NBL

Which title is the best?

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1993 or 1997?
2005/06 or 2007/08?

As most Tigers fans know the Tigers after going through the 1980’s empty handed won two titles each in the 1990’s and 2000’s and contested an additional two Grand Final series each in both decades.

Each title win is memorable for their own reasons, 1993 was won over in Perth where the Tigers had to win over there for the first time to win the title and 1997 was a year that started horribly before the incredible winning streak that (Melbourne United needs another six to match) propelled the Tigers to the title against the Magic which avenged the narrow losses in 1992 and 1996.

Then came 2005/06 when Brian Goorjian and his Kings were dominating the league and the Tigers dispatched them with relative ease and then the 2007/08 series was a series of thrills as it went down to the wire with the Tigers winning the decider in Sydney to take the title 3-2.

Each title won brought a great level of satisfaction, beating the Wildcats in Perth to the dismay of their fans in 1993 was something to behold, beating the Magic was always something special and beating Brian Goorjian twice more was something to be pleased with as the Tigers finally won more series than lost against him (Brian struck back with the South Dragons in 2008/09 making it 3-3).

So which is the best win of them all? Is there a definitive answer or perhaps the answer just simply is………

All of them.

Clawing our way along to success

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First off, WANMU doesn’t believe there is a conspiracy by the NBL ensuring Melbourne United wins like it did today against the Breakers by getting the refs to manipulate results, what happened today was bad calls by the referees which is a problem league wide so Mr Kestelman needs to put that on the fix list just ahead of putting us back into competition.

Secondly things are going good, Rebuilding Our Melbourne Tigers is just nine likes away from reaching 500 likes and it is hoped that milestone will be reached really soon because it is a great place to be at and has the right mix of memories and future ambitions and opinions are very valued.

The Tigers Girls were in action at Geelong this weekend and they played with Tiger spirit and integrity no matter if they were on the right or wrong side of the scoreline when the final whistle blows, we hope all Tigers sides that participated had a great time in the tournament.

Other Tigers teams not at Geelong were busy training at MSAC and they have come up with several new ideas to improve on their game play and by the looks of things coaches, teammates, family, friends and fans will be impressed by their new techniques.

Rebuilding Our Melbourne Tigers is now on Twitter and looks forward to being followed by readers and tweeting Tigers news and memories which are highly valued by fans, for those new to Twitter below are links to several Twitter accounts that fans may love to visit in the near future.

Rebuilding Our Melbourne Tigers
Melbourne Tigers Girls
Andrew Gaze
Mark Bradkte
Lanard Copeland
Nigel Purchase

For the next 22 hours there is a poll on Twitter asking if the Tigers should be the second Melbourne NBL club, votes can be submitted by clicking here.

Don’t worry about United fellow Tigers fans, they may be getting big crowds and are 9-0 but they are warming up the crowds for our return in the future or at the very least warming up the public for the 2016 BigV season which promises to be great for the Melbourne Tigers.

Go Tigers!

Tigers on radio

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The Melbourne Tigers have had many media suiting personalities in the team over the years and it is good that we can hear or see some of them regularly in the media as well.

Tigers fans can get their Andrew Gaze fix five days a week on SEN’s ‘Morning Glory’, he joins Andy Maher and Tim Watson to discuss all there is to do with sport and more, the show runs from 7am to 9am and can be heard here on SEN’s website or if listeners want to catch up on individual interviews can choose from here.

Nigel Purchase is also on SEN when he discusses NBA and NBL with Kevin Bartlett on ‘Hungry For Sport’, Nigel is a dedicated Tiger and while it must no doubt be distasteful for him to talk United, he does it with professionalism and we know one day he’ll be talking about the Tigers again soon, to go through ‘Hungry For Sport’ audio visit the show’s page here.

WANMU will continue to report on Tigers on the radio to point you towards the best news and information from the Tigers stars and legends themselves.

124 Tigers fans unite, will you join them?

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At this present time, 124 Tigers fans and supporters of fans belief in the team have united on Change.org in the long written about aim to bring the Tigers name, colour and history back to the original Tigers and their home at MSAC.

