Melbourne Tigers Men side defeated Hawthorn last Saturday night 110 to 69 to record their sixth win of the season.

This win is the Tigers second consecutive win and places the Tigers in 10th spot just ahead of Diamond Valley who also have six wins.

Hawthorn, Eltham and Whittlesea are one win and two wins (Whittlesea) ahead of the Tigers on the BigV ladder with the Tigers a good chance to pass Hawthorn and or Eltham with 12th place Sherbooke the Tigers next opponent before the Tigers take on league leaders Ringwood in a test of the Tigers abilities on Sunday.

In the last five games, the Tigers have won three out of five making them equal fourth of teams that have won games in that period with Ringwood and Corio Bay winning all five, Waverley winning four, followed by Melbourne and McKinnon with three.

This news is exciting with fans starting to revel in the level of success that Melbourne is having and if the side continues this way there is little doubt that memberships will rapidly rise as more Tigers NBL fans make their way back to their Tigers BigV home.

Go Tigers!

In the 1990’s the Melbourne Tigers had legendary battles against the South East Melbourne Magic in the NBL, now tomorrow night the Melbourne Tigers will be taking on Hawthorn Magic in a game that could propel the Tigers higher up the BigV ladder.

Hawthorn Magic have no relation to the SE Melbourne Magic but the Tigers need to play with the intensity of it’s former NBL spinoff to secure the win and stay away from last place.

Tigers fans are excited by the team’s recent form with Dillion Stith, Josh White and Dexter Kernich-Drew all in good form and if all three fire then Hawthorn could be in some trouble.

Sherbrooke (5-13) and Diamond Valley (5-14) take on each other with the winner moving on to six wins and potentially end up ahead of Melbourne, Diamond Valley also play Waverley on the weekend but would need to play like pros in order to knock off the third placed team.

The Tigers Men play at MSAC from Saturday July 4 at 8pm.

Tigers Women take on Ringwood in a very tough assignment away from home (The Rings, 8pm July 4), the side is third last but can still climb up in positions with several teams only one or two wins in front of the Tigers,

The Tigers Women took a massive loss to Southern Peninsular and are no doubt eager to put in a solid effort to try upset Ringwood who are flying high near the top of the ladder.

WANMU wishes both teams the best and will report on the results as they come to hand,

Melbourne Tigers hero Chris Goulding has joined Melbourne United.

Goulding was one of the Tigers heroes as Chris Anstey coached the Tigers to the finals in 2013/14, Goulding’s high scoring brought Tigers fans to their feet as he racked up scores that reminded fans of Andrew Gaze’s scoring sprees during the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s.

In the lead up to the 2014/15 season, Goulding decided to take up an opportunity to play overseas and was released by United without playing a game for them in 2014/15 but the team has their man again which will no doubt boost interest in the 2015/16 season.

Melbourne Tigers Men yesterday defeated Werribee 85 to 66 to score their fifth win of the 2015 Big V season.

The win places Melbourne a win off the bottom of the ladder and just two wins behind Hawthorn who are currently sitting in 8th position.

Dillion Stith continues to have an impressive season with the Tiger running second on league points averages with 21.8 points per game while Dexter Kernich-Drew has averaged 26 points from his four games this season with his inclusion in the team seemingly fitting the Tigers recent run of form.

Melbourne have Hawthorn on 8pm Saturday July 4 at MSAC, this match will be important for if the Tigers win it will increase their chances of avoiding the wooden spoon and if results go their way take 10th spot, equal with ninth and be a game behind Hawthorn in 8th.

Go Tigers!

By now most of the NBL fans are aware that Wollongong Hawks are now back to the Illawarra Hawks, the question WANMU are wondering is why?

The NBL is now geared towards business and is now lead by the man who removed the Melboune Tigers name and history because he considered the Tigers history to be selfish by not including the rest of Melbourne’s ex teams, it should be noted that Larry Kestelman now owns majority of the league with his workers working at NBL HQ as well as owning a slice of Melbourne United which is a conflict of interest although nobody is speaking about it.

If the Melboure Tigers name was considered selfish of Tigers fans then is the people of Wollongong considered selfish for having the Hawks?

Would Perth have to become the WA Wildcats or Adelaide the SA 36er’s or perhaps the Sydney Kings become the New South Wales Kings because the NBL (some say KBL as in Kestelman Basketball League) want a wider area of people to become fans of the team?

It’s nice the Illawarra area got their team back but the reasons of the area getting their team back has a smell just like the one that came from United when that team came to Melbourne and it is a smell that hasn’t completely gone away.

It was one year ago today that Melbourne Tigers fans were confronted with the confirmation that their beloved team was renamed Melbourne United.

News of the renaming was leaked the previous day but Tigers fans were hoping that their team owners were not serious about this decision that would unravel 30 years of NBL history in an instant.

Unfortunately for Tigers fans, their worst fears were realized and the Tigers were gone and replaced by a team whose logo looked somewhat similar to A League club Melbourne Heart before it’s renaming to Melbourne City, A jersey that nobody can decide if it’s Blue or Black and a team song that seems to fit New York or anywhere in the USA than Melbourne.

As the days went on, it became clear with research that this action was planned by the owners and top staff for some time and the once strong Tigers community was ripped apart as fans were faced with the choice of staying with United or fight for the Tigers.

Fans were puzzled how sections of Tigers history including the four NBL titles were happily kept by United while the five retired numbers of the Tigers were suddenly open for the taking, fans also were unhappy that the team was claiming to represent all past Melbourne NBL teams but none of their titles or honours hang from the rafters but instead logos are shown on a pre-game video.

United had a rough opening to their NBL existence, they lost their first match of the season and then lost Chris Anstey in a split that was said to be nice but hardly believed by basketball fans, Melbourne legend D-Mac stepped in and for awhile it looked like he would take United to playoffs just like Anstey done with the Tigers months earlier.

United imploded as players bagged each other in the press and D-Mac also took to the media to express his displeasure with the squad, an almost sure thing finals appearance turned into a mission to salvage pride against the Sydney Kings which they did to a crowd over 10,000 which was trumpeted but without finals the buzz was slight and once again basketball news is down to a trickle from the press.

Melbourne United are currently in chaos as the 2014/15 team has been gutted and a new coach has taken the reins, co-owner Larry Kestelman is aiming to take over the NBL and that has fans really nervous for if he gutted the Tigers then he could certainly rip the guts out of the other NBL teams too.

Melbourne Tigers fans who walked away from United jumped aboard the Tigers BigV teams and have been supporting the team at their home games at MSAC and around Melbourne no doubt giving the players of the legendary club a boost as the team now has more people becoming members and seeing more attendees to their games, while being in the BigV may seem as a step down it is in reality a tactical turn around as the Tigers aim to make the jump to SEABL which is seen as serious if not superior competition for the NBL.

Tigers fans are also helping the team out by posting game information, pictures and game results on social media allowing fans to be in the know better than ever before and in some cases fans are more informed than when the Tigers were in the NBL.

2015 has been a struggle for the Tigers teams but the BigV teams play with the same dedication and spirit of the teams that entertained the WNBL and NBL over the last thirty years and WANMU hopes that the team does make it to SEABL and continue to make it’s way to the highest of basketball competition in Australia.

It’s been a hard year for fans, it was hard watching the NBL without the Tigers but fans are glad the BigV season is in full swing and the Tigers are once again the Kings and Queens of Melbourne which has been the case since 1931 and will continue to be that way for a very long time.

Always remember ‘We are not Melbourne United, We are the Melbourne Tigers’.