FINAL REMINDER REGISTRATIONS FOR JUNIOR TRIALS CLOSING THIS FRIDAY!

U10 Come and Try closing 4th July
Youth League and Senior trials closing 13th August

Registrations are now open for the 2025/2026 season external trials for the Norwood Flames.

Norwood Basketball Club is excited to announce our renewed partnership with the Flinders University College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

The partnership will see experts and students from the Flinders University Exercise Science program working with Norwood Basketball Club to enhance athletic development through performance testing and athletic training programming. This will mean every athlete attending will complete a series of movement competency and athletic testing before the on-court trials. This provides empirical data to enhance the process of player selections.

Please take note of the year of birth when selecting which registration to complete.

Junior District League
Come and Try - Free
U10s (2017, 2018, 2019)

External Trials - $75
U12 (2016, 2015)
U14 (2014, 2013)
U16 (2012, 2011)
U18 (2010, 2009)

Youth District League
External Trials - $45
U21 Men (2008, 2007, 2006)
U23 Women (2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)

Senior District League
External Trials - $45
Open Men and Women

Note: These trials are for players who are NOT currently playing for Norwood Flames in the Basketball SA District Leagues

sturt sunday 17.08 - external
woodville sunday 03.08 - external
west sunday 17.08 - external
south 27.07, 03.08 & 10.08 - varying competitions

Do we know who coaches are yet? For example - interested in Sturt U16 girls as I know they have had some upheaval this year, same as South U16s. Be good to know before sending children to diff clubs to trial.

Forestville, North, South and Southern have released their Div 1 coaches for next year on their socials.

All clubs should do this prior to cut off dates for external trials or current players. Not doing so is unfair to families and players.

$75 to trial??? Most of the time I believe they go towards fees for upcoming season, but is it just a money grab by clubs?
So if a kid wants to try out at a few clubs to see where they stand it'll end up costing a couple of hundred.

Clubs charging for external trials is nothing new, when I was a jnr (15+ yrs ago) South charged all externals a fee to trial (from memory it was $25)

$75 seems excessive and, as you mentioned, unfair.

With clubs not announcing their coaching lineups, you are paying $75 for an unknown product from the club.

$75 plus game fees, which are now around $16 per game, plus club registration. This is before considering uniforms, tournaments, camps, etc.

Is basketball pricing itself out of the market?

I can understand $25 for court hire etc plus a bit of fundraising.
And that cost may just for money hungry Norwood, suppose getting the wooden spoon in the men and 7th in the women means they'll be looking to pay for some players next year.
But then you get people bleating about girls in particular staying at strong clubs and playing lower divs than going to other clubs. So if a girl from a strong club where best case scenario is going to play div 2, if she keeps her options open and tries 3 mid strength clubs, then the family is paying a couple of hundred bucks.
Might as well not go to external tryouts and then see what options there are after summer. So what's the point of tryouts? Most of the time the teams are 80% set before hand.

Sturt usually were the last to announce coaches - many clubs way earlier.

Agree it may influence your plans - but if you pick up the phone and ring any club junior director - if they are good and straight down the line - they will tell you who is coaching - some lower grades may not be filled but any decent planning club will know who is going where.

What I think is the biggest peeve is a club accepting a late transfer just prior to the transfer window closing because someone's been shopping around and they displace a regular club player and then that player 1) has run out of window to go elsewhere. 2) they have had no time to try out at any other club.

Paying for trials - depends on the ratio of coaches - I sure some $ are admin / court hire costs but look at it as a clinic. But if it's 1 coach and 40 players..... I hear your grizzle - if it's 40 players and 8 decent coaches - well that's not too bad.

Can someone please call the Sturt office and ask who their div 1 coaches are and let us know?

Apparently clubs will answer.

Can someone please call the Sturt office and ask who their div 1 coaches are and let us know?

Apparently clubs will answer.

Sturt thinks it's 2015 still and they are the dominant club.

They used to hold out on announcements as they had a rotation rule around coaches and what they were doing, this was also bolstered by the fact that they would have 8 coaches involved with the state programs in some way on each side.

Unfortunately for Sturt, the coaching cache isn't there, the club has fallen in its reverence.

Why all the interest in Sturt, don't see anyone questioning why Norwood haven’t released their’s yet... someone has to be first to release and someone will be last!
I’d be more interested in the reasoning why there are so few female Div 1 coaches, lots of talented, qualified female coaches out there yet so few get an opportunity….. some clubs still continue to be "a boys club" it seems….

