will show people that Tigers fans are out there but let’s not make this Tigers exclusive because if you are reading this and you are a Giants fan, a Magic fan, a Dragons fan or a Supercats fan you can also do the same on your preferred page and show others that you want your team living again in the NBL.

A picture tells a thousand words and mine starts with the words ‘I am a Tiger’, what will yours say?.

 

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Ballers win, that’s right the Melbourne United Ballers

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Crowds returned to watch Basketball at Hisense Arena for the first time since Melbourne United’s disastrous performance against the Cairns Taipans one week ago, The crowd who turned up for the Melbourne United vs New Zealand Breakers game were treated to a video which shows all the past Victorian teams before the Melbourne logo appears which will no doubt upset fans of past (and hopefully soon to be current again) teams who do not want their history being used by the Melbourne United Ballers in any self promotional way, reaction to this video was mostly quiet except a huge roar erupted around the Arena when it was the Melbourne Tigers turn to be ‘honoured’.

Melbourne United were then introduced onto the court at Margaret Court Arena as the Melbourne United Ballers which will no doubt win the team ‘Worst Team Name’ in any awards ceremony that has it as a category although people can now say that the team name matches the name of the mascot for example the Tigers had Tigerman and the Magic had Magic Man etc, Melbourne had a sizable crowd at the game although most of the crowd sat at the sides and not at the scoring ends of the court, depending on their season this will probably be rectified with greater attendance but it may be some time before the Ballers threaten Perth’s crowd sizes and before then a new Melbourne team should be in the competition, the downsides reported were that entertainment during breaks needs further work while also reporting that the crowd wasn’t into the game to the point that they were appearing bored with one spectator being seen sleeping during the game.

In the game itself, the Melbourne United Ballers made the most of their opportunities as their shots hit the mark often while New Zealand’s went all over the place except where it was supposed to be which was the net, The win for the Ballers did not bring many Melbourne Tigers fans joy even if they want to be happy that Melbourne won it is hard to do so and will be for a long time but it the win will do Darryl McDonald’s chances good to coach the Ballers next season if his style of coaching brings continued results.

Are United becoming Ballers?

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Melbourne United seem to be in two minds about their name, the newspapers and the scoreboard may say Melbourne United but the crowd is encouraged to chant  ‘B-A-L-L-E-R-S Ballers!’, the team Mascot is named Mr Baller and the Melbourne United shop is called the Ballers Store, common sense would say that the crowd should chant U-N-I-T-E-D United!, perhaps keep Mr Baller as the mascot and the store be called something like The Melbourne United Store.

Could it be that Melbourne United will soon become the CTI Melbourne United Ballers? Some may say that calling the team Ballers will be an improvement on the usage of United but it will also lead to people believing that United are making things up as they go along and that would not boost anybody’s confidence that the team will be having a long life in the NBL.

 

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Taipans bite United again

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Cairns Taipans last week gave Melbourne United a ‘debut’ to forget and last night the Taipans again dominated United by winning 88 to 73 with former Melbourne Tiger Cameron Tragardh top scoring for the Taipans with 18 points.

There have been many wisecracks made since the end of the game with many wondering if Darryl McDonald will be coach on Sunday against the NZ Breakers after Chris Anstey ‘stepped down’ after coaching United for just one regular season game, United will be playing at the Margaret Court Arena and Bet365.com is being really generous giving United ($1.87) shorter odds than New Zealand ($1.95) who is currently 2-0 compared to United’s 0-2 while TAB Sportsbet has both sides at $1.90 each.

It will be interesting to see if Melbourne United do honour any of the past Victorian NBL teams with jerseys ranging from the rafters (or outside the court like the Tigers ones at Hisense Arena) or not, while hanging famous jerseys is considered a good gesture it is considered meaningless by many for the numbers aren’t retired and in many eyes an honoured player is known by both name and number.

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Will the Giants fans rise?

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Over the last few days we’ve reported on South East Melbourne Magic  and South Dragons fans starting to increase their efforts in the hopes the NBL brings their teams back into the competition but fans of one team have largely been quiet and they are the fans of the North Melbourne Giants, As most of us know the Giants who were originally the Coburg Giants (who still exist) had their own array of basketball stars such as Darryl McDonald, Scott Fisher and Ray Borner and great coaches such as Bruce Palmer and Brett Brown and they as much as any team have the right to oppose any moves by Melbourne United to ‘honour’ them particularly when their club is not dead.

Giants fans are encouraged to make a group or a page and share the Giants greatest moments, keep people updated on how well Coburg are doing and enable fans to give Melbourne United their point of view, the Giants as well as the Geelong Supercats (who are very much alive and will be written about later) deserve to not have their history used as a membership and/or game attendance selling point by Melbourne United because as mentioned earlier both teams are still living in different competitions and have been successful in their own right.

 

Magic fans want their team back too

RKS News

South East Melbourne Magic fans have been calling for the Magic to return to the NBL and these days fans now have a page to go to called Bring back the South East Melbourne Magic, the page has over 600 likes and has some fine artwork as well as pictures of fantastic memorabilia but they also working on banding together to fight for the rebirth of the great NBL team and their efforts are top class.

