Run by Bob Mann, ex-McKinnon Cougars. They are based in the new and impressive Glen Eira Rec Centre.

Oakleigh Warriors are NOT in the Big V for 2013.

Does not matter what they are called they are not in the competition.

They could be a new club but they are only voted in at the AGM which happens in November sometime.

Sting What? U just prompted something, if clubs are voted in at the AGM - does that mean all the SEABL clubs will be voted in with the YL and Dl merging?

I am not too sure in regards to the details of how the merge with D League and Big V stands. but in the latest Big V Silly Season they mentioned new clubs are only accepted at the AGM.

So are they up to be voted in at the AGM?

How long have they been around??? Until now I had never heard of them.

If they have only been around for 3 minutes I personally think the league should wait until they have a proven history of being able to compete at Big V level.

Look what happened with Darebin. They were only a couple of years old, entered the Big V and then went broke after 2 seasons.

Surely at some point sustainabilty of the program must be thoroughly investigated.

Also, seriously why go with ANOTHER 'Warriors'????

C'mon could you not of thought of something else, I reckon I could have come up with at least 500 other nicknames that ARE NOT currently being used by other clubs.

Anon, any club should show a history and pattern of success in juniors before moving to BigV. If their U18's and U16's are doing well, and if they have good numbers in lower age groups, then they have the basis for a submission. If their under age teams are languishing in the lower regions of the VJBL - then think again. The league also used to factor in success at MMBL. I know nothing about this club so won't comment, but there are a few things you can look at.

D1 and D2 are better than domestic - thats just too easy an accusation to throw out. Most teams in Melbourne domestic comps don't train together, just get together and play, run up and down and shoot the 3 etc.

Lot's of debate around this- Oakleigh are not even being voted on at the Big V AGM. Not in- pretty simple.

Are you all sure Oakleigh are not getting into Big V?

The coach (Bob Man?) has asked another person to join them from next year, offering some decent $$$. This is a current D1M player who psoted good numbers last season.

This happened on Monday.

All adding Oakliegh to the Big V will do is dilute the quality of the league. The have only been around for 2 years so how could the possibly have 'their own' juniors. This will only encourage poaching.

Agreed! Surely the Big V has to stop putting in Melbourne clubs and start looking towards the return of some of the country clubs who have had an important part play in making the Big V what it is.

I hoipoe the Big V realise this before it goes to the point of becoming a metro comp.

A few facts.

The Oakleigh Warriors have its history going back to 1995 and won't be changing the name, we are kind of attached to it.

We have plenty of juniors. In fact we have a bigger and better junior base than many current BIG V clubs. We have produced two VC teams in past 2 years, will produce another one this year and are aiming for at least three next year.

Since moving into GESAC their membership numbers have exploded with growth of 600%

They are not paying anybody and building their squad around their youth and some locals. They will enter the BIG tourney in 2013 and prepare through the MMBL for a 2012 submission.

We are club definetly on the move, that once in will develop into a force in the BIG V. Should have been granted entry this year IMO. A years more preperation won't hurt.

Being built from the ground up by Bob Mann and his coaching staff, it will be exciting when it happens.

Sorry that should have read a 2014 submission.

Warrior Boy, in the 1990's the Oakliegh team was known as the Wolves. I know that for a fact and can even show you what the old uniform looked like as I have one.

The nick name 'Warriors' is from a domestic club that was at McKinnon called 'Garden State Warriors'. When Bob Mann was shafted by McKinnon, and he was even tho i dont really like the guy, he took them to the Oakleigh Rec Centre that was run by the monash council and came to power through the 'AGM' that was able to be held for the first time in years. The Oakliegh Association then incorporated the members, uniform and nickname of the G.S.Warriors.

Bob then had the inside running for the the Glenn Ira stadium through information gained when working for McKinnon.

If you are going to take on an association you should be respectful of it's past. Alternatively G S WARRIORS should have gone about creating their own association.

Are Oakliegh playing Keysborough D2M this Sunday?

Heard the rumour, but havent seen anything on the net...

Is there a chance that Oakleigh could now take over the spot created by Horsham. I dont know how it works with fixtures etc.

I currently play for warriors, best club

I currently play for warriors, best club

Did the game happen today?

OMG I heard Oakliegh beat Keysborough?

Dont get on here too often but after post above I thought I would go straight the horses mouth and hunted down Bob for his version of events. He is always up for a talk about bball.

Oakleigh used to be known as Wolves, but the new exec chose to go with the Warriors, as all their kids who were going to play rep had warrior uniforms already.