124 people is not a small number but it can be much bigger, it can be so much bigger because the Tigers are iconic before on a local and international level from VJBL to BigV and NBL the Tigers have been there and so have the players, staff and fans.

If you believe that the Tigers should be given the right to choose it’s own destiny away from United then please take the few seconds to sign the petition, your few seconds mean and do so much for the Tigers and their supporters.

The Tigers have the fans to make things happen, the Tigers have friends of the fans to make things happen, the Tigers have family of the fans to make things happen, all you got to do if you haven’t signed is decide on whether or not to make all of it happen.

https://www.change.org/p/larry-kestelman-vince-crivelli-michael-slepoy-larry-kestelman-release-the-tigers-intellectual-property

Be united to demand to be divided from United, Go Tigers!

Tigers_Logo_2012

Support surges for Tigers

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It’s been a fantastic week for Tigers fans, morale is sky high and signatures are once again flowing into the petition.

49 people isn’t a jump over the moon total but the jump from 15 just a few days ago is a sign that the petition is making it’s way to Tigers fans who want the Tigers property to be released in order to get the Tigers back onto the path of participating in the highest levels of sport.

Fans of all NBL clubs are welcome to sign the petition, we love hearing from you we even had a Wildcats fan comment the other day which was nice to see and so if NBL fans who want the Tigers to join the NBL party sign then we can really get things rolling.

For newcomers the petition is located at
https://www.change.org/p/larry-kestelman-vince-crivelli-michael-slepoy-larry-kestelman-release-the-tigers-intellectual-property

There is further good news as the Tigers now have a website in development at http://www.melbournebasketball.com.au/girls it has information on the girls teams and according to Janet Gaze there will be an /seniors addition for all the senior team information plus much more so head on over Tigers fans and check it out.

Keep those signatures coming and rejoice in the news the Tigers are up and about.

Go Tigers!

Looking in from the outside

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Last night, the NBL launched it’s season with the big news that Channel Nine was picking up games along with Foxtel.

This news has basketball fans jumping for joy, enthusiasm that hasn’t been seen in years and yet for many Tigers fans, Dragons fans, Magic fans, Giants fans, Cannons fans, Falcons fans, Blaze fans and all the other teams that been casualties over the years and lost to the NBL are looking on saddened that their team is not part of it all and some wish the league would just die anyway.

The transformation in the NBL has all been because of Larry Kestelman and while the job he has done has been stunning the question that must be asked is why on earth didn’t he throw his weight behind the Tigers when he was their co-owner before the change to United? Tigers fan Peter Disco noted that on his way to work he heard three United radio ads whilst years earlier you wouldn’t hear a Tigers ad.

Was Larry’s majority ownership of the NBL part of a long range plan? Was the first step to take out the Melbourne Tigers name, colours and history and replace it with a we’re for Victoria team to eliminate resistance and the second was to take control of the league to build upon his business interests?

Will Larry put Melbourne United at risk by allowing a second Victorian team in? Which cap will he cling to the most, the co-owner of Melbourne United cap or the NBL majority owner cap? Will he let go of the Tigers to expand the league so he can rake in more cash? There’s no finer team to put in than the Melbourne Tigers.
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We’re asking him to risk United, we’re asking him to release the Tigers Intellectual Property and establish a new Tigers with it’s name, history and colours intact and allow them to compete against Melbourne United but WANMU cannot do this alone, we need every fan to support the petition in some way, sign it, share it, get family aboard, all the little things because all the little things is how big things happen and everyone has to decide if they’d take the little time to do them.

https://www.change.org/p/larry-kestelman-vince-crivelli-michael-slepoy-larry-kestelman-release-the-tigers-intellectual-property

Let’s not stop there, C’mon Dragons fans make a petition to enter the league, C’mon Giants fans it’s time to awaken your sleeping Giants and Magic fans it’s time to cast your spells again.

Why? Because now is the time to act while the media is so in love with the NBL, it’s time to be heard so speak up while you still can.

