SEABL; Ballarat double header to launch 2012 season

By David Brehaut
Updated November 2 2012 - 6:18pm, first published December 6 2011 - 12:42pm
SEABL; Ballarat double header to launch 2012 season
SEABL; Ballarat double header to launch 2012 season

BALLARAT Miners and Rush will open the 2012 South East Australian Basketball League season with a home court doubleheader against Albury-Wodonga on Sunday, March 18.The Miners and Rush will be part of expanded home and away seasons.Canberra has joined the women’s competition, becoming its 14th team.The SEABL has responded to this continued growth by dividing the women’s roster into two conferences to parallel the men’s competition.Five new women’s teams have joined the SEABL since 2006 – Brisbane, Hobart, Sandringham, Geelong and now Canberra.This leaves only Mt Gambier (men), North West Tasmania (men) and Launceston (women) without men’s and women’s teams in the league.Ballarat Basketball Club delegate Peter Eddy welcomed the continued expansion of Australia’s second tier women’s competition and the decision to divide it into two conferences.He said two conferences would keep more teams in play-off contention for longer.The SEABL regular season will be played over 20 weeks, with the men playing 28 (two more than last season) and women 26 (two more than last season).The draft draw proposes a return of doubleheaders for Ballarat against Bendigo and Geelong at the Minerdome.The blockbusters are set down for Friday, April 13, against Bendigo and Saturday, July 7, against Geelong.Ballarat has dropped its Wednesday night experiment of the past few seasons.The new conferences and draft draw were announced at annual SEABL meeting.In another development, conference all-star teams will be abolished and replaced by one team in each of the men’s and women’s competitions. Each team will comprise 10 players.Men’s and women’s conferences:EAST: Bendigo, Brisbane, Canberra, Dandenong, Frankston, Geelong and Sandringham.SOUTH: Albury-Wodonga, Ballarat, Hobart, Kilsyth, Knox, Mt Gambier, Nunawading, NW Tasmania (Launceston in the women’s conference).

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