GU12.3

Grand Final Winners!

The girls started off pretty rusty, as expected, but improved drastically throughout the tournament as shown by winning the Grand Final against a team we lost to in the tournament rounds. The girls played amazingly but the grand final win was an accumulation of the efforts and encouragement of all parents and supporters as well as the girls, especially Miranda the team manager. Well done to Annabelle Krienke for winning MVP. We are very excited for the rest of the season.

Coach: Lucy Caldwell & Eleni Serghis

 

U10 Development

The U10 girls started with a fantastic 20-2 win again Melbourne, with all players contributing well. We then encountered a much taller Bentleigh and were 8 pts down. We then improved our defence and worked hard to claw back the deficit and go on to a 4 pt win. Hawthorn proved our first loss of the tournament, losing a lead late in the game with some dubious refereeing decisions gifting them goals. Eltham 2 were a younger and smaller side, and the girls dominated accordingly. They were good sports though and practiced their defensive shuffles with hands behind their backs, to allow Eltham to bring the ball up the court. Eltham 1 proved to be much tougher, and we recorded a narrow 2 pt loss, however our shooting was not quite on the mark and we were probably the better team. Finally we met Sturt in our semi final. Sturt were BIG and FAST. Their lowest winning margin had been 27 points, and they had beaten Hawthorn who we lost to, by 42 points. The girls however didn’t care. They were fantastic all game. They defended stoutly and worked hard in offence. The final score was a very honourable 20-8 loss. Sturt went on to beat Hawthorn again in the grand final 43 to 16. All girls showed great improvement through the tournament and were fantastic to coach. We hope to see them all in Dragons colours again.

Coach: Duncan Palmer

 

GU12.1

Having done their basketball homework over the holidays the girls were not as rusty as expected, and came out ready to play in their first game. There were a couple of lapses throughout the weekend, but that’s to be expected when you play 8 games in three days. But they managed to keep it together, and play their best basketball when it counted, going down by 2 points in the Grand Final. The team worked on what we needed to throughout the tournament, putting us in a good position to continue our fight to make VC. Prue is very proud! Well done to Hayley Morris for MVP in the Grand Final, her second for the weekend. And thank you to the TM Gavin and all the parents and family for your support over the weekend.

Coach: Charlotte Grieve

 

GU12 Development

For a group that had never even met the girls played extremely well over the weekend and improved with each game they played together. We only lost the first game to a well drilled Ringwood team and made finals. Unfortunately we lost the semi in a close battle but the team showed good teamwork with lots of good passing and the improvement over the weekend was impressive. Thanks to the parents for driving their children to each game over the weekend and to Julie Clark for being Team Manager and keeping everyone organised.

Coach: Cara Jeffers

 

GU14.1

The girls came back from holidays ready to go, it was clear the hard yards they put in over the break towards their fitness and shooting and I could not be happier with them. Going into the tournament we knew it would be tough playing in A-reserve but much to my delight the girls rose to the challenge to only lose one game in our group. We knocked off teams that are higher than us in grading and beating Ringwood 1 twice who we previously lost to last year, shows how far the girls have come already. The girls made the Grand Final coming up against Diamond Valley 2 but just couldn’t quite get the win, shots wouldn’t drop although our defence pressure was better than I’ve seen from this group. A successful tournament with many challenging games which can only help the girls, offences worked and the girls came together and played as a team. Thanks to all the parents and especially Kelli for organising everyone.

Coach: Cara Jeffers

 

GU14.2

The U14.2 girls performed very well in the Eltham/Dandenong Tournament, finishing strongly in their pool at 3rd out of 10. The semi-final against a tough Diamond Valley side was very close the whole way, our girls unfortunately going down by just 3 points, in a strong defensive game of 22-19. Great efforts from our girls, their defence has improved out of sight and our offensive plays are coming together nicely. A great way to start the year: well done girls.

Coach: Hannah Prentice & Helen Vermont

 

GU14.3
The u14-3 girls were drawn in a very even pool. We had played most sides beforehand with narrow wins or losses. The exceptions were Diamond Valley 4 and KLR3 who are in the VJBL grading section above us, and M5 from the section below. We started with a narrow win against KS4 who we are very evenly matched with, then a solid loss to DV4 who jumped us early with a 12-2 start, which we couldn’t claw back. Then followed four straight wins, with a narrow one against a desperate Keilor and relatively comfortable results against M5, BT5, and RWD3.

