Bendigo Braves

Did You Know?

• The Lady Braves won five SEABL championships and two ABA National championships during a ten-year dynasty from 1998 to 2007.
• In 2023, the women's team won both the NBL1 South championship and the NBL1 National championship.
• The Braves women set a 33-game winning streak before a loss in late April 2024.

Club history

The Bendigo Braves trace their origins to the early 1980s, when an official representative club was formed. In 1984, the men's team, guided by player-coach Mel Dalgleish, played in the top division of the Victoria Basketball Association. The next year, the Braves made history as the first regional club to join the South East Australian Basketball League. After missing the playoffs in their debut SEABL season, Tom Flavin took over as coach in 1986, but another playoff miss led to David Flint's appointment in 1987. In Flint's second year, the Braves captured the SEABL South Conference title and the 1988 ABA National Championship. During this period, guard David Johnson averaged 47.8 points per game over 94 contests, including a 70-point outburst against the Bulleen Boomers in the 1988 championship game. Johnson and Flint repeated the feat in 1990, winning the East Conference championship. The Braves then endured a long drought until 2005, when Shawn Redhage and Jason Cameron powered them to the SEABL South Conference title and another ABA National Championship. Redhage earned conference grand final MVP with 43 points and 13 rebounds, while Cameron took home ABA National Finals Grand Final MVP honors. In 2007, the Braves defended their South Conference crown by beating the Kilsyth Cobras 74–63, with Cameron again named grand final MVP. Back-to-back East Conference titles followed in 2010 and 2011. In 2016, import Jeremy Kendle led the Braves to their seventh conference championship and the SEABL title, defeating the Mount Gambier Pioneers 79–61. Kendle scored a game-high 34 points to claim the Hugh McMenamin Medal as game MVP. The Braves reached the NBL1 grand final in 2019 behind Ray Turner and Mathiang Muo, but fell 99–90 to the Nunawading Spectres.