Bear, 14 in a row is the Braves equal best streak ever. Thats a great achievement and no exaggeration. A 10 point win over the Supercats and being such a bragging rights game is also a great effort as well.
Whats the go with Knox? Bandits redeem themselves last night as well. The fat lady's clearing her throat for them however.
Next weekend will be a test for the Hobart Chargers. 3 on the road with their first against the Pioneers at the Ice House.

To answer the question in the OP - no Bendigo isn't the best ever team to play SEABL. There starting 5 is damn good, but they rely heavily on there starting 5. Last night against Geelong, all points were scored by their starting 5, out of the 82 attempted shots only 1 attempt came from the bench and that isn't good. They only used 3 from their bench last night with non of those 3 playing 8 minutes, yet from their starters, with Hogan playing just over 29mins, he was their only starter to play less than 35mins.
What happens to Bendigo if one of their starters goes down and they lose them for any period of time, do they have the depth to cover for them or will they be found out?
Good win last night and good luck to them for the rest of the season, but a 10pt win on your home court doesn't mean you destroyed the opposition.

Interesting observation about the Bendigo bench. The Bandits had similar problems last year with the bench getting very little burn after the 7th man.

Chargers and Thunder the same in the last few weeks almost zero minutes off the bench. Obviously not looking past August.

"That back-court (Ferguson) with Kevin Probert is the best in the league, not only that, we've got the best combination frontcourt as well (McFarlin and Garlepp) and Hoges...when you need someone to hit a big shot he’s the man"

Ben Harvey.

Keeping a lid on it.

Fine line between the benchies and the starters. PLay them and lose or don't. Success of failure. Bums on seats or broke.

The benchies know their role when they commit to a season. The aren't any many clubs that play down to the number 12 spot. Accepting their roles is part of the training that goes into any team, basketball or not. The opportunity arises and they shine. That's why they do it. Remembering those that are starting now more than likely went through the exact same scenario when they were benchies.
There are stars and then there are also the support players that will never truly shine and become that star. Everyone need good benchies and the important job they undertake.

Spot on Beth.I am sure if they played agaon the result may be the opposte. So long as the Braves stay fit they might manage to win it ALL.

I guess you dont know a lot about seabl then HO.

Have to agree, the conference system isn't required if everyone plays everyone twice.

The other problem with the conference system in SEABL is that they base the conferences for both the mens comp & women's comp on the strength of the mens comp and set the conferences for 2 seasons at a time.

Currently in the mens comp, the overall top 8 from both conferences is split 50/50 with 4 teams from each conference. Look at the womens side of things and the top 5 teams from the East conference are ranked 2-6 overall, so you currently have a team which will miss out on the finals due to the conference system but had they been in the South Conference they would be sitting 2nd behind Knox; so that suggests that the balance of the conferences isn't working in the womens draw.

The fact that every team plays each other twice, once at home & once away, really does do away with the need for the conference system and surely it would be better to either go to a top 8 for the finals with #1 & #2 having the first week off or go a top 6 like the women used to do before they split into 2 conferences last yr.

SEABL needs to do the right thing for both the mens & womens comps, especially when you consider the talent that does play in the womens teams, instead of at the moment making the men the focus with the womens side of things seemingly an add on.

Seabl have cross a conference final. There is every chance that Bendigo will play Geelong for their conference final.
The problem with the Seabl right now is that the system they have now has resulted from less money available. Thats why the ABA finals disappeared. The seabl imposes a restriction on all of the participating clubs to pay their own way to these extra games that everyone wants. No money. thats the way it is.

Just finished watching Geelong v Bendigo, great game, very close for the most part good to see some good NBL level guys like Herbert, Garlepp and the imports.

Just a thought should the NBL attempt to make a stronger link with the SEABL? would it help get them more community support? could they do a NBA and D-League club, where each NBL club has a SEABL club they link with, they play at different times, but maybe if your player has played more than say 20 games with your SEABL affiliate club they could get a 50% discount on there points rating, NBL clubs could get SEABL clubs to basically trial imports for them, meaning a higher level of import in the SEABL which would be a win/win, to help them get a roster spot in the NBL, clubs would be more inclined to have a crack at some of the top SEABL imports if they were 5 points instead of automatically 10, which most are probably not worth it. I think if you signed the imports i saw in this game they would end up with points ratings around 5-7 after there first NBL season, which is decent, and if you got lucky would be a 10, and would be much cheaper than some of the other guys at those points ratings atleast 1st up.

They are not all the same style of players but i think the imports in this game would be basically a similar level to a Herbert, Garlepp type so a 5 would be a fairly fair rating. If you get lucky you might get a bargain, say Jaz Fergusson gets picked up and is as a good as Deleon, or MCFarlin gets picked up and is the next Mark Davis, but you also wouldnt be relying on it, as they are only 5 points meaning it wouldnt matter if they played a back up role, which they should be atleast capable of and id assume they wouldnt demand too much in salary, you may even be able to get them for minimum first year and give them a rise if they do well the following year.

Even if you dont link NBL clubs with SEABL clubs i think guys who play in SEABL/NZ/Statelaague should receive a points discount, make it that they have to play atleast 10-20 games, Aussie rookies start as 1 pointers regardless of if they have played college or not, and imports start out as 5 point players, both would be fair and make it easier for these guys to get a gig and would likely help the SEABL/state leagues be able to attract some better players especially if they receive an increased opportunity in getting a NBL contract, which who knows could lead to anything Davis played in NZ and Redhage played in SEABL so there are some success stories of guys coming from these leagues, which really works out to be a win win all round.

player gets a shot at top league, NBL club gets a bargain player atleast for the 1st season, SEABL clubs have a good selling point in recruiting players and hence may attract better players which improves their league.

Seabl are in the process of linking with BA. Every chance that won't occur now.

Who pays for this? Not the seabl. Thats why the Natioanls stopped. Once clubs got to the nats they were expected to pay their own way.

Ho. They may meet in their own conference final. Isn't that what you want? or are you proposing that they all play in one conference and play in in the final? Huh?

HO, look at the womens conferences for a current, real example of the problem with the conference set up. The top 5 womens teams in the East Conference are all ranked above the #2 womens team in the South Conference.
The women play the same finals as the men, so if standings were to not change you would have a team that will miss out on playing finals this year but had they been in the other conference would play off to host the conference final.
And no reason the same thing won't happen with the mens side of things either.
Until last year the women didn't play in conferences, had a top 6 who played finals to determine the SEAL champions. Not sure why the men couldn't do the same thing now as the conferences are redundant due to the current formant of the season.

What final series are you talking about Ho? if Geelong and Bendigo both finish 25-3 and Hobart and Mt Gambier finish in their conference say 22-6 why is that a problem? In a one conference system what will happen? The teams you are talking about MAY meet they may not.the permutations are endless. it is what it is. You seem to conclude that they will meet. Every chance that once the finals commenced they may not.
Maybe if it was a best of 3 finals series they may. But with a one confernce system thats unaffordable.
BTW lets just ignore the ladies issues that are part of the whole scenario.