I feel like United will do to the Jackies what Southside did to the Lynx. Hope I'm wrong though, would love to see the Jackies take it out!

31 March was also the date the last time Melbourne sealed a title at home- 31 March 2018

For Vickerman 2015, 2018, 2021....2024

Home teams haven't lost a game 5 except Melbourne defeating Sydney in Sydney 08 (Winners Sydney 04, South 09, Melbourne 18, Sydney 23)

Still, teams down 2-1 are 1-7. JJ's are a team who finds a way and upsets destiny- they did it go United last time United was minor premier in 22

Before the series my prediction was this goes to the wire in game 5 with Doyle and Mcveigh the heroes and Tassie winning. Let's see if that was right.

Without Lee, I now think United has the edge instead

Can't wait.

Melbourne looked banged up a bit at finish of last game, if they go behind early it might be very hard to keep playing through pain mentally. I tipped JJs before the series and I'll stick with it, if it’s as good as any of previous games we are in for a treat.

I noticed that Melbourne was banged up as well, pretty sure half their team is working through injury. I think United probably win this game but I hope to fuck it's the JJs. They deserve to be rewarded for what theyve built in such a short time in this league.

Can someone explain to me the very limited information surrounding the FTA coverage? It's not showing up on 10 Peach TV guide, nor is it promoted by the NBL. But then, its its on the regular Sunday arvo - which is the 10 Peach schedule.

Is it on FTA and is there some kind of deal written in the contract that prohibits any advertising of this??? Or is it definitely not being shown?

Kayo freebies have it.

Decider semis and championship games aren't on Ten Network/Peach.

Cool, thanks.

Looking forward to this spectacle.

United by 4. Bubbles and Clark scoring 20 apiece.

Good start by both sides, commentary 100% on the Magnay foul, fives got be able play D. Jla on 3 fouls, again Vickerman subbing dodgy

I'll go with Jack Hevron hear, remarkable. JJs look down and come straight back at you, Delly and Travers great for United, Crawford magnificent for JJs, Deng very useful as well.

Goulding looking very injured, the winner could be who is left with players not in foul trouble. Magnay looking banged up as well. Jla just not that smart.

Two bullshit fouls on Deng.
Refs doing their thing already.

Refs calling it on both sides, that one on delly was rubbish as was on Magnay earlier. Travers looks banged up as well. JJs got this, united guns in foul trouble

Is there any chance someone from united actually trying to play some defence on Crawford

Good to see most posters have risen to the occasion of an epic game 5 and gone easy on the ref sooking. Jordan Crawford. WOW.

What a series. Two teams just slugging it out. Players carrying obvious injuries just willing themselves to stay in the game.

Crawford next level. Love the way he has bought in to the culture even when he has spent lengthy spells on the bench in previous games. Not noticed even once that he has put his head down and now responded in the best way possible.

Hopefully Doyle can lift in the second half because Crawford surely can't go close to producing that first half hot streak.

Illi the D player of the year can't get a hand on Crawford, Delly only player that can. Jla got play smarter, his fouling is ridiculous. Just can’t see Melbourne getting this.

With JJs' poor foul shooting, it might be worth United fouling ... and fouling …

McVeigh travels a lot and Vickerman has started yelling it out.

Melbournes biggest weakness is the tunnel vision of both Ili and Delly

Vickerman ripping into Illi, got pass the ball, he's been horrible.

Delly been good, Illi not so. Melbourne should've kept Barlow for extra season, Bowen defensively bee average.

1pm tipoff in the west, coinciding with Easter lunch.

Unbelievably close these two teams. Roth might just have the answers imo.

not getting the calls tonite Milt. no home cooking here

Delly throwing up bricks....lol

what a finish coming up

LKs 3 green henchmen doing their best to get melb this win

What a comeback.

Fatigue starting to kick in. Some poor decisions being made. What a freakin game.

Doyle been controlling it all.

Roth letting in assistant coach on last play

And there ya go!

Goulding's chucking went cold during that run by TAS.

He banked one in now but it's probably too late.

Well done Jackies.

Love the work.

UNPRECEDENTED.

Huge congrats to Tassie on the win over the budget busters.

Great job by Roth and he has Vickerman look a bit lack lustre.

YES!!!!

Knocking out both Perth and Melbourne on their home floors in deciders is actually fking nuts

Classic.

What a result.

Congratulations Tasmania.

Woooooooooo!

Well deserved for Roth and Magnay

Statue shall be built for Roth

Really happy for McVeigh, Drmic and Deng glad to have been part of their journey to success.