In the semi final we were drawn against KS4. We have played them twice, once in grading with a 1pt win and earlier in the tournament. The girls were focussed in warm-up which was a good sign, and with Cara and the 14-1 watching, exploded with an 11-0 start, which probably should have been a 30 nil start, so complete was our dominance, however a rash of missed layups and rebound shots didn’t reflect our performance on the scoreboard. In the second half Kilsyth started to edge back, and for every one shot we put in, they put in two , until late in the half we turned the ball over several times in quick succession and rushed our shots. We were suddenly 3 down in game that should have been over at half time. With a minute to go we looked down and out, particularly with my timeout already used. The Kilsyth coach kindly used his time-out and we were able to refocus and settle down. We scored twice, once from the line to draw level again, and then held them out for the last 13 seconds to force the game into overtime. In overtime, we scored quickly to jump ahead, but a turnover and an injury to Molly saw them again draw level. With 10 secs on the clock Charlie was fouled and calmly slotted her first shot. The second rimmed out, however we still had one foul to give, which we did, and whilst it stopped the clock, it slowed them right down and they could only force up a pressure shot which missed. We were into the grand final. The grand final unfortunately was a bit of an anti-climax. Diamond Valley again skipped away to a comfortable lead against a Camberwell team that seemed mentally and physically tired. We didn’t stop fighting but still went down by 9 points. All girls worked hard throughout the tournament, and it was very pleasing to score some points off the first phase of our set offence. Now we need to work on the rest of the phases. Thanks to my assistants Anna and Mark, and to Danielle for team managing

Coach: Duncan Palmer

 

GU14.4

The girls showed determination and persistence throughout this weekend. Although they only ended up winning one game they kept a positive attitude throughout the whole tournament, tried new things and stepped out of their comfort zones. A great effort by the girls and great individual and team improvements were seen

Coach: Kat Poropat

 

GU16.1

Girls 16-1s missed out on finals. But we did end on an up note with a stylish and high scoring game against the top team in the grade. Along the way, we had two important lessons why in basketball; champions are the ones with the tenacity to play through the final buzzer. The girls were demoralized being down by a big margin at halftime against Hawthorn (of all clubs). But we stormed back and when Hawthorn relaxed with 2 seconds to go, we nailed a three on the buzzer to claim a tie. We nearly duplicated the feat two games later with a heroic effort to get 2 points up on Eltham with 17 ticks on the clock (Brit Morkham and Elisha Purcell running the pick and roll to perfection). This time, however, we were guilty of relaxing moments too early. One slightly soft pass, 6 secs to go. Eltham got a steal and hit a prayer, banked three for the win. Ouch. In basketball – every second counts.

Coach: Alex Szabo

 

GU16.2

Fantastic weekend by the girls! Won 4/6 games to make the semis, but lost to the eventual winner by 4 points after a 9-4 second half comeback. Our full court press and defensive intensity was amazing. Every player put in 100% each game- they should be very proud of themselves!

Coach: Simon Pawson

 

GU16.3

The team had a great time together and managed to fit in 7 games as well.

The tournament provided an opportunity to clear the cobwebs, and revisit our man, zone and press defences. We also got useful exposure (twice) to the physical, high pressure team which won the GF.

Coach: Mike Muntisov

 

GU18.1
Congratulations on an awesome Eltham Tournament this year! Grand finalists in the top finals of our grade was an amazing effort. Before playing our first game, we talked about learning a few things as a team over the tournament and we certainly did – our help defence improved, our transition improved, we utilised our height, our guards protected the ball… Overall you played with much greater poise and confidence and individually you each showed great improvement. Fantastic stuff!

Coach: Benson Lee

 

BU12.1

“The under 12/1’s had a great weekend, winning through to the grand final. Unfortunately we came up against a strong Blackburn 1. The boys took numerous step forwards over the tournament and it was great to see them bonding as well. Congratulations to Ben “BT, Bristle” Taylor on winning the MVP for the grand final.”

Coach: Sam Tarbet

 

BU12.2

The Under 12.2 boys had a sensational weekend, playing 8 games including a semi-final and grand final. After a great win by 21 points over Bulleen 3 in the semi-final we unfortunately went down by 3 points in the grand final to Bulleen 4 in overtime. The grand final was played at a very high standard and both teams should be congratulated. I am extremely proud of my boys and the effort, attitude and never-say-die attitude that all team members display in every game. A huge thanks to the Manager of the Millenium, Mr Richard Herbst for his outstanding organisation, communication and efforts. A great season awaits.

