Rangers to rejoin national league

By Paul Pickering
DANDENONG Basketball Association last week ended months of speculation by confirming that it will rejoin the South East Australian Basketball League in 2009.
The move will see Dandenong’s Big V championship division teams abandon the embattled Victorian league for the national SEABL competition.
It will also allow the Rangers to reignite rivalries with local powerhouse clubs Knox, Kilsyth, Nunawading and Frankston.
Australian Club Championships officials are yet to ratify the move, but it is considered a formality after Basketball Victoria and Big V management chose not to challenge the shift.
Both clubs had lamented the lack of depth in the Big V’s top competitions, and they combined earlier this year to develop a proposal for a new Victorian superleague that would include SEABL clubs.
But there was little support for the idea at a meeting of Big V clubs on 25 November, so the DBA lodged its application to switch leagues the next day.
“The discussions within the Big V clubs about the new competition didn’t eventuate and it appeared that it was a lost cause,” DBA board member Lou Godfrey explained this week.
“Dandenong was the only club that supported the new concept.”
The Rangers men won the 2004 SEABL championship before moving across to the newly-established Big V league in 2005.
SEABL chairman Simon Brookhouse welcomed Dandenong back, noting that the addition of the Rangers and Sabres meant that the league now boasted eight of the country’s strongest basketball associations.
Meanwhile, Big V general manager Brad Noonan was keen to play down the loss of the two power clubs.
Noonan said the split was unfortunate, but the league – reduced to seven teams in the championship divisions – was “extremely positive and focused for the 2009 season”.
Dandenong has also announced that former Victorian Country Football League general manager Graeme Allen will step into the DBA general manager role from 16 December.