Hanging up somewhere at Hisense Arena and other places is the six retired jerseys of the Melbourne Tigers.

#6 Giddey
#8 Gordon
#10 Gaze
#21 Copeland
#25 Simmons
#50 Bradkte

All of them earned this honour through long service and NBL title success and so we’ve got to thinking what happened if the Tigers could retire a seventh jersey number, who could be that seventh person to be immortalized by the club?

Below is several names, it has to be noted that these below selections are just a discussion starter and then get into the business of extending that number.

#5 – Brian Goorjian
#11 – Dave Thomas (#32 also an option)
#12 – Nigel Purchase
#13 – Chris Anstey and/or Al Westover
#33 – Stephen Hoare
#44 – Darryl McDonald

Goorjian, Purchase and Westover were all part of the Tigers inaugural NBL squad in 1984, both Goorjian and Westover coached in the NBL and both won titles (Goorjian 6 with various clubs and Westover 2 as assistant to Lindsay Gaze and 2 as coach of the Tigers) and Nigel Purchase has been associated with the Melbourne Tigers for over three decades with both the NBL and BigV sides.

Darryl McDonald has won many individual honours as a Tiger as well as two titles and he also served as interim coach of the Tigers following the removals of Westover and Gleeson during the period of craziness the Tigers underwent in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s.

Stephen Hoare and Dave Thomas starred with the Tigers in the 2000’s and both won two titles with the club which puts them in contention, Hoare was also named best Sixth Man twice and Thomas made the NBL First Team in 2007 which further strengthens their case.

There are so many people worthy of having retired jerseys in their honour and WANMU works to make sure they get that opportunity in the future for there is so many stories left to be told to fans of all generations.

Go Tigers!