When Bob and his crew went to the AGM nobody turned up so they were elected, there was no coup, in fact quite the opposite had Bob and his supporters not dropped in for the AGM, Oakleigh would have folded. Since then it has gone from strength to strength.

In three years they have gone fron 40 members to 850, from four rep teams to 18, have had teams qualify for VC already and have more set to do so, have secured GESAC and yes they beat Keysie by 2 points in front of a packed house of 300 people.

BIG V where are you you should be knocking on their door to replace Horsham, great venue, competitive team, great passionate supporters and a great junior program thats is just getting better. Put them in!!!!

To champ - Not sure if bringing a club back from the dead and getting them to play top level basketball is disrespecting it's past, rather than securing it's future. Do you know Bob? he is a champion bloke in my opinion who has worked miracles at two clubs now. He didn't hesitate to answer my questions.

Out of curiosity whats your beef with him?

No, refused at the AGM end of last year.

All I can say is well done Bob Mann was wondering when you would turn up again. Have worked with Bob before and did not always see eye to eye. I have to say one think I know about Bob is he loves basketball and will not rest until he gets back to the Big V

I saw that game against Keysborough (who were at full strength) The Oakliegh team was missing 2 guys who would have been in the starting 5. With those 2 and more game time they would have beaten them by at least 15-20 points. I'm not bagging Keysborough as I think they are v good but this proves to everyone that Oakliegh should be in the league (and probs Divy 1). All the players in the team had committed to playing for Oakliegh for the year and now have missed out on playin for the club at in Big V

A shame 'Warrior Boy' just dismisses the fact that the Oakliegh Wolves existed.

Big pitty Bob didn't try to get some sort of link to the Wolve. That IS disrespectful for all the people that put in time and effort in the club years ago.

I think the big v needs more teams called Warriors. Lol

My YL side is looking for a practice game.

If Oakliegh are interested in a hit they should contact Wallan could be a bit of fun.

http://www.facebook.com/WallanPanthersBasketball

2 potential future Big V clubs.

Hang in their Bob Mann I know you can achieve what no else has done that is build 2 clubs from stratch and build them in to Big V clubs

Got my full support Bob

Oakleigh Warriors and Bob Mann are the one thing

Oakleigh Wariors is Bob Mann & Bob Mann is Oakleigh Warriors

Bobby Man!,,

One the biggest characters in the Big V

When he gets back in of course :)

Heard a rumour that Oakliegh is going to be playing in the Big V tourney. Any truth to this?

Oakleigh will be in the tournament. After being knocked back 3 years in a row now the Warriors are hoping to take the path that Shepparton took last year by proving they are serious about re-entry to the league. Step 1 the tournament.

Looking forward to seeing Bob Mann coaching again...Hope you make it back to the Big V Bobby

Like the Pheniox Bob Mann has risen from the ashes

People at McKinnon living off all Bobs hard work

What divy are they going top be playing at Frankston

can people with inside the Oakleigh club please keep us in formed with the senior team is playing as I am sure a lot of bobs old foes would love to get down and support him


Here is an intresting situation Bob Mann and Bill Raunchy get together what a great starting pair for any club

Yes I know Bill is at Sandringham was just a thought

Oakliegh could not afford Bill pay cheque.

That could be true Ariel but imagine a club with Bill Raunchey and Bob Mann together united want to join the Big V do you believe the League would say no to that much experience in developing, recuriting, administrating and genenerally running a basketball club ...lots of years experience

Nice to see some support for the Oakleigh Warriors and Bob Mann.

However I feel the need to dampen expectations. In the game against Keysie, the Warriors had rings in to help their young squad in Ivan Platenik from Waverley and Shawn King and Darren best from Chelsea.

Those three were simply doing Bob a favour in suiting up. They are not committed to the Warriors for the next twelve months as said in a previous post. Would be nice if they were.

While entered in the BIG V tournament, the Warriors will be going in with an extremely young squad, as their older players all have other commitments over the long weekend. They are playing in the tournament apparently as they have been told this is one of the things they need to do to gain entry into BIG V. That and play in the MMBL.

Strange criteria, but you do what you have to. They will play in the tournament but the team will bear little resemblance to the team that they will enter ultimately into the BIG V.

Bob's intentions are to mix a talented young squad with some more experienced bodies and minds to build a competitive squad as he did in his years at McKinnon. So don't expect a lot form the boys this weekend, they will certainly compete hard but will probably struggle against older and stronger teams.

Anybody looking for a game should contact Bob his details are on their website at www.warriorsbasketball.org

One thing I do agree with posters above it will be great to see Bob Mann treading the boards again.

