Southern Pen and Melboure....would be favourites!

I have a question, what do we think of finals going down to 8th place?

8 out of 10 is really too many I think, why not just have every team play finals and not leave two teams out?

VC and VC Reserve go to 8 for the finals, not sure of other divisions, but I think rewarding a team third or fourth from the bottom is a bit much!

VC Reserve 18 Men is also interesting with second week of finals coming up. Most games going on form so far, can an upset occur in week two of finals?

Hawthorn(5th) 62 too strong for Camberwell (8th) 42
(Camberwell now out so Hawthorn play Eltham, tough game this one)

Nunawading (2nd) 51 lost to Warrandyte (3rd) 88
(Big result for Venom, now the Spectres take on Supercats and Venon get a rest)

Sandringham (1st) 57 got over Eltham (4th) 45
(Sabres look the goods and will benefit from a bye)

Geelong (6th) 73 disposed of Dandenong2 (7th) 58
(Rangers gone, Supercats may be a dark horse)

VC 18 Men looks like this after round one of finals:

Knox (6th) 56 going down to McKinnon (7th) 66
(Ending the agony for a disppointed Raiders outfit)

Melbourne (2nd) 84 smacked Blackburn (3rd) 41
(Tigers flexed their muscle, a surprising margin)

Dandenong (1st) 50 beat Diamond Valley (4th) 40
(Hard to go past the Rangers, danger game coming for Eagles)

Waverley (5th) 73 too good for Keilor (8th) 53
(Thunder gone and maybe the sleeper here is the Falcons)

@ET your predictions are not bad, I have also seen heaps of VC Res' 18's mens games this season and what stands out is that teams have been decimated at times with injuries and illness etc.

Some games have a team rocking up with only 6 players, no wonder results have been up and down. The grand finals may come down to which team can play their full list of 10, otherwise it can be hard to cover the loss of one or two key players, espeically in the higher division finals games like these.

Supercats had 6 against Dandenong2 three weeks ago and have had all 10 available only twice the whole season. Also played with 7 a few times due to injuries, if they hit their straps could do some damage.

Had 9 on Friday mate, hope they can have all available against Nuna' because they also have size but it is the guards that have been injured for Geel which has hurt them all season.

Turnovers and possession, bigs have been dominant everything else being equal.

Yeah @Vic Parent the main point guard played his first game for a while and the second PG was still out and has been for 6 weeks, hope he is back this week. Geel's losses have come from missing their main PG's in other games, not being able to do what they did last Fri night. Should be a good game v Nuna

Melbourne v Dandenong in Boys 18 VC Champ

Warrandyte v Sandringham in Boys 18 VC Reserve

18 Boys Champ Prelims

Melbourne v Diamond Valley
Dandenong v Blackburn
(Blackburn got through with a shot on the buzzer against McKinnon , I watched this game and it was a great contest, McKinnon hit the go ahead basket with 6 seconds to go, Blackburn with no timeouts left took it the length if the court and hit a mid range pull-up as time was expiring to take it by 1 point. Great game!)

18 Boys Reserve Prelims

Warrandyte v Hawthorn
Sandringham v Geelong

Hawthorn and Geelong earned their chance to play another round in VC Reserve, the games don't get any easier though. Warrandyte are a very even team, hard to beat and Sandringham seem to have the wood over Geelong.

I saw the Supercats v Specters game at Werribee, it was tight and neither team got into a double digit lead at any time. Supercats held their nerve to hit key foul shots and take a 4 point lead with seconds only left. A three by the Specters at the end left them one point short, great game with many highlights.

Could that be the 16s VC game you saw that was a 1 point margin? Website says the 18s was 59-49

They got it mixed up anon^, VJBL will correct that error soon I expect.

Oh ok!

@Ashke Im not sure if you were at the games but I would say Melbourne didn't easily take care of Eltham at all. If Melbourne don't get their act together, Southern Peninsula are going to knock them out of finals. Credit to Eltham although their coach is awful.
The Werribee v Diamond Valley game was certainly a shock. It looked like DV couldn't handle the zone and Werribee shot pretty well. My guess is Werribee will beat Bulleen and progress to the final.

VC Reserve men 18's final will be a cracker, I predict the Sabres to come out on top in that one.

They pressured the Supercats guards into many turnovers and made their passing very difficult, taking away any post play Geelong tried to establish which was aided by the loss of their second big to illness before the game.

