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Dandenong coach Duncan Berg was not content with guiding the Rangers to their first playoff game, he has now taken the team to their first D League Grand Final.  This week the Rangers will host the Grand Final against the Sandringham Sabres who they have defeated three times already this season.

Both teams won their Semi Final encounters on the road, but both teams have been the inform teams of the league in the later stage of the season.  Behind the exceptional play of Enge, Dukes and Ewin the Rangers dominated the second half against Kilsyth.  Both Enge and Dukes are athletic players that will trouble the Sabres this week.  In fact Garry Dukes averages 19ppg, 6rpg and 2.3apg against the Sabres this season and has been influential in all three games this year.  He is one player Sandringham will need to focus on in defence.

When Sandringham have had a full squad this year they have looked dangerous, and this showed last week against the Minor Premiers Knox Raiders.  Sandringham rely heavily on their guards to produce on offence with Stefan Uzelac and Marty Vahala the teams prominent players.

BVDL WOMEN

Both Nunawading and Dandenong have been the best teams in the competition and deserve to be playing off in the Grand Final this weekend.  Dandenong have earned their four consecutive Grand Final appearance and will look to be the first team to record back to back titles. 

Dandenong started the season on a 7 game winning streak, including a 13pt victory over Nunawading in round 1.  But then the Rangers encountered an array of injuries to key players and dropped to third place.  But Coach Paul Flynn has done an exceptional job to finish the season with only four losses considering the number of younger players he has had to use to cover the loss of injured veterans.

However the concerning point for coach Flynn is that two of the teams four losses this year have come against the Nunawading Spectres.  Their most recent encounter in round 16 saw the Spectres win comfortably 65-52.

Nunawading went on an 11 game winning streak after dropping the first game to Dandenong and have held the number 1 position n the ladder for the majority of the season.  The Spectres are extremely deep in the frontcourt with Mareena Whittle, Meg Withers, Rhiann Mattinson and Ashleigh Blackmore all highly skilled players.