D-Mac broke this story on overtime.

Jump ship

Sounds like the ship is going down pretty fast.
Daniel Eade followed his first tweet with this regarding Luke Nevill.

@DanielEade: There is more to Luke Nevill's departure than him just accepting an offer to play in Russia.

DMac said Neville's agent called the manager of Melb and said he'd take the Russia offer...sounds like it's true.

Aww and i was just beginning to 'love to hate' this guy! Oh well, he must be gettin paid big time....cos Wade was on a massive amount, can only imagine what Neville is leaving on the table at the Tigers!

Any more news? Is Nev out as of right now, or is there a small chance he plays a farewell game this weekend? Over McPeake's dead body right?

Could Majok fill the spot?

Fizzle - I was under the impression that Nevill was on more money this year then Helliwell was, but I could be wrong there.

Beantown - It sounds like McPeake was always willing to release players to pursue better opportunities, and whether he plays a final game is still unknown as far as I know.

How would it feel being Helliwell at the moment, looks like the main reason he wasn't released is probably because the club got word that Nevill was moving on.

Well that's it. I'm done.

IMHO - The league stepped in by ensuring that the Dragons group finally got a license after years ( over 5 ) of McPeake's blocking a 2nd Vic license going to those with more money than himself, or ensuring it went elsewhere first.. The trouble is when it finally got to those with more money than him, they got a championship but did not have enough history to survive the Visy price fixing scandal, the death of the de-facto "godfather" of the visy dynasty , the "folding" of the NBL, and then the GFC.

very old, the visy price fixing scandal had nothing to do with the demise the Dragons... and Pratt himself had nothing to do with the Dragons. If memory serves correctly it was Pratt's independently wealthy son in law (no idea of his name but he has certainly not passed away) who was funding the Dragons with Cowan and it was well know that Cowan was the majority shareholder.

At the time it was widely reported that Cowan and comoany withdrew the team because they did not think the new league model going forward would be financially effective.

For anyone interested, Centrebet still have the Hawks at $2.60 in Melbourne this weekend. Keep in mind that Wollongong will have played in NZ on Thursday, and that there is some kind of mystery effect on teams after a coach is sacked whereby they often turn around and surprise everyone in the first game. Still, $2.60 is $2.60.

@anon- they will entice players in one way or another and 3 words some it up lindsay+andrew gaze

Isaac

I got them at $3.50. The Tigers could go either way tho... Come out and prove a point or pack it in.

The Melbourne Tigers seem to be on fire too...

Reminds me of when Cairns fell over and the highly-paid guys were bumped and when the Spirit fell over and Khazzouh or Knight or whoever it was took a Euro deal straight away. Most of the better players would be turning down Euro offers regularly that suddenly get a whole lot more appealing when their local club shows cracks.

HO, I think youll find that the Visy scandal had more to do with Raph Geminder withdrawing his support from the Dragons than you think.

JVG gave a hello to paul.
D mac confirmed Nevill is off to russia, therefore keeping Helliwell
while all 3 thought Tigers will beat the Hawks

Phil Smyth. Now there's a name ,
mentioned by Nagy , today.
'See how D Mac goes first.'

Forall the punters: Beware of the team playing for a new coach.

Slightly unrelated: Does anyone else think that Luke Nevill looks like the Shawn Bradley alien in Space Jam?

i heard that too anon

i also agree with the space jam call!

Juror, I have taken that risk... fingers crossed.

The Russian club that Nevill is being linked to is Spartak Moscow who are currently in 5th place in the Russian League, and are currently playing in the final 16 of EuroChallenge.

Link: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/more-upheaval-for-darryl-mcdonald/story-e6frf9if-1225999895512

Luke Nevill has confirmed his departure from Melbourne and has signed to play with Triumph in the Russian League who are urently sitting in 7th spot.

http://www.eurobasket.com/Russia/basketball.asp?NewsID=216724

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/basketball/tigers-lose-centre-luke-nevill-to-russia/story-e6frfgbf-1226000078433