Teammates turned rivals for NBL1 decider

After another exciting NBL1 South season, fans are set to be treated with a Melbourne United showdown in Saturday’s Grand Final.

Tom Wilson’s Melbourne Tigers are set to face off against the trio of Tom Koppens, Malith Machar and Fabijan Krslovic, along with David Barlow, and the Sandringham Sabres at State Basketball Centre on Saturday 16 August from 7:30pm.

Looking ahead to the hardwood battle, Wilson touched on the unique experience of taking on his United teammates with the stakes at their highest.

“It’s super exciting, I think we’re all really embracing it,” Wilson explained.

“You have to try and not overanalyse things because you know these guys so well.

“It’s been a really cool experience to get to know these guys and prepare for the NBL season with them, but also pretty weird to switch those relationships off come Saturday and make them my enemies.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little bit outnumbered with the amount of Sandry connections in the building, but I’ve had some subtle support come over throughout the week so it should be a lot of fun.”

Wilson, who has been nominated for Conference MVP following a tremendous campaign, is coming off a 42-point effort in the Tigers’ Preliminary Final victory over the Knox Raiders.

Knowing stopping the hot-scoring guard will be a priority, Sabres captain Tom Koppens says he and his teammates are locked in on the task ahead of them.

“He’s been killing it all season and will certainly be someone we have to try and limit, but that goes for a lot of guys on their team,” Koppens said.

“It’s going to take a big effort from all of us to come away with the win.”

Sandringham have been on their own journey to reach the decider, turning around an 0-6 start to the season by winning 15 of their final 16 games.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s clash, the Development Player broke touched on how he is feeling 24 hours out.

“I've been with the program for a few years now and we’ve come up short a couple of times, so it’s a privilege to play in these sorts of games.

“Playing against my junior club in the Melbourne Tigers is pretty cool, I know a lot of the guys in their group and have obviously been going through our preseason with Tom Wilson, so it is kind of weird.

“We had a pretty rough start to the season, going 0-6, but once we had our lineup set we really gelled and have been rolling ever since.

“Our sole focus is to put our best foot forward and try to win this thing.”

Fans can tune into the game live via Kayo from 7:30pm.