Incredibly gutsy effort by Will Magnay to play the game out on one leg, making some big plays.

Sensational Series and Season. Basketball is the winner.

Congratulations JJs, they were my tip because of Magnay and he was great. Crawford god came good for him when it counted. Doyle just controlled it as usual. Thought Travers was great for united, to much hero ball from the rest of them ot just dumbness.

Magnificent final series after a reasonably good season, not great but the cream rose to the top in the play offs.

Greatest 5 game series in NBL history?

Get McVeigh, Magnay, Delly and Goulding on the plane to Paris

Ooops United !!!
With the amount of money spent on that roster lol . Have to spend more next year

"Get McVeigh, Magnay, Delly and Goulding on the plane to Paris"

I could go either way on Goulding but McVeigh, Magnay and Delly should be on that team.

---

Incredible series. those 5 games were the best of NBL basketball. It looked a lot closer to that Olympic level competition we reckon ourselves with and certainly the best of our league can cut it there. The Jack Jumpers have been my team all season, with the 36ers playing as they do, and they were be my second team probably forever. Their resilience is really the thing that shines through. Always down, but never out, and then they get in reach and land a killer blow. What an amazing story they are for the NBL, Australian basketball and Tasmania.

knock down the wall

Absolutely historic achievement by the JJ's. Massive for Tasmanian sport and Australian sport generally.

And an incredible series- the greatest NBL series ever, by far.

Well done JJ's.

2nd game I attended this season (it's hard these days) and very Glad I went- even though I've been a Melbourne fan for 25+ years and Melbournian through and through. I witnessed history today. Incredible.


Expansion teams rarely have any success in early days. In AFL, NBL or any sport. Tassie have made GF, semi final, champs in 1st 3 years

Regional/ small city teams just struggle. The last time someone outside Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, or NZ won the NBL title was Brisbane in 2007. And that was the Eddie Groves Casino Chips Bullets. Before that, Adelaide in 2002.

The other small city/Regional teams left in NBL are Cairns and Illawarra. Cairns entered in 1998 and haven't won yet. Illawarra are foundation, from 1979 and won 1 title (2001).

It's just huge.

And talking basketball, 4 games in a row decided in the last 10 seconds and last 3 decided on the last shot. I'm not aware of that happening in NBA or NBL before?

Incredible

Great post LV. Just highlights how great a series this was. You have to look at the guys who stood up in this series and think about their Boomers and NBA potential.

Basketball Australia should be speaking to Scott Roth about his post- 2024 plans.

And talking basketball, 4 games in a row decided in the last 10 seconds and last 3 decided on the last shot. I'm not aware of that happening in NBA or NBL before?

Fantastic NBL season - dare I say the best ever?

Greatest 5 game series in NBL history?

Maybe time for United to start the departure of Goulding as team captain.

The regular season was dour but the playoffs made up for it.

Wow

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2009-nba-eastern-conference-first-round-bulls-vs-celtics.html

7 games
Including a 3 OT, a 2OT and 2 single OTs. And another game decided by 3.

Amazing

This year beats Tigers-Kings and Kings-Razorbacks for mine. The accumulation of close finishes, whereas those didn't have that.

Plus, you had Lampley in 08 but McVeighs game 3 effort surely the greatest shot in NBL history. I was in the building for Lampley's, amazing. But McVeigh better.

United's entire playoffs was edge-of-your-seat heart stopping stuff

The 2 OT games vs Illawarra, then the game 3 where. Illawarra. Just. Kept. Coming. Back. From. The. Dead.

Then this series.

Never seen 6 of 8 games (arguably 7 of 8) going down to the last minute before. Just epic.

Margin of victory sure, for drama those two although this series has just finished.

Huge that another regional team has won it joining the 2001 Hawks.

Great series and happy the JJs won it all. Impossible team to root against.

I feel like the drama of

- Dellys controversial game 2 USF and the incessant finger wagging in the early games

- McVeigh greatest shot ever, taking the 2-1 ascendency in Melbourne after that crazy inbound and Doyle unnecessary save

- United spoiling the Tassie party, coming from about 5 down inside the last 2 minutes, with Delly the hero and another crucial inbound late

-JJ's breaking Melbourne hearts in front of an arena that sold out before it even went to public ticket sales. (I think?)

Plenty of drama for mine.

Although I'm probably forgetting some of that 00's drama, it's been a long time

Superb series. If only this had been on FTA TV

Random thought.