#wewanthardballtoo

Copeland and Gaze to battle on the sidelines

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Andrew Gaze’s Melbourne Tigers will be taking on Lanard Copeland’s Hume City Broncos in their BigV clash this Saturday night (March 28) in a game the promises to be interesting for Tigers fans who get to see the two NBL legends (and good friends) try to outwit each other with their team’s on court.

The game will commence from 8pm at the Broadmeadows Basketball Stadium with the Tigers (0-2) hoping to win their first game of the season while Hume City (2-1) hope to continue their Top 5 form.

The Melbourne Tigers women’s team (0-2) is also taking on Hume City (2-0) at Broadmeadows Basketball Stadium on Saturday night with their game commencing from 6pm, Tigers fans are encouraged to if possible to attend this game as well as the Men’s game to give the side support and encouragement as they too seek to open their win account against a side that has won their two games by an average of 21 points.

Gaze returns fire on Worthington’s comments

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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.

NBL community largely disagrees with Gaze

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Andrew Gaze’s call for the NBL to shut down for a season to fix it’s problems has been widely dismissed by the NBL, teams and fans.

Some basketball figures and newspaper publications have even suggested that Gaze’s call is company motivated for he is on the Basketball Australia board and a shutdown of the NBL would revert the rights of the competition to Basketball Australia, Basketball Australia once controlled the NBL and holds many of it’s intellectual property rights before the NBL broke free to run it’s own operations and many suspect they would be happy to see a shutdown happen.

To many Australian basketball fans, Andrew Gaze is God of Australian Basketball and his opinions are always highly regarded but fans also know that Andrew Gaze loves the NBL very much, the NBL named a medal after him, he played more two decades with the Melbourne Tigers in the competition and he even commentates on NBL games and so the thought that Andrew Gaze made such a call based on company/board desires or politics is rubbish, the man wants to save the competition for the good of the sport and the viewing public.

The NBL still has the problem of the 2014/15 potentially being a six team competition instead of the anticipated nine team competition meaning that teams will be playing each other more often and leading to a situation where marketing matches may become difficult because fans will be seeing the same teams visit too often and if one is having a great season and one isn’t that will be extremely boring.

There’s been a lot of talk about a promising future for the NBL but at the moment there is nothing but the same old chatter and little to no action, perhaps the NBL should go ask what the WNBL are doing for they seem to have great players, more teams and even less of them dying and until very recently constant TV coverage.

Instead of writing #WeAreTheNBL on Twitter, NBL fans should be tweeting #WeWantBetterNBL and the sooner it’s better NBL is delivered the better for everyone who loves the game and is sick of the losses of teams, the loss of good coverage and more.

United Baller’s 2014/15 Finals hopes officially over

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The United Baller’s finals hopes are now over with a massive loss to the Cairns Taipans tonight, the side was already under pressure with Adelaide defeating New Zealand earlier in the week forcing the equation that United must win all four of their games with Adelaide losing all three of theirs for United to make the finals.

United’s bosses, coaches and players are no doubt relieved that their torturous season is over, from the arrival of United on May 20 2014 they’ve seen the departure of many Tigers fans, the loss of Chris Anstey after one regular season game, slow buildup of crowds, a solid finals spot slip slide away, D-Mac becoming more furious with every loss, United Ballers losing to the bottom teams that all but crippled their season, players criticizing others in the newspapers and now knocked out of finals contention.

While there are still three regular season games for the United Ballers to play, there is no doubt that plans for the 2015/16 season are now underway, many suspect D-Mac will not be the 2015/16 coach and the future of the imports is questionable, this season has proven that the throwing around of millions of dollars doesn’t guarantee success particularly when loyalty and harmony are missing from the team both on the court and in the stands.

Many Tigers fans are celebrating tonight for the Tigers made the 2013/14 finals season without sacrificing so much for a boost in finances but it must be said there is a tinge of sadness for many of the players and staff who are great members of the Tigers family are at United and do not deserve to be front row witnesses to such an imploding end to United’s season.

The defiant Tigers fans will be cheering on the Tigers BigV team in their upcoming BigV season this year and hope the side makes the finals to prove that the Tigers and not United are Melbourne.

Who are Melbourne? Melbourne Tigers are Melbourne!.

Gone