The reason there is a fee (besides making money) is to get committed players, rather than having them try out at lots of clubs.

T which clubs are the boys club? One club I know can't find female coaches for 1s

interest in Sturt is just that it was brought up

I spoke to a JDO of a club the other day about their coaching appointments and they informed me that for their girls teams they had 0 applicants for U12 girls (any division) and 1 applicant for U14 girls (any division) and it was a male coach, who they didn't particularly want.

What is a club to do if for (let's say) 4 teams and they have 1 application and that application is undesirable?

Question I've asked when this gets brought up: why doesn't it seem like NBL1 women don't put their hand up as much as the NBL1 men?

off the top of my head:
Southern has announced Aaron Perry as div 1 coach
Forestville have Brad Gerlach (ex NBl1)
Woodville have Joe Jackson
South has Hoppo doing Div 2
Sturt has Ben Carlson assisting

Is it jobs for the boys, or is it that the girls aren't telling anyone they want a job?
Or are the girls not interested in the jobs?

If they are interested, they should speak to someone about it. The club I mentioned above hasn't released coaches due to the fact that they think it will be embarrassing to have 2 entire age groups with "TBC".


I am 100% in for women to be div 1 coaches, I want more women in basketball period. But like anything in life you have to apply for it or atleast show interest in it.

LOL SixersFan and I sharing the same comment
wonder if same club....

Sturt were mentioned by + as an example but to be fair Norwood were first to go with external trials back in June and yet haven't announced coaches AFAIK. Norwood are also the one charging $75. Very poor comms.

Is it really such a problem that kids are getting slugged so much just to prove how "committed" they are? Surely players have a right to attend tryouts to try and find themselves the best situation for themselves. The vast majority aren't going to be vying for a starting div 1 spot, most might want to latch onto a grade or two higher than where they are currently and perhaps politics has played a role in it. Paying so much doesn't necessarily translate into commitment, just how deep the parents pockets are.
And will those players getting poached be paying those premium prices as well?

As for female coaches, would assume it correlates with playing numbers as well. Less players, especially as they get older would mean less would be there to join the coaching ranks. So more male coaches getting experience would lead to more getting qualified to get promoted to higher divisions. Not saying it's right, but would explain the disparity.

I 100% agree kids these days probably are "commitment fatigued"; everywhere wants full commitment all the time. Like you said there are only 8 div 1 spots, you have 5 divisions of kids already and have 20? 30? rock up for external trials.

As a reminder, coaches are still volunteers. The club is getting that $75, and $0 of that money goes to the coaches running the trials.

Arc has its court hire prices listed on its website. $ 79.50 per hour (79.50 *2 = 159)
https://www.arccampbelltown.com.au/sport/about/court-hire

You get 10 kids for trials, and you've nearly made a $600 profit from just one court. That's no subs, just one court of 5 on 5.

When I got into coaching over 10 years ago, it felt like every club talked about 'one day we will pay coaches, it just isn't financially possible now.'

Now we're charging $75 per kid for the trial + about $1000 in fees to play summer and winter, and the money still isn't flowing to the people who give up their time to coach the kids.

Court Hire and NBL1 costs are the two major expenses for Clubs. Junior fees are the biggest source of income for most clubs, Norwood may be the exeption.

It appears that all district clubs have made their coaching announcements for next season except Norwood, Sturt and West. Sturt socials are dominated with NBL stuff and not much junior info, same for Norwood.

Re coaching - agree with the opinions here. Not enough female coaches for girls junior teams and too many inexperienced parents being asked to coach. Usually, if you're not in D1 or D2 you don't get much love or a decent coach ... paying the same price for a lessor product.

It appears that all district clubs have made their coaching announcements for next season except Norwood, Sturt and West. Sturt socials are dominated with NBL stuff and not much junior info, same for Norwood.

Re coaching - agree with the opinions here. Not enough female coaches for girls junior teams and too many inexperienced parents being asked to coach. Usually, if you're not in D1 or D2 you don't get much love or a decent coach ... paying the same price for a lessor product.

paying the same price because the cost of the club is the same.

Not enough female coaches. Not enough experienced coaches. Every Club in every state would agree with you. But what's the solution?

Norwood struggling to get coaches. I wonder why!!!!!

Norwood struggling to get coaches. I wonder why!!!!!