Using 'tears of joy' as a scale it probably rivals Tigers 1993?

Was at the game, all Melbourne series were absolute rollercoasters, made some good friends this season aswell. Sucks for Newls but I just feel we lost this series since the JJ's had more depth on their bench to go to. Yes both teams were banged up but Dean couldn’t trust big minutes from his bench.

All of Australia is happy Melbourne lost. All the garbage about the refs being owned by Melb. It’s all BS, plus anonymous guys having a go at the players in the presser when none could be available since they were sending off Newls retirement, disgraceful, have a good look at yourselves.

Yes sorry for Newly, had a great career though.

Ref were great right through the GF series, both sides unhappy so must have been fair.

Vickerman has always been the same under the pump, sticks to about seven players, it works sometimes and fails others. I thought his subbing was bad all series, it looked like done on time and not feel. Roth just knows when to hold them and when to fold them.

JJs just seemed to play without pressure, maybe because they are such a new franchise. Doyle does so much you don't get stats for.

Congrats Jack Jumpers!!
Simply awesome to get that done, especially once it got to 5, especially with Lee gone and Magnay barely 50%.

Great team >> large collection of stars

Island defence completed on the last day of March March March!!!

JJs, EVERYONE's second team

Obviously Nick Marshall's second team with him being in centre of JJ’s on court celebrations. Or maybe his first team??

Vickerman's always been known for trusting his players.

Last time United won the title he had McDaniel and Peatling in the starting 5!

This year Cameron and Krebs proved themselves all year but he left them benched in the GF. It was a mistake that I think potentially cost United the championship.

"Island defence completed on the last day of March March March!!!"

Hahaha! Gold Luuuc.

Incredible series. The only thing splitting the teams was McVeigh's half-court shot went down and Dellavedova's didn't!

A very happy Jackjumper supporter / Tasmanian right here.

From going along to the Cascade Tassie Devils down at Kingston - hoping to one day make the finals and never expecting to knock off the teams from the big cities....this feeling has stayed with me watching the JJs. Left me yesterday.

It is one thing to talk about developing a culture based on character it is another to put the behaviours and actions in place.

The Jackjumpers have done this in 3 short years. Personally have loved the development of players like Sean MacDonald, Jack McVeigh, Magnay complemented by a import of character - Milton Doyle. Crawford played the game when needed.

Love the JJs , love this small island (the championship island)

Interesting to hear Vickerman in oresser say that in the 4th, United went away from their sets offensively, and rather than run through one or two actions as they did in the first, instead settled for early shots.

It was evident that they lost the composure that the had earlier in the game, and surprising that people like Delly didn't steady the offense.
It must've been frustrating for Vickerman in that regard.

I was super impressed with JJ's composure through the 4th, - Doyles' pocket pass to Magnay, McVeighs' patience in the oost, and Magnays' assertiveness - all of which is indicative of a well drilled, trusting and confident team.

Incredible series. The only thing splitting the teams was McVeigh's half-court shot went down and Dellavedova's didn't!

It wasn't far off going in yesterday too.

Brilliant Luuuc!

Love that for the similarities to the shots that ended the last 3 games

Vickerman say Goulding playing with bad injury in last two games. Hopefully it will stop some of the bagging of him, he's a truly great player. Yes we are all allowed different opinions. I’ve bagged Vickerman subbing through out the finals but excellent press conference.

You could see Vickerman was genuinely happy for Roth.

Now that's classy.

I believe that there's a lot of respect between them, and fair enough too.

How could you not respect Roth? And how could you not like him? How could anyone not be in awe of this monumental, historic achievement capping off the first 3 years of the JJ's?

I've been a Melbourne person through and through for many years, I used to be so dedicated I volunteered for the club, and travelled interstate to watch them play

And I was barely disappointed when we lost

Any disappointment Vickerman has will only be in pondering some decisions he made, with the benefit of hindsight, like:

- Not playing Tanner Krebs or Flynn Cameron, which arguably helped JJ's play with more energy down the stretch and chase down double digit leads late in games 2 and 3, and maybe contributed to guys like CG (and others?) being banged up towards series end

- Staring Roth in the face late in Game 3 and blinking, by subbing JLA and Hukporti off and putting Bowen onto Deng. A defensive move which backfired, instead of backing the advantage United had at the other end

Yeah I think Krebs should have taken Bowen's minutes, Rucker said Krebs would have been a better matchup for McVeigh, I tend to agree.

Ultimately United a little bit small...