An update from the Director of the Board, Lauren Faulkner

Northern Tasmania basketball fans,

We wish to let you know that, at midday yesterday, we submitted an application to Basketball Victoria for the single NBL1 South licence that is to represent broader Northern Tasmania during the next licensing period, being the following two years.

Our submission diligently comprised a 26-page application, 5-sheets of financials, a 34-slide strategic plan, and 24-pages of appendices (mostly made up of letters of support). It addressed all of the League’s criteria and complied with Basketball Tasmania’s non-negotiables.

The success of our application would see a newly formed ‘Northern Tasmania Basketball Club’, existing for the benefit of both men and women athletes, and NBL1 level basketball games continued to be played equally across Launceston and the North-West coast.

Regardless of the outcome from here, we can whole-heartedly say that we put our best foot forward for basketball in Northern Tasmania, and we are really proud of the product that was submitted. While the application was a collective effort, I do wish to specifically call out and express my gratitude to fellow board members Maddy Drachler and Madi Shepherd. Both of whom committed considerable time to the cause.

Also, while our club exists (at least for now) to champion women, it would be remiss of me not to extend my thanks to the men in the background. Those who supported us along the way. Thank you to Simon Brookhouse, Brett Smith, and Craig Gibson.

Finally, we commend the CEO and the Board of Basketball Tasmania for their recent attempts to facilitate meaningful discussions between our Board and the NW Thunder’s Board and, more generally, for their genuine commitment to the sport.

Turning to the future, we look forward to the possibility of bringing our application to life, including working with people and organisations who have connections to both Launceston Tornadoes and the NW Thunder (including LBA and NWBU), and the Greater Launceston and North-West regions. Hopefully, the ‘real’ work actually begins shortly! For now, you can catch us sitting back and relaxing, including watching the two Northern based teams play in their final rostered games of the season, where they’ll be taking on Dandenong tonight in Ulverstone.

Many thanks,

Lauren Faulkner

Launceston Tornadoes Chair