The members are really friendly so if you are a fan of the SE Melbourne Magic or you respected them and you want to join them then click here or any of the links on this page to be taken there, there is also an Instagram account and an Twitter account for fans to visit too, watch them carefully for reminisces and potential future actions, now is the right time to stand up and be heard today and every day onwards.

 

Dragons fans starting to roar again

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South Dragons fans were perhaps one of the most let down fans in the history of the NBL, they came into the league as a new Melbourne team to rival the Melbourne Tigers and they had a rough start before bouncing back before going down before tasting the ultimate success in winning the 2008/2009 title, soon after their world came crashing down when the owners of the team had no faith in the NBL which was at the time running on heavy duty life support and withdrawn from the league robbing the Dragons of a potential dynasty under wonder coach Brian Goorjian and robbing the Tigers of a state rival as threatening as the South East Melbourne Magic and North Melbourne Giants and there is the small matter of the withdrawal robbing the Tigers of revenge after the Dragons easily won the title.

Now it’s 2014 and the Dragons fans have not forgotten their time in the NBL at all and they are hungry to return and carry on with business again just like the fans of the South East Melbourne Magic are at the moment, Dragons fans are aware of Melbourne United and their aims and it angers them, the old rivalry with the Tigers comes to mind and secondly they don’t want United prancing around saying they represent South Dragons fans, so if you would like to help the South Dragons fans get their team back in the game and hopefully the Tigers too then visit Save Our South Dragons and give them a like.

Remember fans speaking up lets the league know that Melbourne is a more than a one team town and it could be three or four team town but if you don’t like groups and don’t comment then they will never know and United will continue to live on alone being many people’s unwanted representative.

Media belts United over Anstey’s departure

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Chris Anstey’s departure as Melbourne United coach just one game into the season has brought Melbourne’s media to United’s doorstep and some of the statements reached mocking levels, SEN today asked listeners ‘Should Melbourne United’s longest serving coach been able to double his record.’, 65% said that Anstey should of been given the chance instead of his United stint ending at just one game.

Meanwhile on Facebook 94.44% of those at  Save The Melbourne Tigers (not Melbourne United) answered ‘No’ to the question on ‘Do you believe that Chris Anstey really did step down on his own accord?’ while there has been a sharp spike in pro Tigers messages at CTI Melbourne United’s Facebook page as many feel Chris Anstey was pushed out of the job despite Melbourne United denying this was the case.

The Herald Sun slammed Melbourne United with the headline ‘United No More’ with a picture featuring Darryl McDonald, David Barlow, Chris Anstey and team owner Michael Slepoy looking downcast on the sidelines during Sunday’s game while a cartoon showing Anstey in a net saying ‘Time Out’ was also shown in the article while The Age also weighed into this chaotic situation even as United said they’ll undertake a nationwide search for a new coach .

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Was Anstey Sacked or Pushed?

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Chris Anstey is gone from Melbourne United but the question is was he sacked or was he pushed? Melbourne United have said on their website that he stepped down while SEN and other media organizations said he was sacked and SEN is a very reliable source when it comes to sports news and they wouldn’t want to get their information wrong.

Regardless it appears that he either lost the support of the playing group or lost the ability to communicate with them, this has happened at AFL club Western Bulldogs when the coach lost the support of the playing group including it’s captain who wants a trade from the club and he therefore had to leave the club.

‘We Are Not United’ has no beef with Chris Anstey or the players (although on the players side we wish Tomlinson and Page didn’t use #6 and #21), Chris Anstey played great basketball for the Tigers, he helped the team win two of it’s four titles and he lead them to finals last year, fans found shortcomings in his coaching ability but overall he was eventually successful getting them to finals and that should not be forgotten.

We leave great Australian basketballer Andrew Bogut with the final word.

Tigers fans rally at Hisense Arena

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As mentioned in the Herald Sun, Tigers fans held a rally outside Hisense Arena and put on a friendly and informative display.

The afternoon did not start well for Tigers fans with a security officer radioing for backup immediately after Tigers fans started showing up leading to four security officers surrounding three members who were awaiting the arrival of others, after a debate over rights to be in the park, the park manager arrived and told the group they had to move on but the group were told the main footpath was acceptable and so the group moved to the footpath which gave the gatherers the opportunity to meet Basketball fans and the general public allowing Tigers fans message to get through to the people, fliers were distributed to the people and they were well received with many no doubt been given food for thought based on the information provided.

As you can see the fans looked brilliant with their signs and their jerseys and there are plans to consider doing it again and with the Bathurst 1000 and the marathon out of the way more Tigers fans may be available to rally with those who have done it before and really ensure that United and the NBL know that Melbourne Tigers are still on the minds of fans and perhaps Kestleman, Slepoy and Crivelli will let the Tigers name and history go and let it live on again like the Sydney Kings or in the case of the NRL South Sydney Rabbitohs although in their case their rights weren’t held onto by somebody else but they were resurrected and in the minds of fans that’s all that matters.

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