BTW who are the people from McKinnon involved in running the BIG V? If that's the case they should not be involved in assessing the Oakleigh application, it should be judged on it's merits alone.

Yes was a battle, but as posted earlier, most of the side they would have liked field in this tournament were away and they were forced to play pretty much their U18 squad and nealy all of them were bottom age so turning 16 this year.

So Boys versus Men really and the results showed.

Had competitive efforts against Keillor and Coburg but really struggled against Casey and Hawthorn youth who pressed them throughout the match and the Oakleigh Guards just gave up the ball.

Had to play the tournament though to be considered for 2014, though they didn't really want to as they knew a lot of their squad would be unavailable over the weekend.

Hope that isn't held against them for their submission for 2014 as that would be a little ridiculous, considering only two and possibly three of this squad would go on to play for them at BIG V level in 2014.

So, if that is the case Oakliegh should wait until their players are men before entering them in a men's comp.

If all you could put on the floor were 16 year olds then you should not be applying. What are you going to do? Poach players from other clubs????

Seriously why bother? Just wait. Please don't go taking players from other clubs for your first year.

Not being a smart Alec but would like to see "warrior boy" reply.

What is the plan?

The silence is defining.

To "The Truth", I don't spend my entire life on forums, just come back to them every week or every second week.

However, what a silly comment about poaching players.

(1) As though it doesn't happen already
(2) As Anonymous said Reply #409634 reread my
previous posts, it was pretty clear on why
we entered with such a young squad.
(3) We have plenty of older/more experienced
players set to play, some with previous BIG V
experience, some from their domestic open age
comps and none currently playing BIG V.
(4)If/When accepted and we hold tryouts and
players from other clubs come knocking on our
door because they are not happy at current
clubs, do you expect them to turn them away.
Players only leave clubs if they are looking
for greener pastures. If they are happy they
wont go. If there wasa no poaching criteria in
BIG V, there would be no BIG V. Happens every
season.

While we struggled in the tournament, the addition of more experienced players and bigger bodies will change things dramatically for us. One thing we did note was that the standard of Div 2 men's wasn't what it was even only a few seasons ago judging by what we saw.

Finally a number of our older players had all bought tickets to future for that long weekend and weren't available, that saw seven players who would normally play unavailable. A fair chunk out of any team.

There is also some murmurings of an import. Will have to wait and see on that one.

While the standard may have dropped, I wouldnt judge too much from the tournament one week out from the season where few teams are putting their best foot forward.

To Anonymous on reply #411131, has any other club in BIG V ever had to endure such a condition. That so silly it's hard to believe you are even posting it.

If we conduct tryouts which will happen (like every other club will) and a player comes to us who isn't getting minutes at his current club and is looking for an opportunity elsewhere to further his basketball, you would seriously want that player denied that chance through us?

Or even a major player not happy with his current arrangement lobbed in on our tryouts and wanted a game, you are seriously saying we shouldn't be able to look at him for our roster?

If your club had to sign such a condition what would it say?

All a little silly.

was very impressed with the oakleigh junior teams here in adel over easter - well drilled and coached - nice parents to boot - a definite club on the up.

Tom Burns and Nick Richards who currently play at Chelsea have also agreed to play next year if Oakliegh enter the league.

lol, some of the crap that gets put onto forums is very amusing.

Also amazing how this thread just keeps on going. No I'm not Bob Mann though I get plenty of info from him. I don't need to be that bald or fat at my age (no disrespect to Bob). I simply read the initial post and responded to a request with info about the club.

To Anoynomous, to me that proposal you are putting forward is simply stupid. Simple question would all other clubs have that restriction to their tryouts?
If not, then how can clubs compete on a level playing field when some clubs have no restrictions while other clubs do?

If you think this is "fair" then our understanding of that word is vastly different.

Not really an issue at our end anyway, as I said previously, players are being drawn from both junior ranks and open age comps conducted by Oakleigh, but the club will no doubt hold tryouts if accepted into BIG V, which is their main focus first and foremost.

We will cross the bridge of tryouts and new players then, at which time I am pretty sure Bob will want to have a pretty settled squad by then.

A laughable comment about Tom Burns and Nick Richards. Both now playing happily at Chelsea, doubt either would think about going to Oakleigh and they certainly haven't spoken to anybody at the club about it. For heavens sake the club hasn't even been accepted into the BIG V yet

As for the gimp who put "well poached". Pretty cheap shot, have the guts to name one player that you believe has been poached. Be even more gutsy and name the club you are involved with.

All our players have been developed from local ranks or rejected by other clubs and have come to Oakleigh looking for another shot.

