Geelong Supercats
Encyclopedia
Geelong Supercats
Established 1982
Former Home Venue Geelong Arena
Geelong Arena
Geelong Arena is the home of former National Basketball League team the Geelong Supercats who now play in the South East Australian Basketball League...

, Geelong
Team Colours Red, Blue and White
Championships SEABL
South East Australian Basketball League
The South East Australian Basketball League, often abbreviated to the SEABL consists of two men's and one women's conferences in the Australian Basketball Association . The SEABL conferences are considered the strongest in the ABA, developing many emerging Australian Boomers players, as well as...

: 1999 [South Conference] , 2005, 2006, 2007 [East Conference]; ABA
Australian Basketball Association
The Australian Basketball Association, often abbreviated to the ABA, is the second-tiered semi-professional men's and women's basketball minor leagues in Australia which sit under the professional National Basketball League and Women's National Basketball League .The ABA is representative of the...

1999, 2006
Team History Geelong Cats
(1982–1987)
Geelong Supercats
(1988–1996)
St Laurence Geelong Supercats (born 1996)


The Geelong Supercats are an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team, based in the Victorian City of Geelong, that currently plays in the Australian Basketball Association
Australian Basketball Association
The Australian Basketball Association, often abbreviated to the ABA, is the second-tiered semi-professional men's and women's basketball minor leagues in Australia which sit under the professional National Basketball League and Women's National Basketball League .The ABA is representative of the...

 and previously played in the National Basketball League
National Basketball League (Australia)
The National Basketball League, also known as the iiNet NBL Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Australasia....

.

NBL History

The Geelong Cats were founded as part of the Victorian Basketball Association in 1978. After achieving championship success in that league in 1981, the club was pitted against four NBL clubs (the West Adelaide Bearcats
West Adelaide Bearcats
The West Adelaide Bearcats are a semi-professional basketball team competing in the Australian Basketball Association.-NBL:The West Adelaide Bearcats was a foundation club in the NBL which merged with the Adelaide 36ers in 1985. Founded in 1946, it won the NBL championship 80–74 against the Geelong...

, the St. Kilda Saints
Southern Melbourne Saints
The Southern Melbourne Saints, previously known as the St Kilda Saints and the Westside Melbourne Saints, were an Australian basketball team, that played in Melbourne, Victoria, in the National Basketball League....

, Nunawading Spectres and Launceston Casino City) over two tournaments. After defeating all of these NBL teams the Supercats were accepted into the NBL for the 1982 season. With star players such as Cal Bruton
Cal Bruton
Calvin Bruton is a former player and coach in the Australian National Basketball League. Originally an American import, but later becoming a naturalised Australian, Bruton has been an integral part of the league since its inception...

 and James Crawford
James Crawford (basketball)
James Crawford is a former professional basketball player who played most of his career in the National Basketball League of Australia from 1982 through till the 1998/99 season....

 on the roster, the Cats recorded 13 straight victories and finished second overall at the end of the regular season with 21 wins and 7 losses. Remarkably, the Cats also competed in the Grand Final in their first season. However, they lost to the West Adelaide Bearcats 80-74.

The following several seasons continued to be successful for the Cats, but they failed to reach the Grand Final again. By 1986, star players such as Bruton and Crawford had moved on and the club was sliding down the NBL ladder.

In 1988, the Cats changed their name to the Supercats and continue under that moniker to this day. However, the 1988 season saw the Supercats lose all 24 games that season. Star recruits, such as Shane Heal
Shane Heal
Shane Douglas Heal is a retired Australia professional basketball player who last played with the Gold Coast Blaze of the National Basketball League, retiring at the end of the 2008/09 season. During his early years as a player, Heal played for the Brisbane Bullets and the Geelong Supercats...

, helped the Supercats recover from such depths in the early '90s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...

, but eventually the Supercats dropped to last on the NBL ladder in 1992 and failed to regain a position in the finals in their remaining years.

In 1996, the Supercats were one of three teams (the Gold Coast Rollers
Gold Coast Rollers
The Gold Coast Rollers were an Australian basketball team, that played in Gold Coast, Queensland, in the National Basketball League. The team was originally named the Gold Coast Cougars before being renamed the Rollers in 1992. The team was one of only two teams from the state of Queensland when it...

 and the Hobart Devils
Hobart Devils
The Hobart Devils were an Australian basketball team that played in Hobart, Tasmania, in the National Basketball League. The team was the only representative from the state of Tasmania for the majority of its tenure, but was one of three teams that had their NBL licenses revoked by the league...

 being the other two) that returned their NBL licences to the league due to changed entry criteria. While not the first time teams had folded in the league, the sudden departure of the Supercats, Rollers and Devils signified that the NBL's successful era (between late 1980s and early 1990s) was truly over.

ABA History

Since 1997, the Supercats have competed solely in the ABA, as part of the South East Australian Basketball League
South East Australian Basketball League
The South East Australian Basketball League, often abbreviated to the SEABL consists of two men's and one women's conferences in the Australian Basketball Association . The SEABL conferences are considered the strongest in the ABA, developing many emerging Australian Boomers players, as well as...

 (SEABL).

Over the last couple of seasons the Supercats have been particularly successful. In 1999 the Supercats won the South Conference final beating the Nunawading Spectres 82-81, before going on to win their 2nd ABA national championship by beating Kilsyth Cobras 98-78 in Canberra. In 2005, 2006 and 2007 the Supercats became SEABL East conference champions. In 2006 the club won its second ABA National club championship in less than 10 yrs when they defeated the Dandenong Rangers
Dandenong Rangers
The Dandenong Jayco Rangers are an Australian Women's Basketball League team based in Melbourne, Australia. Historically, they have been one of the more successful franchises in league history, but over recent years have struggled to make the playoffs, generally finishing 5th or below...

 94-80.

Honour Roll

NBL Championships: None
NBL Finals Appearances: N/A
NBL Grand Final Appearances: 1 (1982)
NBL Most Valuable Players: None
NBL Grand Final MVPs: None
All-NBL First Team: James Crawford
James Crawford (basketball)
James Crawford is a former professional basketball player who played most of his career in the National Basketball League of Australia from 1982 through till the 1998/99 season....

 (1982, 1983, 1984), Cal Bruton
Cal Bruton
Calvin Bruton is a former player and coach in the Australian National Basketball League. Originally an American import, but later becoming a naturalised Australian, Bruton has been an integral part of the league since its inception...

 (1983, 1984)
NBL Coach of the Year: Cal Bruton (1982)
NBL Rookie of the Year: None
NBL Most Improved Player: Shane Heal
Shane Heal
Shane Douglas Heal is a retired Australia professional basketball player who last played with the Gold Coast Blaze of the National Basketball League, retiring at the end of the 2008/09 season. During his early years as a player, Heal played for the Brisbane Bullets and the Geelong Supercats...

(1990)
NBL Best Defensive Player: Terry Dozier (1991)
NBL Best Sixth Man: None
NBL Good Hands Award: Shane Heal (1990)
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