The Sabre's bigs tallied up 13 fouls between the 3 of them, not allowing any clean ball inside to the only big Geelong had, the game plan worked a treat resulting in poor outside shooting % and a lack of help D inside all night ending the game early.

Then a strange call on the Geelong swing man resulted in a tech on him for complaining, then a tech on the G coach and half a second later a second tech on the coach who was ejected.

I think the official was too quick on the draw and decided he was going to eject him regardless, what a knob of decision from a ref! He was on the other side of the court, probably didn't even hear anything said, just threw him out without a warning. Total knob!

Warrandyte have a better team to combat the outside shooting and can defend better in more positions, so it will be a very different game in the final, however a close win to the Sabres may be the final result.

Good luck to Rick Baldwin and his merry men. Rick has been a breathe of fresh air to Dandenong and brought in his values of respect and integrity and made that group of players play as a tight team. Rick has worked tirelessly to show the boys professionalism and not to show arrogance or disrespect to other teams.
One thing the game Friday night vs Melbourne will be a cracker and good luck to both teams

Ricky certainly has done a marvellous job with his team

18 VC boys
Melbourne by 6 points

18 VCR boys
Warrandyte by 10 points

18 VC girls
Bulleen by 2 points

18 VCR girls
Dandenong by 15

I Saw Sandringham v Warrandyte in boys 18VC res tonight.

Was a cracker with scores tied up 55-55 with about a min to play. A couple of shots didn't drop for Warrandyte which were really good looks and Sandringham converted a few free throws to take it by 4 points 59-55.

Good game to watch and it can be found here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oMv0gDtuAiM

Girls VC Southern Pen over Bulleen 54-49, no real surprise there I would have thought. Always going to be a close game between these two.

Girls VC Reserve saw Dandenong defeat Kilsyth 72-61, probably the favourite won this one.

Southern Pen Girls this year have won:
Div 1 Country Champs
National Junior Classic
VC Championship

Don't expect to see any sort of acknowledgement from Basketball Vic for this COUNTRY team....

tipping Bulleen will again have 2 teams in the top 8 next year

And an extremely long look at the men?

Sthn Pen will struggle.......

Kilsyth won't be up there for 18 men

Hawthorn for 18 Men made the Grand final in 16 boys as top age so you'd expect them to be up there top age 18s

Saw Dand/Melb game. great game. sad for Dand as they are great team and well coached. good game but. shooting not great from either. state guard combo of owies/corneilsen are too good at both ends. they are best in league.

Owies got mvp and deserved it would have scored most points and prob took 70% of total team shots. not great % (prob low teens) but this looked like game plan. corneilsen stood outside arc and owies drove. defence would not sag and help given corneilsens shot. prob cost dandy game.

Dandy hit a few big 3s and took steals in fourth to get back into game but wasnt enough. McCarthy did not get many minutes but was good as was Alison who is underrated. but tigers guards were too good both ends - stealing and trapping all night forcing too many turnovers. hardly left the court and controlled everything.

overall good game

Ashke you're kidding yourself.

Ashke with a few uneducated comments and Bear just naming big clubs some of whom have never even been in the ball park in that age group.
C'mon fellas you're better than that

I saw 18 boys too. good game have seen these boys play for a few years now I agree that Melb guards are v good Saw them play the 16 VC finals 2 years ago and Cornelison was the best on court If he didn't get injured with a few minutes to go he would have won MVP That went to the loosing team Diamond Valley. Cant believe he did not make the Melb team last year He should have left Tigers like Karabatsis who went to Diamond Valley He would have been noticed in a team which relied on him more. The kid has the best shot I have seen when he is on and he has good size and defence as well. Prob a bit too much of a team player at Tigers which means he does not see the ball enough

Ashke, Sth Pen have 4 bottom ages from the championship team who can play next season, don't know if they are all returning. The rest are from the u/16's who won div 2 this year, new coach as well. Will definitely struggle. May just scrape into VC or will play VC Reserve.

@ Bear

I know Hawthorn and Warrandyte had atleast 4 bottom age kids each in the 18 boys. Werribee had atleast 1, and that 1 was state under 16s as top age. These clubs may be up there again.

Also Geelong had 6 bottom age players this year in VC Reserve and some state players in the 16's top age coming up will add to their talent next season.

Any other team in VC or Reserve with 6 or more bottom age this year in the 18's?

Melbourne had 5 or 6 a year ago I think, before they lost most to the AIS?