sports

Tigers Men Through To 2025 NBL1 South Grand Final

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The Tigers Men are through to the NBL1 South Grand Final after defeating Knox 89-86 in another dramatic game of Basketball.

Knox finished the 2025 regular season on top with a 17-5 record compared to the Tigers 14-8 record which was good enough for sixth (3rd to 7th all had 14-8 records).

Knox led 27-25 at the end of the first period and extended the lead out of eight at halftime, the Tigers could make no inroads in the third period as both sides put in twenty points apiece.

Once again, the Tigers had to storm back, and it was with 3:38 to go that a second Harrison Froling free throw gave the Tigers a taste of the lead, Knox got it back with 3:20 to go before Michael Wearne hit a three with 3:09 remaining to make it 86-84.

There was no scoring for just over two minutes before Knox hit two free throws with 59 seconds left to tie the game, both sides then spent the next 49 seconds trying to get the next score before Jack Purchase hit a three with ten seconds remaining to give the Tigers the lead.

It wasn’t over as Knox sent up two three-point attempts to try and tie the game, the first led to an offensive rebound and the second shot, it missed, and Jack Purchase grabbed the rebound to end the game.

Tom Wilson scored 42 points in the game; the next highest scoring player was Knox’s Tad Dufelmeier who scored 22 points.

The Tigers making the Grand Final is something special, it has been a long 11 years for Melbourne Tigers fans, the Tigers had a couple of bumpy years post-United, but the win total started to rise from season to season, faith grew and now the Tigers are a healthy basketball club that stands a win away from the title.

It won’t be easy, Sandringham is awaiting the Tigers, and they are a good team but so are the Tigers and so we watch and hope one last time on August 16, 2025, from 7:30pm that the Tigers can win again at the State Basketball Centre.

Go Tigers.

Mixed bag for the Tigers

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After starting the season 0-4, the Tigers Men have moved up to 5-6 after defeating the Ballarat Miners and claiming the ownership of the SIXT Cup.

Ballarat of course is the team that likes to dine out on the fact that they once beat the NBL team in 1989, that Tigers team was on the up after some barren years, beating the 1992 team would have been an entirely different story.

The win puts them thirteenth on the ladder and have Nunawading up next who are currently 9th with a 6-5 record.

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The Tigers Women have slipped down to tenth on the ladder after losing 101-92 to Ballarat, they now have a 5-6 record and their opposition this week (Nunawading) is eighteenth with a 2-9 record, a record that we hope to make 2-10 as the Tigers battle to keep touch with eighth spot (Frankston with a 5-5 record).

The season is going pretty quickly, there are just nine games to go for our Tigers and hopefully the two Tigers teams can win 50% or better of those nine to make a year of it, it has already been a good year and more success can take the club even further.

Meanwhile it was ten years ago today that the Tigers NBL team was turned into Melbourne United as its owner wanted a bigger slice of the Victorian pie, some fans stayed with the team through the changes, some fans are originally walking away rejoined the team after they had achieved some success and some fans never went back to Melbourne and the NBL and stayed with the Tigers as they rebuilt through BigV, SEABL and NBL1.

It has been a long ten years following the Tigers, we haven’t had a whole lot of success at NBL1 level, but everything is on the up for the Tigers from players to sponsorship, there is still a lot of journeying left to do and we’re going to be here for it.

Four games in

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Four games in and it is a mixed bag of results for the Melbourne Tigers, here are how things are looking at the moment.

Women

The Women are 2-2 having won their first two and losing their last two, this puts them in ninth position but they in touch with the leaders.

The seven-point loss to Ringwood was a game that could have gone either way, the third period was the difference in the two teams and the loss to Knox was determined in the second and third periods as the Tigers were outscored thirteen points each period.

Jade Melbourne is among the leaders in points, assists and is leading steals, Abbey Sutherland is co-leading the block averages.

Coming up is Waverley (2-2) and Diamond Valley (1-2), two interesting games ahead for the women who have the potential to end the weekend at 4-2.

Men

The Men are 0-4 to start the season, they opened with a six-point loss to Dandenong, a fifteen-point loss to Nunawading, a six-point loss to Ringwood and a thirty-two-point loss to Knox so it is a mixed bag of losses.

The six-point losses show that just a few event changes could have resulted in wins, but the fifteen and thirty-two-point losses are concerning.

Tom Wilson is leading scorer for the Men followed by Mason Gaze, Tom is just outside the Top 20 of the league and Mason is just outside the Top 30.

There are no home games this week as the Tigers travel to Waverley and Diamond Valley, Waverley are two and two and Diamond Valley are 0-3 so there is a good chance of picking up W’s to get the season going.

The 2024 Season is Here!

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Tonight, is the night, the start of the 2024 NBL1 South season for the Melbourne Tigers and it is an exciting time for Tigers fans.

There is something different about the Tigers this year, we have all seen that the club has worked hard to secure new partnerships with businesses and recruiting has gone well, the club even secured the services of Jade Melbourne for a couple of games before she has to go back to the WNBA.

Tom Wilson is back for the Men too; he spent a couple of years playing Aussie Rules for Collingwood including 8 games in the AFL up to the end of last year, he’ll be working with Jack Purchase, Mason Gaze, Michael Wearne and many fine Tigers.

The Tigers even have Tigers TV which is cool, get to know more about what is going on and more.

Life has been a bit crazy the last few years but hopefully this blog will be worked on weekly, no matter if nobody, one person or many people read it.

Go Tigers.