At the same time we have certainly lost players to other clubs in dubious circumstances.

Be back in a week, to provide any more feedback if required.

Been a long time since we have had Warrior Boy on here lol

Been a while.

Some quick answers to post above.

We played that game against Keysie and we then played the BIG V tournament and have been playing MMBL since, as asked by the BIG V.

Since other clubs are in the middle of their BIG V season, I don't think anybody would be interested in exhibition games while "in-season". If they are they should contact the club.

Not sure either that McKinnon would be interested due to their politics, hopefully that will happen in a BIG V season in near future. It would certainly draw a bumper crowd.

Maybe he can play at Oakliegh lol

He could play at Oakliegh. That might be part of the deal to let them in the league.

Nick Richards WILL be playing for Oakliegh next year IN Big V

#420315

If true then the league office has totally lost the plot. Its bad enough with what they have allowed to happen in D1.

D2M is the most even comp the league has seen in years! Fantastic to follow. Anyone can beat anybody on any night. Love it!!

I would have stayed with three divisions - it bridges the gap between MMBL and CBL much better. the best team in CBL wanting to move up can likely do that without recruiting the crap out of other programs.

Here is the problem they have right now. The third placed team in Terrill is 5-7. The LAST placed team in Watson has the same record. Conveniently, they played each other yesterday and the supposedly improved Geelong (cannot believe they have forked out for an import at D1) beat Warrandyte by 3 points with the import scoring 35 for Geelong according to the boxscore.

So far little problem - except - who do you relegate if this trend continues? The last placed team in each conference, or the two with the worst record? The ones with the worst record might theoretically have had a disadvantaged draw - they might have drawn the top four from the other group for example..

You cannot work promotion and relegation properly with conferences unless you have really stupid conferences like the SEABL do!

So HO, you would like to see a level playing field and even competition, correct...?

This is basketball may friend, not going to happen mate!

If conferences are done correctly they should create an opportunity for some cash savings, less travel and more rivalry.

Maybe it is how the conferences are structured, not the fact that we have them??

No Bear, I said nothing about a level playing field or even competition - not sure where you go that from - no competitions are even - they might be competitive.

I am saying, in answer to a question, that I would have stayed with the original structure of three divisions (below champ) in the BigV.

The conferences at D1 level are stupid. It was dumb enough when the league took D3 and D2 and made a new conference based structure at D2.

Then it moved the conferences up to D1, which means you had a skinny championship division, a skinny d2 and a fat d1 - that is just a really poor structure.

This year they have fattened up championship a little, but kept D1 really fat - and they have a pretty poor competition as a result. Poor planning, poor long term thinking and poor pathway.

And I owe an apology, apparently Geelong have not "forked out" for their American - he is just in town. A friend of mine involved with Geelong just barreled me via text!

True HO, he was at Corio Bay but didn't quite fit the structure and Geelong got a call, so he found another home nearby, Geelong didn't chase him, your buddy was right...

I think you have a good point on how the current set up is, not something I would try to fix, seems like a difficult task made harder when you take into account the nature of the sport and how teams can vary so much from one season to the next.

3 Divisions under Champs could work but conferences I believe could also work if they are done correctly, big if I would suggest??

I agree!

The best thing you could do is have the SCM D1,D2,D3 that way teams can re-group and rebuild.

Maybe take the top teams from the current D2 and pu them in with the bottom third of D1 and then you can bring in another 2 or 3 teams.

Also back to Oakliegh. Bob Mann is a very good coach and I think that he would have Oakliegh firing no matter what divy.

have spoken to Bobby Mann and Oakliegh are a lock in for next year. They have even started training.

Good stuff!

I hope Oakleigh reconsider their Logo as a "Warrior" with two Big V Clubs already playing under the name in Div 2 with Maccabi & Pakenham.

They even have Domestic teams playing as Warriors while there junior Rep teams also playing under the Warrior banner.

Now playing in Bentleigh at GESAC right in the heart of McKinnon.

Very confusing.

Oakleigh use to be called the Wolves many years ago!

It would make more sense to have a link the Oakleigh history rather than use the old Garden State Warriors domestic logo.

No-one in their right mind would oppose their club reverting back to a name like that in this situation

That would be silly to go straigt into YL

I didn't think you were allowed to be in BigV Yl unless you had a senior BigV team first. (or a senior team playing SEABL)

Are they in?

Have to wait until after the AGM in November.

What Agm did the rule change? I have access to all the minutes from the last 12 AGMs.

The league cannot just simply change a rule. It must go through the process.

How do we think Oakleigh will perform?