Tigers

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.

Opportunity Knox For Tigers

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The Melbourne Tigers Mens team has made the Preliminary Final of the 2025 NBL1 season after defeating Kilsyth 84-83.

The Tigers were all but done at the end of the third period after Kilsyth led at the end of the first period by two points, the margin was one point at the half and then Kilsyth poured in 30 points to 17 in the third to lead by fourteen.

The Tigers fought back in the last period and when Harrison Froling put in a two pointer with five seconds left, it put the Tigers up 84-83 and Kilsyth still had a chance to snatch back the lead, a foul against Jack Purchase with two seconds left put Kilsyth on the line and in moments of high sporting drama, Hamish MacDonald missed his two free throws and Tom Wilson collected the rebound to seal the dramatic win for the Tigers by the narrowest of margins.

August 9 at 7:30pm sees the Tigers travelling to Dandenong Basketball Stadium to take on the Knox Raiders for the right to go into the Grand Final.

Tigers fans have been hungry for success ever since Larry Kestelman in 2014 took away the Tigers in the NBL leaving the Tigers in Big V and the then SEABL competition and now they are two wins away from winning the NBL1 South title.

Whatever happens, it has been a wonderful season and hopefully the start of a great era for the 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.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=847884364036739&set=a.544845707673941

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.

Tigers Sweep the Spectres……Just!

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The Melbourne Tigers got their first sweep of the season, though it almost wasn’t to be thanks to a late charge by the Spectres Men.

The Tigers Women moved to 2-2 after comfortably defeating Nunawading 88 to 71.

It was a fairly even first half with the Tigers ahead by six points at the half, they doubled their lead by the end of the third period and then increased it by five in the last to win by 17 points and even up their season.

Samantha Simons top scored for the Tigers with 23 points followed by Jade Melbourne with 18 points, Jade topped the Rebounds and Assists with twelve and eleven of them respectively.

54.24% of two-point attempts went in and 35% of three-point attempts went in, the Tigers three point shooting improved in the second half with 50% going in both periods compared to 25% and 16.67% in the first two periods.

The Men were on court next their new look and the new looked seemed to have worked wonders as they scored 29 points in the first period to take a comfortable 16 point lead.

It was a 23-point lead at half time and most teams would feel comfortable with that big of a lead, but Nunawading are a good team and they outscored the Tigers by 10 in the third to reel the margin in to a more manageable 13 points.

Melbourne’s 3-point percentage dropped from a high of 60% in the second period to 0% in the last as they missed all three attempts, Nunawading had eleven attempts with three of them landing.

With twelve seconds to go it was a 80-79 score when a foul brought Jack Purchase to the line and he put in both to move the margin back out to three, Nunawading had two attempts for a three to tie but both missed, the Tigers won 82-79 to win their first game of the season.

So, both Tigers teams are on the board with wins, they’ve got Dandenong next and hopefully they can get another sweep and start charging up the ladder.

Go Tigers.



Three Games Into 2023

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The 2023 NBL1 South Season is three games in, quite unbelievable but true.

The Women got their first year of the year last weekend by beating Keilor 81-52 after losing their opening games 79-54 (Ballarat) and 86-78 (Waverley), hopefully wins will continue to come now that one is on the board.

The Men have lost their games 92-68 (Ballarat), 91-88 (Waverley) and 84-72 (Keilor), the Tigers form has been patchy, either they’ve been blown away in the first period or have a good start and get run down.

It seems over the years the Tigers Men are playing games where they suddenly get the yips and the opposition bound down the court and score multiple times and the team cannot recover, it doesn’t last long but the damage is always done.

Coming up on Thursday April 20 is Nunawading, it is always good to come up against fellow ex-NBL sides like the Spectres, the Geelong Supercats and the Frankston Bears.

Having games on Thursday nights does trip people up because they are used to Friday to Sunday games but NBL1 decided to speed up the season by adding in another day of games.

It seems to be a long couple of years for the Tigers in terms of success but at least we’re not the 0-26 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (put 0-26 in google and you’ll get the Bucs) or the St Kilda Saints who didn’t win between the 1897 VFL Season and early in the 1900 season, the important thing to remember is that things will get better as the season goes on.

Go Tigers.

Petition update – November 11 2015

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The petition is doing well at this time, there is currently 131 signatures and with the surge of interest in the Melbourne Tigers it is hoped that the amount of signatures will rise to challenge the 150 signature mark real soon.

For those not in the know, the petition is calling on the owners of Melbourne United to give up the Melbourne Tigers name, colours and history so the original Melbourne Tigers who is the mother/father of the club going around as Melbourne United can participate in competitions higher than the BigV as well as be allowed to do other things to expand the team’s income.

As it stands right now, the Tigers cannot compete in the NBL, SEABL and CLB which are either semi-professional or professional and this is why getting those rights is important because those three competitions are well known and fans want the team to be part of the action.

It is hoped that we, the fans of the Melbourne Tigers can unite in this petition to show the rights owners that we truly believe in our Tigers and a separation of the Tigers and United is good for Basketball particularly in the future as there is no doubt the two teams will meet on court.

To visit/sign the petition please visit the site below.
https://www.change.org/p/larry-kestelman-vince-crivelli-michael-slepoy-larry-kestelman-release-the-tigers-intellectual-property

Go Tigers

Building the social media network

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There is no doubt now fellow Tigers fans that journalists and bloggers etc aren’t yet interested in Tigers fans efforts in making the Tigers the second Melbourne NBL team in the competition.

So how do we change that? For starters it is up to us, Tigers fans have to generate the interest themselves by showing the passion and dedication fans have for the team and the goal of returning to the NBL and that may seem difficult but it really isn’t because a Tweet can be written in about the same time as watching a cat video and liking and retweeting is a click and done thing.

Below is a list of Basketball reporters, stars and bloggers who could potentially be Twittered to persuasion to come and have a look at fans efforts at Rebuilding Our Melbourne Tigers and Save The Melbourne Tigers, they may comment negatively but we’ll take it because they’ve taken the time to acknowledge us and may set people’s curiosity off.

Roy Ward – Twitter
The Age Sport – Twitter
SMH Sport – Twitter
Hoops.com.au – Twitter
The Pick And Roll  – FB Page, Twitter
SEN Morning Glory – Twitter
Andy Maher (SEN Morning Glory co-host) – Twitter
Andrew Gaze – Twitter
Lanard Copeland – Twitter
Boti Nagy – Twitter
AndTheFoul.net – Twitter
Hoops Heaven – Twitter
Corey ‘Homicide’ Williams – Twitter
Dwayne Russell – Twitter
Andrew Voss – Twitter
Hoops.com.au – Twitter
Steve Carfino – Twitter
Paul Suttor – Twitter
Rebuild Our Melbourne Tigers – Twitter
Melbourne Tigers Girls – Twitter

Some NBL fans may not be aware the Melbourne Tigers still exists so you might have to explain that because there is a chance people just think we’re bitter fans and not club re-builders or expanders.

If we can get 10 people tweeting that’s good, if all ten retweet the others tweets then it goes into multiplication and if the retweets get retweeted it reaches more people and if people comment on tweets it goes further and then we’ve got a commodity.

Lastly there’s the whole realm of hashtags so in tweets could put in #MelbourneTigers, #Tigers, #WeAreMelbourneToo, #Wewereherefirst, #TigersForNBL, #TigersAreUnited (that will stump people) and lots more, if enough people use the same hashtag it trend in the nation.

It can be done, believe it, do it and achieve it.

Go Tigers!

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!

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!

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