Although I am not in Oakleigh or Mckinnon. I have found that Mckinnon is only interested in you if you are a very good player if not then see you later. I suppose Oakleigh would be more inclusive but have not had much contact with them.

Just to get this right anon, you like Bear, is that correct?

I congratulate Oakleigh and wish this team well for the next 9 rounds. If nothing else they get to experience playing the "best" Victoria has to offer.

Seeing them for myself they were a delight to watch. Their supporters were friendly and the boys genuinely played as a team and offered each other support. They seemed to have a common goal. How refreshing in U18s.

Love Bear, his posts are always on the mark and he provides genuine discussion points and feedback.

What a great post and well done.

I'll get rid of all the doomsdayers out there for you; "You're daughter must have been cut", "just another whinging parent", "you must be from Oakleigh", I think I got them all, now we can get on with some intelligent conversation.

Yes great effort by a small association, both my kids are out of juniors (not from Oakleigh or McKinnon) but I have a good friend involved so get along to a small number of games and follow the age group although have not seen Oakleigh play. It seems they were actually a bit stiff with draws and could easily have made Classic if some things had fallen their way.

It's very tough for small associations to get on consistently in higher divisions, no sooner do they get a good coach or player, they seem to get poached so to get a group, even if they are, as stated, McKinnon or Sandy rejects and get them into the super 10 is quite special.

Building an association should be done from the bottom up, not the top down. From what I see of McKinnon with two Big V SC teams and not much under it, it seems that they are trying to do it from the top down. I'm not having a crack at them, just stating what I see and it doesn't work. Corio Bay SCM are another example trying to build down as I see it.

With Oakleigh, they have a Big V Div 2 men's team and something for the boys to work for, some will move on to better things no doubt but they are starting at the right point, so I don't know who is running the show at Oakleigh, and I could be off the mark, but well done to them.

Warrandyte did it some years ago, and whilst they aren't yet a 'powerhouse' club, they are certainly well represented in all grades now.

Well done Oakleigh and again, great post.

HO I am with you, although we know that Bear is not from Oakleigh or McKinnon but rather a BVC affiliated Club so maybe he will be objective this time.

Some of the language and grammar in the above posts are very similar. Seems like an intelligent poster so probably from different IPs

Nice posts but I was looking more for a comparison to Oakleigh's effort.

Somebody told me about Darebin for example same time back who had a VC team or two some years back. I don't even know if they exist any more.

Hope that doesn't happen for the Oakleigh boys and club.

Nice to see some fresh blood taking on the usual powerhouses.

Bellarine girls who are now U18. At U14 they won through to Nationals and have been in VC a couple of times since. They are the Jewell in the crown down at Bellarine.

Oops Bellarine girls still in U16s and doing very well in VC.

No comparisons can be made to such an awesome club...go oaks

Took you 15 posts before you had to say something sarcastic Anon, your slipping!

Darebin I am sure had a VC team when they had malo Hicks in their ranks.

Oakleigh only have a smal domestic competition. But any feeder competition is better than none and one you can grow.

Was Peter Fiddes involved at Darebin? I think he was and plough some $$$ into the club to attract some taleneted youth.

Can't be 100% sure

who cares

Maalo Hicks & Brett Meredith (state u16 & now AFL footballer) played at Darebin & in u18s (circa 2006?) they were near the top of VC but came up short in VC finals & also had a rough Classic.

McKinnon in 2005 had 3 boys teams qualify for VC when they were only a small size similar to Oakleigh now.

Funny thing is the guy that was in charge of McKinnon then is in charge of Oakleigh now. Must know how to get the best out of his players!

Imagine what he could do at a Dandenong type club!

That same mentality would never work at the larger size clubs though. To many people would want there say and want to be involved. The larger clubs get there by sheer force of numbers and reputation.

Smaller club are able to make changes and act on them almost instantly if people will embrace it.

It used to be if you went to the power clubs like a Dandenong etc you knew you were going to get the A grade calibre coaches. The complaints that I have heard of late is that it is now the same as smaller associations with mum and dad coaches. The occasional youth league player thrown in there who is wanting to help out.

Doncaster had a VC team in under 12 boys that went through and made it in 14s and 16s in 2008,2010,2012. These days only a couple of teams left in regional

That Doncaster team made U14 nationals too yeah?

The best threads are always the ones where people ask a question and then proceed to answer it themselves.

Yeah that Doncaster team did make the under 14 nationals.

