It has been an interesting couple of years for the Melbourne Tigers, there have been good years and some bad years, but this year could be the best of them.

Tom Wilson is back after a couple of years playing football for Collingwood and he will be playing alongside Mason Gaze and Jack Purchase, if those three get along famously on court, anything is possible.

Amy O’Neill, Charlotte Brancatisano, Steph Blicavs, Hannah Giddey, Sammy Simons, Abbey Sutherland and Ella Ogier have all signed up to play in the Women’s team, there is plenty of experience in this team so far.

There are plenty more players to come and those who live near MSAC will be very lucky to see them in action, don’t forget all the games are streamed so those who can’t go, can watch online.

Sunday was a special day for the Melbourne Tigers, the club celebrated thirty years since the Tigers defeated the Perth Wildcats in NBL competition.

The team were up against the Mt. Gambier Pioneers, a formidable team whose sides were towards the pointy end of the ladder.

Victory by the Tigers would be the icing on the celebratory cake.

Women

The Tigers came into this round facing a team that started the weekend in third spot and the Pioneers started the game in fine fashion by establishing a five-point lead at the end of the period.

The scoring was even in the second period with the two sides scoring 21 points apiece and the Pioneers held on to their five-point lead at the main break.

The Tigers got going in the third period and outscored the Pioneers by five points to level up the game and set up a thrilling conclusion.

The Pioneers got the margin out to four in the first minute before Lily Carmody halved it before scoring again to even things up.

The Tigers then hit the front but a Pioneers three swung the game in their favor, Nikki Metcalfe then scored two and then sunk two free throws to put the Tigers ahead with just over four and a half minutes to go.

Nikki Metcalfe then sunk one of her two free throw attempts to extend the Tigers lead to four before a Pioneers three brough the margin down to one with three minutes and one second remaining.

A scare for the Tigers occurred when the Pioneers scored a three with just over two-minutes remaining, but there was drama as the shot clock expired just as the ball was being shot and the Tigers retained their one-point lead.

A minute later the Pioneers were again looking to score, once again the shot clock expired before they could do so and seconds later Lily Carmody scored from a free throw attempt to extend the margin to two points.

The Pioneers could not score in the last minute and the Tigers held on to win 67-65 to kick off the thirtieth-year celebration in fine style.

Samantha Simons top scored with 26 points to continue her fine season with the Tigers.

Men

The Tigers Men were next on court against the then ladder leading Pioneers who had narrowly lost to Geelong the previous night upsetting their 6-0 start to the season.

The Tigers had a hot start and led 28-18 at the end of the first period, the Pioneers got going in the second period but the Tigers extended their lead by one to lead 53-42.

The Tigers started the second half in style by scoring 28 points and with the Pioneers only getting 14, the lead was out to 25 points and Tigers fans were a period away from celebrating the perfect day.

Tigers fans weren’t completely comfortable as Nunawading came back from a big deficit to scare the team, Pioneers efforts were stifled in the last two minutes as Jordon Timmins put in two and Taj Chehhal put in five points including one with three seconds left to leave the margin at 24 points.

The Tigers Men have now squared the ledger and remain fairly close to the new leaders Frankston who have a 6-2 record so far this season.

Next up is the Eltham Wildcats and they are twelfth in the Womens competition and second in the Mens competition, both can be won if the Tigers play to their absolute best.

The Tigers travelled to Tasmania last week with the Men playing against the Hobart Chargers and NW Tasmania Thunder while the Women played the Hobart Chargers and Launceston Tornadoes.

Men

The Hobart Chargers came out firing and had a 25-13 lead at the end of the first period, things only slightly improved when the Chargers outscored the Tigers 24-18 to lead 49-31 at the half time break.

The game was more evenly matched in the third period with the Chargers extending their lead by only one point to take a nineteen-point lead into the last period.

The Tigers got into gear in the last period and outscored the Chargers by eight, but it wasn’t enough as the Chargers went on to win 82-71.

Only 19.05% of three-point attempts landed but they had much better success with two-point attempts with 48.65% going in.

Michael Wearne led the Tigers scorers with nineteen points with Callan McDonald having fourteen rebounds.

Tigers vs. Thunder

The next night saw the Tigers play the NW Tasmania Thunder and the Tigers had the opposite of starts this night by leading 25-11 at the end of the first period.

