Townsville Crocodiles

The Townsville Crocodiles are a basketball team competing in the Australian National Basketball League (NBL). Since being established for the 1993 NBL season, the Crocodiles have enjoyed financial stability and sustained community support, but on-court success has eluded them.

History

Former Brisbane Bullets guard Mark Bragg, a Townsville resident, began campaigning to bring an NBL franchise to Townsville in the late 1980s. The franchise adopted the name of Townsville's State League team, becoming the Townsville Suns. The NBL was ready to admit the Suns, along with fellow Queenslanders the Gold Coast Cougars, in 1990, but financial backing for the Suns' venue fell through.

Local government then got behind Bragg's bid, and the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre was completed in time for the Suns' debut in February 1993.

With Bragg at the helm as head coach, the Suns struggled during their debut season, but it only took five games before they recorded their first-ever NBL win, a victory over the Newcastle Falcons. Townsville broke the mould in 1993, becoming the first Australian team to hire an 'import' player from a country other than the United States of America; Lithuanian player Rimas Kurtinaitis was a crucial part of the team during their debut season. The Suns finished 4-22 and took the wooden spoon.

Townsville would not reach the playoffs in its first six seasons, although they came perilously close in the 1997 season; needing only one win from their final six games to ensure a historic playoff appearance, the Suns went 0-6 after centre Clarence Tyson suffered a season-ending knee injury in Canberra. After a disappointing 1998 campaign, Mark Bragg quit as head coach.

Throughout, Townsville fans stuck by the team, ensuring the club set an Australian record for attendances; the Suns sold out their first 69 games at the "Furnace" (capacity 4,141), a streak that was only broken after the venue was expanded for the 1998 season (new capacity of 5,257).

Name change

It was a very different team that took the court in the 1998/99 season. The team had been involved in a dispute with the NBA's Phoenix Suns, who held the "Suns" trademark in Australia. Faced with the prospect of paying Phoenix royalties on merchandise sales, the team changed its name to the Townsville Crocodiles. New head coach Ian Stacker took the reins, and immediately attracted top-name talent like Australian Olympic player Sam Mackinnon, but it would take one more season before Townsville's long-suffering fans saw playoff basketball.

The Crocodiles finished second in the NBL in 1999/2000 with a 22-6 record, meaning they got a first-round bye in the NBL playoffs. But they faced a battle-hardened Perth Wildcats team in the semi-finals, and were defeated 2-1 in front of their disappointed home fans. Perth would go on to win the championship.

The Crocs again went 22-6 the following year and, under the league's new playoff system, eliminated both the Sydney Kings and the Victoria Titans. It came down to the grand final series, where the team lost 2 games to 1- 95-92 in the final game- after a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback by the Wollongong Hawks.

Townsville missed the playoffs in 2002 and the 2003 season looked no better, but the Crocodiles strung together a 16-game winning streak to again finish second on the NBL ladder. (The streak equalled an NBL record.) Townsville lost the opening-round series 2-1 to Wollongong, but by virtue of NBL rules, got a second chance to advance; they were then finally eliminated by the eventual champion Sydney Kings.

After another disappointing season in 2005-06, Townsville head coach Ian Stacker's contract was not renewed. The Crocodiles again failed to make the playoffs.

Trevor Gleeson was appointed coach and the team improved on their failed 2005-06 season by making the play-offs. They won their first final against one of the newcomers in the Singapore Slingers but lost their second to the Sydney Kings.

In the 2007-08 saw the Crocs struggle in their first ten games only winning just three matches. But before the season, the team was struggling with injuries with Ben Pepper (back), Greg Vanderjagt (knee) and Bradley Sheridan (back). The team ended up losing newly signed import Rosell Ellis who suffered a freak of an injury when he tore his pectoral muscle during a weight session just after two matches. In those two matches saw Ellis get 27 points and 11 rebounds in both matches. The crocs then brung in streeball legend Corey 'Homicide' Wiliams which saw the crocs turn back into a strong team. With also help from the crocs bench saw them finish the season in fifth place with a record of 17-13. But just like the 2006-07 season, saw the crocs win their first game against another newcomer Gold Coast Blaze but were once again saw them smashed by the team who finished one win higher than the crocs in the Perth Wildcats 96-78.

The crocs have now made a push to make it to the top four in the 2008-09 season when they resigned imports Williams and Ellis and also signings Brad Williamson and Steven Broom from the Brisbane Bullets and former Boomer Russell Hinder.

Honour roll

Source: [http://www.nbl.com.au/default.aspx?s=crocodiles_history www.nbl.com.au]

Kevin Sugars Medal (Club MVP)

*1993 Ricky Jones
*1994 Darryl Johnson
*1995 Derek Rucker
*1996 Clarence Tyson
*1997 Derek Rucker
*1998 Derek Rucker
*1999 Robert Rose
*2000 Robert Rose & Sam Mackinnon
*2001 Robert Rose
*2002 Robert Rose
*2003 Pat Reidy & Wayne Turner
*2004 Pat Reidy
*2005 John Rillie
*2006 Larry Abney
*2007 John Rillie & Larry Abney
*2008 John Rillie

Source: [http://www.crocodiles.com.au www.crocodiles.com.au]

Current roster

External links

* [http://www.crocodiles.com.au Official Townsville Crocodiles site]
* [http://www.tecc.net.au Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre site]
* [http://www.nbl.com.au Official National Basketball League Website]