Below is the 1984 Year-In-Review of the North West Districts Basketball Club.

North-West Districts FALCONS

PRESIDENT: Barry Coulch

SECRETARY: Angie Burton 

VICE PRESIDENT: Barry Gordon

TREASURER: Carey Connor

THE FALCONS IN 1984

1984 was a year of mixed success for the North West Districts Falcons.  From ten club teams playing in the Fosters Basketball Series, only three missed out on a semi-final berth.   They were Womens 6, Womens 2.1, and the Fossils.  Things were looking good for a few N.W.D. premierships- until the semi-finals!!

The Mens 4 team started the club off well by beating arch-rivals, Bears, in the semi and shooting straight into the Grand Final.  Mens 3 bowed out to Berries in the minor semi and Womens3 followed suit when they lost to Lang Park 1.  Mens 2 caught the losing bug and blew a six point half-time lead to lose by three to Lang Park Pumas.  Womens 2.2 broke with the trend and defeated Post-Tels and Mayne to move into the Grand Final from fourth spot.  Womens 1 saw a reversal of their 62/41 win over West Mitchie in the semi when they lost to Mayne 41/62 in the preliminary final and Mens 1 went down fighting to a bigger Lang Park side by four points in their minor semi.

Four years of grand final loses seemed to have got to the Mens 4 team.  They failed to repeat their semi-final win over the Bears and went down 36/35.  A similar period of grand final losses for coach Ross Dolan also seemed to be bothering the Womens 2.2 team as they blew an early lead and ended up having to play extra time.  But the girls were equal the challenge and a last second shot gave then a nail-biting one point win over Lang Park and the club’s only 1984 premiership.

Some of these girls will be pushing for selection in the Womens 1 side in 1985.  With their youth, the experience of the current team, and the guidance of Brian Banks as coach for another year, look out for N.W.D. in 1985.  Brian will also be coaching and playing for the Mens 1 team.  With one or two new big men in the side and the young players from this year, the men should also be a force to be reckoned with in ‘85.

’84 was not a good year for N.W.D. and Juniors as the club had no teams competing in the Junior competition.  But on the bright side of this coin, the Falcons have been running their own Junior Clinic at Ferny Hills State Primary School on Saturday afternoons.  The aim of the Clinic was to introduce basketball to kids who hadn’t played it before and maybe find a team or two of new Juniors among them.  Despite having lost some of the more promising players to already existing teams from other clubs, 1985 will again see some Junior teams wearing North West colours.  The club’s thanks go to David Claxton who was responsible for setting up the Clinic and to all the club members who gave up their time to assist with the coaching duties on Saturday afternoon.

So that’s 1984, more or less.  Maybe there weren’t as many wins as we’d like, we’ll have to do better in ’85.  The Falcons will certainly be in there trying!!!

The Falcons would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Brian Kerle on the work he has done promoting not only the Bullets, but also Brisbane basketball.    

Thanks, Brian, see you in 1985.