The scoring was closer in the second with the Tigers outscoring the Thunder by one to lead 42-27 at the half.

The Tigers increased their lead by two in the third but the Thunder outscored the Tigers 17-15 in the last but it wasn’t enough as the Tigers flew home with the 84-69 win.

Three-point shooting was the big different with 38.24% going in for the Tigers compared to 13.04% for the Thunder.

Jack Purchase topped the scoring with 28 points and Callan McDonald had 11 rebounds.

Women


It was a tale of two halves for the women against the Chargers, the first period they were ahead by one with the score 16-15, the were still ahead by one after scoring 17 points apiece leaving the score 33-32.

The wheels fell off for the Tigers in the third as the Chargers scored in 83.33% of their two-point attempts compared to the Tigers 0% and scored 24 points to 6 to comfortably lead the game.

The Chargers poured in another 26 points in the last period compared to the Tigers 12 to win the game 82 to 51.

Tigers vs. Tornadoes

The Tornadoes got out to a two-point lead at the end of the first period before outscoring the Tigers by six in the second period to end the half with an eight-point lead with the scores 49-41.

The Tigers fought back in the third period by outscoring the Tornadoes by four to halve the margin and setting up a thrilling conclusion.

Unfortunately, the game did not go the Tigers way as the Tornadoes won by extending their lead by two thanks to Keely Froling scoring 38 of the Tornadoes points in the game to win by six points.

Lily Carmody topped the scoring for the Tigers with 22 points and Angelique Francis scored from all four of her two-point attempts and had seven rebounds just one behind Lily Carmody.

Next Up

It is celebration time this Sunday as the Tigers celebrate thirty-years since winning their first NBL Championship.

The opposition is the Mt. Gambier Pioneers who are currently leading the Men’s competition and third in the Women’s competition so the Tigers best will be needed, they can get it done as they have the skills, everything just has to fall into place.

The Melbourne Tigers last Saturday night went to Dandenong to take on the Rangers, the two teams have played some great games against each other and last Saturday was no exception.

Women

The Tigers Women were in great form but were missing Jade Melbourne and were hit by the news that Monique Conti was not going to play with the Tigers this year.

Regardless of these events the women led at the end of the first period 22-20 then lead at half time 36-33 before leading at the end of the third period 57-52.

The wheels fell off for the women in the last period as the Rangers scored 28 points to the Tigers 15 to win 80-72, two-point shooting in the last was the big difference as the Rangers scored in 63.64% of attempts whilst the Tigers scored in 15.38% of attempts.

Samantha Simons led the scoring with 27 points and Angelique Francis grabbed ten rebounds for the team.

Men

The Tigers Men got their first win of the season earlier in the week against Nunawading and were looking to make it two in a row against the Rangers.

The Tigers led at the end of the first period 24-21 and had a superb second period to lead 49-38 at half time, the Rangers made slight inroads on the Tigers in the third period but still trailed the Tigers 68-59.

The Tigers scoring picked up as they outscored the Rangers 27-23 to record a comfortable 95-82 win.

Taj Chehhal and Jack Purchase shared the scoring honours with 22 points each with Callan McDonald picking up 11 rebounds.

Conclusion

The Men are starting to get it together and they now have two wins in a row with the Hobart Chargers and NW Tasmania Thunder coming up.

The Women are doing well this year, the fade out against Dandenong was not great but these things do happen, they’ll improve on things, it will be interesting to see how they go in Tasmania as they’ve got the Hobart Chargers and Launceston Tornadoes.

August 22 2022

So the NBL1 season is over, and it was not a season to remember for the Melbourne Tigers.

The Men had bad luck, a couple of shots didn’t go through the hoop and the opposition stole games away from them by getting a late run in, the season could have easily ended with the win total in double figures instead of having just five wins.

The Women were up against it from the start as they were a mostly young team and the more experienced Tigers were College bound so their participation was limited but the only way to gain experience is by playing and by the time 2023 comes around, they are going be improved players.

One thing that has to be fixed is the players being spread between BigV and NBL1, the spread while it helps with development also flattens the players and if there is a player crunch, players may not bounce back on Sunday afternoon after playing games on Saturday night.

Next year will see the Tigers get away from the bottom of the table so don’t lose faith in the club, it sounds like they got a plan in motion for everything to improve.