Nunawading Spectres

The Nunawading Spectres are an NBL1 South club from Melbourne, Victoria, with both a men’s and women’s team. The club is part of the Melbourne East Basketball Association (MEBA), which is the main basketball administrative body for the City of Whitehorse. Home games are held at Nunawading Basketball Centre.

A Nunawading Spectres men’s team was one of ten teams in the National Basketball League’s first season in 1979. In 1987, the team became the Eastside Spectres, a name it kept for five years until merging with the Southern Melbourne Saints in 1992 to form the South East Melbourne Magic. The Spectres were NBL grand finalists twice, losing to Launceston in 1981 and Perth in 1991. A Nunawading Spectres women’s team played in the Women’s National Basketball League from 1982 to 1991. Coached by Tom Maher and featuring guard Robyn Maher, the team won six championships in ten seasons, including four straight from 1986 to 1989. After 1991, the Dandenong Rangers obtained the team’s WNBL license.

In 1990, while the Eastside Spectres were still contending in the NBL, a new Nunawading Spectres men’s team began playing in the South East Australian Basketball League. A women’s team joined the SEABL in 1992. The men won the SEABL East Conference title in 1995. The women were SEABL runners-up in 2000 and 2008, and the men were conference runners-up in 1999 and 2004.

In 2011, the men won a second conference title and their first SEABL championship, beating the Bendigo Braves 88–61 in the grand final, with guard Shane McDonald scoring a game-high 28 points to earn MVP. After being conference runners-up in 2013, the men won a third conference title in 2014 behind players including Mitch Creek, Tommy Greer, Shane McDonald, Simon Conn, and Matt O’Hea, but lost 85–71 in the SEABL grand final to the Mount Gambier Pioneers. In 2018, the men were SEABL runners-up again, losing the grand final to the Hobart Chargers.

When the SEABL ended, the Spectres joined the NBL1 in 2019. That year, the men won the championship with a 99–90 grand final victory over the Bendigo Braves. The NBL1 South season was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.