Proud Coach: Clayton Sturzaker

 

BU12.3

The 12,3s lost 4 games and won 1 game. We came up against some good teams with experienced players but remained competitive only losing by an average of around 11 points. In our last game we won quite convincingly but showed how we had improved over the course of the 5 games.

Coach: Mark Fernandez

 

BU14.1

The tournament was great for the boys to get rid of their cobwebs which had obviously accumulated over the holiday break. We started the tournament very slowly but got progressively better as the tournament went on. Some highlights of the weekend were Tom Feikema’s coast to coast lay-ups, Peter Collins equalizing hook shot from the 3 point line and the teams more aggressive play in our final game against Diamond Valley. We finished the weekend with a record of 2 Wins, 2 Losses and 2 Draws to finish equal first in our group with 3 other teams. Thanks to all of the parents for driving their children around and to Steve Earl for his organisation throughout the tournament.

Coach: Mark Jeffers

 

BU14.3

The under 14.3s had a fantastic tournament. Their record of 2 and 4 doesn’t do them justice. For the 3 games they lost, they had a total losing margin of 15 points, only losing to the top team by 3. All the boys contributed fantastically in every game with our defensive game the stand out part of our play in the tournament. Well done boys! Thanks to the parents for supporting the boys so positively.

Coach: Dean Peters

 

BU14.4

U14-4 Boys had a great tournament culminating with an exciting grand-final appearance and runners-up trophy. Early rust and two early losses were brushed off and the boys rode a 5-game win streak, including a 51-point explosion, to the grand final. Thanks to all the parents that transported and cheered on the team, and manned the score bench through 8 exciting games.

Coach: Michael Pitt & Harvey Law

 

BU16.1

We had a great tournament –these boys do play an exciting brand of basketball;  the boys learnt a lot and proved that they are more than competitive at Metro 1 Level. They got on well and did a great job of learning to handle the pressure at that level.

We beat Keilor by 6 points and they went on to win the Grand final – we lost 3 games by a total of 11 points for the weekend. Mostly, we learned to support and trust each other on the court and we learnt the value of warming up physically and mentally to prepare to play at our best.

Coach: Rosemary Morris

 

BU16.3

With a fill in coach the boys came together well as a team to run plays and improve their defensive pressure which lead to a few good come back as we found ourselves fight from behind in most games.
Unfortunately our winnable games were lost by only a few points leaving us with only one win for the weekend which came in dramatic style with Victor sealing the win from the foul line after the siren had sounded.

Coach: Stuart Ellis

 

BU16.4

U16 4s played hard all weekend against kids who were much bigger and stronger than them.
Despite not having much success they enjoyed themselves and there was obvious improvement as each game progressed.
Looking forward to continuing that improvement into the next grading phase.

Coach: Luke Guglielmino

 

BU18.1

The U18.1s boys have gained great momentum moving into Phase Two Grading with a very strong performance at the Eltham/Dandenong Tournament. We finished with 3 wins and 2 loses narrowly missing the semi finals. We knew that we would be the underdogs going into the weekend with 4 of the 5 teams already qualified for VC, so we had nothing to lose and could put everything on the line. After starting the weekend with a 20 point lose to Eltham, we turned it around to beat Bulleen, Kilsyth and Ringwood. As we move into the next phase of grading we can’t get caught up on the wins and must knuckle down over the coming weeks. Congratulations boys you should be proud of your efforts over the weekend. Thank-you to Bernie for TM duties and to all the support at each game we thank-you all.

Coach: Justin Boyd

 

BU18.4

The 18.4 boys had a very successful tournament, making it to the Grand Final. Unfortunately they came up just short, losing to Eltham by 6 points in the tightly contested decider. I’m very proud of their achievement and willingness to improve over the course of the weekend and they can take a lot of confidence into the next phase of grading. It was a great effort by the boys.

Coach: Dylan Sweeny

 

BU20.2

The U20-2 boys used the Eltham Tournament (B Grade), as practice matches for the upcoming VJBL season, with these being the first matches that the boys had played together as a team.

Overall, we did extremely well, winning two and losing four matches by generally small margins.

We defeated Launceston and a strong Waverley 2 team, and lost a thriller by one point to Werribee 1, who were the eventual winners of the B Grade Grand Final over Waverley 2 by a staggering 72:33.

I would like to thank the boys for playing the tournament in great spirit, you guys make it easy for this old coach and I am looking forward to an exciting season.

Coach: Tony Ruddell

<--Back to Previous Page