The South's secret to National Finals success

The NBL1 South have proven they sit atop the country in the past three National Finals, winning four of six National Championships since 2022. 

In 2022, the NBL1 West’s men’s Rockingham Flames and women’s Warwick Senators claimed the inaugural titles in Victoria, over the men’s Frankston Blues and women’s Ringwood Hawks.

However, the script was flipped in 2023 – with Joondalup (Western Australia) hosting the tournament and the NBL1 South’s men’s Knox Raiders and women’s Bendigo Braves claiming the titles. 

In this recentpast National Finals on the Sunshine Coast (in Queensland), the women’s Championship Game featured the defending champion Bendigo versus the NBL1 South’s and eventual winners, the Waverley Falcons. While on the men’s side, Knox claimed the first back-to-back National Titles over the North’s Mackay Meteors. 

While the first season saw the South fall just short infront of their home crowds, it still shows the strength of the conference – as it’s the only conference to have competed in every Championship Game in NBL1 history. 

As the inaugural conference in 2019, the NBL1 South has grown significantly since its start, despite two seasons being either cancelled (2020) or ended prematurely (2021) due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

Reflecting on the success, Basketball Victoria Chief Executive Officer, Nick Honey explained what makes the South so successful. 

“The strength of the South conference in NBL1 stems from the strength of the participation and development programs in place at associations primarily across Victoria, but also in Tasmania and the long-standing work of the Mount Gambier Pioneers in their South Australian community,” he told NBL Media. 

“Senior programs and junior programs work hand in hand within our associations. The senior program provides the local community with a pathway to an elite level; for many areas, it is the highest level of sport available, so plays an important role in ensuring basketball is a key focus in the region. 

“Meanwhile, the junior players of the association are provided with strong female and male role models within their association, demonstrating standards both on and off court that they can learn from. We know of many stories of players taking on mentoring roles within their local associations.” 

While it’s easy to think of the NBL1 South as Victoria, the conference has featured South Australia’s Mount Gambier Pioneers and Tasmania’s women’s Launceston Tornadoes, men’s NW Thunder and the Hobart Chargers for multiple seasons – contributing to the overall strength of the conference. 

This is reflected in the Finals especially, with the women’s and men’s Pioneers teams making deep finals runs each season and the men’s Hobart Chargers winning the title in 2022. 

Honey explained that their integration is a large part of the overall health of the competition. 

“For Basketball Victoria, we highly value the involvement of our Tasmanian teams and also Mt Gambier,” he said.

“With these clubs holding licenses to NBL1 South, it further strengthens our men's and women's competitions, bringing many of the best players from South Australia and Tasmania into our competition.” 

With the redevelopment of the State Basketball Centre and basketball continuing to boom in Australia, especially Victoria, Honey explained that the future of basketball is forming in the NBL1 South. 

“We certainly anticipate that our Victorian associations will continue to set the standard nationally,” he said.

“We will support them in finding a balance between local pathways for upcoming junior talent and established elite talent from Australia and abroad.”