By Trent North

Melbourne Tigers

Position: 8th
Season Record 3-18 

The 2000/2001 season wasn’t too kind to the Tigers. They had their problems way before the season opener. For starters, Harrower picked up a contract to play overseas, Folkl decided that wearing a bodysuit wasn’t her cup of tea and headed home and Brogan couldn’t commit to the team. On top of that, the Tigers male counterparts in their wisdom decided that the female team of the club was too much of a money pit and like the proverbial black sheep, they were outcasts. The surprising part of all this was the inactivity from the WNBL offices to publicly assist the Tigers in their hour of need, but I guess paying Jackson $100,000 to be the face of the league didn’t leave much behind in the coffers. Just as Leeanne and co were about to release an altered season fixture, the knight in shinning armour (Adidas) come galloping through town and gave the Tigers the financial giddy up to make it through the season. Unfortunately that was probably the only highlight of what was a long and arduous season.  

Melbourne were physically undermanned and undersized for the first half of the season. When Brogan eventually decided that she could make the commitment to join the team, whilst one person does not make a team Melbourne were able to put a competitive team on the floor. Two games stand out, one at Keilor against finalists Adelaide where the deficit was only 3 points, and a game against eventual premiers Sydney in Sydney where Melbourne pushed the Panthers for 35 minutes to only come up short by 8 points. 

What does the future hold for Melbourne? Well they need a financial backer pronto. No backer equals extinct Tigers. If they can get the bankbook in order, the next point of order is to pick up some players. If the rumours of Sam MacKinnon coming to play in Melbourne are correct then his wife to be, Rebecca Baragry, will be looking for a team to play for. On top of that having seen how Ray plucked Milner from the obscurity of the ABA, don’t be surprised if he finds another diamond(s) in the rough. 

Highlight: Two highlights for mine. The first being the fact that Melbourne played the season. I don’t think that the WNBL would or will be the same without the Tigers in the comp. The second highlight was Sharin Milner. This whippet (did anyone see the picture of her in the Melbourne Age standing in between Bradtke and Egan?) averaged 37.1 minutes a game and was an absolute energizer bunny all season.  

Lowlight: Two lowlights for mine. The first being the shambles at the start of the year when it appeared that the Melbourne Tigers would not be apart of the 2000/2001 season. If the unconfirmed reports are true, the second lowlight would be Ray’s speech at the Tigers’ awards night. Not nice Ray. 

MVP: You can’t go past Milner. She was a tad unlucky to miss out on the Betty Watson Rookie of the Year and it was her raw enthusiasm for the job that was so infectious throughout the whole team. Whilst this didn’t convert into wins for the team, Milner did enough in my opinion to be the teams MVP.