Basketball On The Internet.

ONCE again it’s a question of – must one of these clubs lose? – as Bendigo once more prepares to host Townsville in the WNBL Grand Final.

They sold out Bendigo Stadium last year and it will be the same on Sunday, which means Bendigo basketball again will reap the benefit of brilliant short and long-term work done by the best of the region’s committed volunteers.

But just as last year, the enduring story of (coach) Bernie Harrower and his exceptional playmaking daughter Kristi winning a title together was the fairytale most of the non-committed wanted to see completed, this year I’d personally like to see the Fire prevail.

It’s not for any other reason than for the good that success would bring Townsville, which has never had a national champion and which just three years ago was on the verge of extinction.

Fire coach Chris Lucas is one of the game’s good guys and has toiled long and hard to reach the summit.

“I feel like I’ve put in 10 years of semis, prelims, semis, prelims,” he confessed earlier this week when we spoke of what this might mean to North Queensland.

Lucas had his own heartbreak six years ago when his Lightning team was yanked out from under him and went on to win the Championship without him on the coaching bench.

He has assisted on Championship teams and also on runners-up.

Last year, the Bendigo family fairytale, the emergence of Kelsey Griffin as a bona fide superstar and continued development of Gabe Richards, on top of a tough road finish to the regular season and run through the finals, finally was too much for the Fire.

Bendigo was The Team of 2013, winning the PreSeaSon Tournament, setting new records en route to the regular season crown and finally claiming the crown.

It was joy – in the way 20 years earlier Andrew and Lindsay Gaze winning the NBL together for Melbourne Tigers was a joy and overwhelming.

The Spirit have been no less formidable this season, with a record-win streak and with their return to the ultimate game.

Harrower, Griffin, Richards all are back for the title defence. Along with Kelly Wilson, Chelsea Aubry, Chantella Perera. Toss a few new faces into the mix such as Sara Blicavs and we’re heading for another Weekend At Bernie’s. (You know I had to do it.)

Townsville has taken kids such as Steph Cumming, Rosie Fadljevic, Alex Wilson and given them a chance to show a worth largely ignored at previous destinations.

It has hardy vets in Rachael McCully, Micaela Cocks, Mia Newley, Kayla Standish joined by a genuine superstar in Suzy Batkovic.

The rivalry was born last season. For it to further evolve, the Fire need to take the step on Sunday.

I mean, there’s no Celtics-Lakers rivalry if only one team wins.

That’s why making it 1-1 would be the perfect result for the WNBL.

Even though it means Bendigo would have to lose. And that, too, would be a shame in what, this year, is most likely Kristi's last game.

BASKETBALL ON THE INTERNET’S 2014 WNBL AWARDS

IN keeping with Basketball Australia tradition, there will be no BOTI Awards Presentation Dinner this year.

But if anyone’s in my neighborhood, drop in for a snag, a couple of chops and some coleslaw on Sunday before the game.

MVP: Suzy Batkovic
All Star Five (1st Team): Rachael McCully, Kelsey Griffin, Jenna O’Hea, Laura Hodges, Suzy Batkovic
All Star Five (2nd team): Katie-Rae Ebzery, Tess Madgen, Rebecca Allen, Abby Bishop, Gabe Richards
All Star Five (Honorable Mentions): Leilani Mitchell, Stephanie Cumming
Coach of the Year: Guy Molloy
Defensive Player of the Year: Rebecca Allen
Rookie of the Year: Alex Wilson

WNBL AWARD WINNERS
MVP: Suzy Batkovic
All-Star Five: Jenna O’Hea (Dandenong Rangers), Leilani Mitchell (Dandenong Rangers), Laura Hodges (Adelaide Lightning), Suzy Batkovic (Townsville Fire), Gabrielle Richards (Bendigo Spirit)
Coach of the Year: Guy Molloy (Melbourne Boomers)
Robyn Maher Defensive Player of the Year: Rebecca Allen (Melbourne Boomers)
Rookie of the Year: Alex Wilson (Townsville Fire)

LIGHTNING STRIKING

THE dilemma facing the Adelaide Lightning in the wake of owner Vince Marino’s revelations this week he was prepared to hand back the license to the WNBL is just who could buy the club?

Truth is, when the now-defunct Basketball Association of SA owned, ran and administered the club, it was in much better shape than private ownership could be because it also owned the venue/venues out of which the team played.

Marino says running the club over seven years has cost him $3.5million - $500,000 a year - which I don’t doubt for a millisecond.

But again, truth is Vince has been way too generous in a lot of instances.

His initial CEOs, for example, were paid probably more than any three other club CEOs together because - perhaps naively – coming from a business background, he believed a chief executive is generally paid a six-figure salary.

That may well be true of the business world. But a WNBL club?

Vince also has been extremely generous with a lot of the contracts and contract payments.

The cynical may say he has had to pay over-the-odds to get personnel to Adelaide.

The generous may contend he paid top dollar expecting top performance.

Whatever, the reality is a WNBL club can operate for half the cost Marino has been prepared to plough in.

Basketball SA in Adelaide, as the sport’s governing body, has a responsibility to its female component to offer a pathway to the WNBL via a locally-based team.

But the danger in the penny-pinching BSA taking over sole ownership of the club would be it would be run on a shoestring budget and effectively turn into West Coast Waves, Mark II.

The key to Adelaide’s survival and ability to again prosper is a consortium buying it and BSA becoming a stakeholder in the new Lightning entity. Scouts SA and SA Church, owners of Adelaide Arena, also should be wooed as stakeholders.

By slashing the cost of hiring the venue, they already would make the Lightning more viable. Then BSA could jump to the party and for once show a commitment to the sport, rather than just its constituent members and broker a deal which brings juniors to WNBL games, rather than clashing with them.

When the Thunderbirds play, their venue is filled with screaming young female voices – netball juniors there to support and idolise their top-level heroines.

When the Lightning play, their venue is mostly empty. And those juniors who come along to play in some scrub halftime nonsense, know their own club State League players better than any of the WNBL contingent.

Where the schedule requires Lightning to play at home on a Friday night – clashing with juniors – the club should insist those handful of games are played in December and January when junior ball is in recess.

On the one or two Fridays there still is a clash, BSA should reschedule junior girls games away from the Lightning. It also could take 5,000 tickets, distribute 500 to each of its 10 domestic clubs and have each take a percentage of the profits of sales to its own members.

The club with the most juniors (in club gear) at the game wins a Sunday training day with Lightning players.

These are just random thoughts how BSA, without necessarily reaching into its pockets, could assist the Lightning program instead of acting as though it is a necessary evil with which it must contend.

As a stakeholder interested in Lightning’s sustainability, there are many little things like that BSA could do.

There are many ways too that Scouts SA and SA Church could utilise the Lightning program to showcase the best in what sport can do for kids.

And with an independent ownership but the consortium working together, Adelaide Lightning would not need to be a $500,000 write-off each year but a proud, sustainable WNBL entity the envy of the nation.