The domestic competitions at the McKinnon Basketball Association features the folowing
- They operate out of several venues across the LGA’s of Glen Eira, Bayside and Kingston.
- While their geographic names suggests convenience, the spread of their venues makes this the opposite in reality. This makes it more difficult for us to properly supervise th development of all our teams unlike the situation we will currently have at the Southern Basketball Association.
- The size of the domestic competitions is similar at McKinnon compared to the Southern Basketball Asociation but we beleive the standard at the Southern Association is better.
- For us, the fact that the Southern Basketball Association also has it’s administrative offices at the Stheir stadium is also farmore convenient when administering our program.
The competition seasons at the McKinnon Basketball Association are an Summer Season and a Winter Season.
Their Summer Season season covers Term 4 of the calendar year and Term 1 of the followng school year. This means there is 5 to 6 week mid season break for the summer school holiday period, which is not ideal from a development perspective
Their other season is a Winter Season that covers Term 2 and Term 3 of the school year.
Both seasons run for about 15 rounds plus finals with the firstfour rounds committed to grading teams.
Currently, the Association plays their competitions out of several venues. These are:-
Bentleigh Secondary College, 4 Vivien St, Bentleigh East.
Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre, 200 East Boundary Rd, Bentleigh East .
Brighton Secondary College, 120 Marriage Rd, Brighton East.
McKinnon Secondary College, McKinnon Road, McKinnon.
Coatesville Primary School, 21 Mackie Rd, Bentleigh East
Tucker Road Primary School, Tucker Rd, Bentleigh
Carnegie Primary School, 51 Truganini Rd, Carnegie
With so many venues it does make it difficult for parents and players. It also makes it difficult for us to implement proper coaching and development when teams could be spread across several venues.
There are several costs, as there are at most Associations:-
PlayHQ/BV Registration Fee: You pay this fee when you register at the commencement of every season. This comprises a fee to register with the Association and Basketball Victoria. Currently, this fee sits at $35.00
Weekly Match Fees: The McKinnon Basketball Association charge a flat fee for the season, whether your competition has byes or not. At the moment that fee is $1232.00 per season per team.
These fees do not include makeup rounds/finals team sheet fee. Those fees will be charged per team on game day. and currently sit at:
- Semi Final team sheet $77 per team
- Grand Final team sheet $85 per teamer junior team.
Door Entry Fees: The Association charges an upfront $96.00 door entry fee on registration for the season. This fee covers entry for players and spectators for the regular season. For finals, players and spectators will need to pay a $3.00 door entry when they attend matches. This significantly higher fee structure is another reason we prefer the Southern Basketball Association option
PLEASE NOTE NONE OF THESE ARE BMBA FEES. They are all McKinnon Basketball Association fees that we need to cover to enter and play in their competitions.
The Age group categories for both their Summer Seasons and Winter Season are the same, with the cut-off date the 31st of December that the season finishes in. In the summer season this can cause some confusion for parents who may think their children are playing too high an age group when they are not. Administratively it can be difficult.
The age groups though for their next Winter season in 2023 will be as below.
U10 Age Group: Year of Birth 2014, 2015 and below
U12 Age Group: Year of Birth 2012, 2013
U14 BoysAge Group: Year of Birth 2010, 2011
U16 Age Group: Year of Birth 2008, 2009
U18 Age Group: Year of Birth 2006, 2007
An area of concern for us is the quite draconian by-laws in place at McKinnon. Players can be “sinned-binned” for disputing calls or receiving tech fouls which can eliminate them from games for five minutes. While at first glance this may seem an appropriate initiative, it can provide ego-driven referees with too much power for junior competition. As a previous A-grade referee of lengthy experience, referees already have significant powers to remove players, coaches and spectators from a game already if required. It is our position that a sin bin rule is over the top.
On top of this, the Association has a zero-tolerance policy regarding player and spectator behaviour. While once more this may seem appropriate, we have seen on too many occasions players, coaches and spectators unfairly treated by game officials and administrators. Under this policy, those people would face suspension with no hearing or right of defence. That is something we cannot support.
Another policy with which we strongly disagree is that if a team is losing by 20 points or more, the clock is allowed to continue to run to deny them the court time that they have paid good money for.
None of these policies is in place at the Southern Basketball Association. Another reason that Association is our first preference.
These by-laws and policies can be found via the below links.
https://www.mckinnonbasketball.org/s/MBA-Competition-By-Laws_Notes-June-2021-ge2z.pdf
https://www.mckinnonbasketball.org/policies-procedures-forms