Darebin had an U/18 boys team play Classics a few years ago at Dandenong (maybe 5 or 6).

2006 Darebin 18s played at Classics.

I find it ironic that the OP is comparing Oaklegh & McKinnon.

If any had bothered to do their research they'd find the reason behind Oakleigh's success is largely the Head Coach, Bob Mann. To a lesser extent the committee & volunteers can take credit as well. Also, the Oakleigh Association has been around for 20+years. But was largley dormant as far as Big V or VJBL was concerned until Bob got involved. Good to see as he is providing opportunites for kids to develop their game.

Bear, I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Bob in you responses? Surely you know or have heard of him?

For those that don't know, Bob founded the McKinnon Basketball Association, was their head coach and had been their President & GM for long periods before the McKinnon Committee forced him to leave their association along with the domestic Junior Club who he was head Coach for at the time. The MBA prevented some 150 odd kids from partiicapting in their summer domestic comp after they had played 2 or 3 domestic grading games. This was one of the lowest, dog acts I have seen in Kids Sport. It was a shameful exercise.

But, Bob is s survivor and he knows how to get the best out of players. He moved to Oakleigh and almost single handedly started their VJBL Rep Program.

I know Bob personally & I also know he can be a polarising character, but he does know how to coach basketball skills and instill work ethic and effort into his players.

Agree with others about bigger clubs, too many parents get involved to provide opportunities for their kids and they know who they are. This was Bob's downfall at McKinnon. Broadly, this brought about Bob's downfall - people within McKinnon and the committe of the day pushing their own agenda and Bob was forced to leave via an ultimatum. Others on the committee at the time that didn't have kids involved were unfortunate pawns in the whole saga. It would interesting to see if they now had different opinion?

None of my kids play VJBL any more, but my kids suffered from parental involvement (Coach, Committe, Team Manager)at their clubs to gain opportunities, unfairly, for their kids. Didn't matter we moved on and my kids have enjoyed success and continue to do so elsewhere.

Know the Bob Mann story and wish him and his boys all the best but I was more interested in any other clubs achievements. Sorry.

The Darebin and Doncaster stories are interesting any stories behind those teams?

Like I said previously I think Peter Fiddes who owns AND1 put some money into the club, not sure who coached them though.

Would be interested to find out more about them bth

My understanding is that Darebin don't have a domestic comp and in VJBL always seemed to end up with the discards from other clubs when you got cut. As a result, they have teams in one year in an age group and none the next, three teams this year, all boys, all regional.

In Big V they were always Div 3 for men and women (when there was a Div 3), the men won the title in 2006 or 2007 and went up to Div 2 but went straight down again. Again, if you couldn't get a gig elsewhere you went to Darebin. They pulled out of Big V altogether at the end of 2010 if the Big V previous seasons section of their website is correct.

Why doesn't Doncaster do more? Very rarely in VC, don't have a BIG V team but have been around for years.

Have had strong MMBL teams for years and have a decent enough venue.

Wht aren't they achieving more?

I know Bob as well as i played under him for five years at McKinnon. He is unique in basketball circles. He selects his teams based on merit not by who sits on what committee or sponsors the most money. He also makes the effort to recruit coaches who are not parents and are independent of influence.

In some circles this makes him unpopular as parents who want to push their kids agenda just meet a brick wall.Those parents at times then look to work against him in the background. He just ignores them and gets on with it.

With Bob and Oakleigh it's quite simple, do the work, improve your game and your knowledge of it and you will get rewarded.

The other thing he does is he gets to all his club's domestic games and training and he also attends and at time takes all his junior rep teams training from U12' to BIG V. That's 20 teams currently.

He is always looking for kids with talent and looking to develop and nurture that talent. He is a hard arse, but if you were a kid with ambitions who was frustrated at your current club playing in a thirds or fourth squad for example you could do worse than getting down to Oakleigh. If you have some talent he will spot it and work on it and bring you through.

Just be ready for him to ride your arse to get the best out of that talent. One night we did 450 push ups in 90 minutes because we couldn't do a transition drills properly. If you can't handle discipline Bob is not your man, plenty have quit because they couldn't handle him, but he wasn't interested in that type, he wanted competitors who wouldn't give up. That was his first criteria. He would push out weaker kids through his discipline. Again not popular in this politically correct world.

He worked us hard and got a team that shouldn't have made VJL2 into VC and the next year we made semi-finals in VC.

An amazing coach who was hard but fair and would do anything for his boys. Hope he keeps doing his thing at Oakleigh for years to come.