Big V league champions Dandenong could be returning to the SEABL as soon as next season. 10049By Paul Pickering
DANDENONG’S dominant men’s basketball team is on the brink of walking out on the Big V league.
Due to a lack of depth in the Championship Men’s division, the Dandenong Basketball Association (DBA) has put the Big V on notice that the Rangers may lead an exodus from the league as soon as next season.
The DBA has urged Basketball Victoria to develop a single elite-level competition in the state, instead of allowing the Big V and the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) to court Victoria’s marquee clubs.
If the DBA’s calls are not heeded, the Rangers are likely to join Sandringham – and possibly Waverley – in a switch to the SEABL, where they could reprise their rivalries with local powerhouses Kilsyth, Knox and Nunawading.
DBA general manager Peter Roach last week confirmed that the club had lost confidence in the current structure of the sport at the elite level in Victoria.
Roach said the club would consider moving back to the SEABL if Basketball Victoria was unable to convince the DBA of its blueprint for the future.
“We don’t believe that it’s in our best interests to go to the other competition, because that doesn’t solve the problem,” he said.
“We think the best answer is to have all the best sides playing in one competition, and at the moment that’s not the SEABL or the Big V.
“We’re pushing Basketball Victoria to create that competition.”
Dandenong left the SEABL – which includes teams from New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania – to join the newly branded Big V league in 2005.
Since then, the Rangers men have played off against Sandringham in every grand final series, winning the past two championships before progressing to the final of the Australian Basketball Association national championship.
This season, the gap between the top four – Dandenong, Sandringham, Melbourne and Waverley – and the rest of the league has become farcical.
With one round of the regular season to play, Dandenong’s average winning margin for the year stands at 30 points, with Sandringham’s 26 points.
In its two matches against play-off contender Eltham, Dandenong has won by a total of 85 points.
On the eve of another an historic Big V three-peat bid, the situation seems to have become untenable.
“The competition that we’re facing week in, week out is not at the level that we want it to be,” Roach said.
“You shouldn’t be able to win by 40, 50 or 60 points in an elite competition week in, week out.”
Roach questioned whether Dandenong could continue to attract the highest calibre players – many of whom return to Stud Road after playing college basketball in America – if the level of competition remained the same.
He believes the ideal structure would be to have the state’s best eight to 12 clubs playing off in a top-tier competition, while the others would fight for promotion into that league from lower divisions.
Basketball Victoria chief executive Wayne Bird said a reshuffle would be up for discussion when he meets with the Big V on Wednesday.
“There’s no short-term solution, as much as some of the clubs are pushing for that,” Bird said.
“My advice to Dandenong would be to hasten slowly, because what is being considered is of such significance that it’s not going to happen overnight.”
In the meantime, the onus is on the Big V to convince its marquee clubs to stick around.
Big V general manager Brad Noonan is well aware of the predicament.
“The Big V now needs to appease the clubs,” he said.
“We need to do everything within our power to keep them in our competition.”
Noonan said the clubs may have overreacted to a series of blow-outs early in the season.
He was also adamant the league could survive the departure of its highest-profile teams.
The Big V will be informed of the clubs’ intentions by 30 September.
Any decision to switch leagues would also include the Championship Women’s team, while Dandenong’s Youth League teams would continue to play in the Big V.
