It was a grand final for the ages, but in the end, the Just Better Care Wollongong Roller Hawks were on the wrong side of the ledger, falling short in the National Wheelchair Basketball League Grand Final by just three points to the Darwin Salties, 67-64. 

 

Playing in front of a packed house at Shellharbour City Stadium, the Roller Hawks and Salties went down to the wire with scores tied at 64-all with 4 seconds left on the clock as Luke Pople tied the scores with a free throw.

Darwin called a time out with the play set up to go for a three with nothing to lose. For Wollongong, the message was clear, don’t foul and don’t allow any easy inside shots.

The inbound pass came to Tom O’Neill-Thorne who pushed to the top of the three point line and fired off a shot immediately, the Roller Hawks closed out perfectly to contest the attempt but the ball found nothing but the bottom of the net, giving the Salties a three-point lead with just 1.9 seconds left on the clock.

A hail mary three point attempt by Brett Stibners to tie the game rattled off the rim and the Darwin Salties claimed victory 67-64 and their first National Wheelchair Basketball League championship.

“To go down by three, you can’t help but look at a few key moments in the game, a couple of mistakes that we made in really crucial moments but well done to Darwin, they’re a good bunch and a really well run club. I’m happy for them but jeez I wish it was us,” said Roller Hawk Tristan Knowles.

“Before today’s game we’d played them four times, and it was 2-2. We knew we had it in us. We knew we had to be near perfect to challenge them with the list that they’ve got. They’re just a really, really tough team, I’m just really proud of how the guys turned up today and gave it absolutely everything.”

“I don’t think anyone had a single drop of petrol left in the end.”

The Salties win came after only entering the competition in 2022. They won a one off tournament in 2023 over the Roller Hawks in the absence of a national league and the 2024 season was the first time the NWBL had been played in a full fledged home and away season since 2019.

The return of the national league in 2024 under a new entity in Wheelchair Basketball Australia, saw stability and multiple teams return to the top flight league and provide a showcase via live streaming never seen for the sport before with Sunday’ epic grand final along with the women’s grand final and the third place play-off streamed on Kayo for the first time.

“The league this year was unreal,” said Roller Hawks captain Brett Stibners.

“It was a throwback to the early 2000s when I first started. We had seven teams, four or five could win. You want competition, it’s good for the Rollers, it’s good for the Gliders, it’s always good to have competition.”

Despite going down, the Roller Hawks gave it everything. They trailed by 12 points at three quarter time, a similar position to Saturday’s semi final against the Salties where they trailed by 13 at the last break. In that game, Darwin went on with the job, crushing the Roller Hawks 83-58 and forced them to back up in the Preliminary Final on Saturday night against the Perth Wheelcats.

The raucous home crowd spurred the Roller Hawks on in the grand final, a 20-11 final quarter giving the Roller Hawks every chance of pulling off a win against a Salties side featuring four players now headed to Paris for the Paralympics.

They’ll be joined by Roller Hawks pair Tristan Knowles and Luke Pople along with four members of the Perth Wheelcats, Bill Latham from the Manly Wheel Eagles and Eithan Leard from the Southern Districts Spartans.

“This weekend was phenomenal preparation for the Paralympics,” says Stibners who also serves as the Rollers assistant coach.

“All tough games. We got through injury free which is probably the biggest tick as well.”

In the Women’s National Wheelchair Basketball League, the Sydney Uni Flames defeated the Perth Wheelcats 57-44. Hannah Dodd took out Finals MVP playing what would be her fourth of five games in two days between the Flames and the Roller Hawks.


“We’re basically playing against a men’s Paralympic team,” said Dodd. 

“It’s always going to be a hard slog. They’re fast, they’re mobile, they’ve got multiple shooters on court at once so you can’t even really leave anyone alone.”

“I personally enjoy playing in the men’s a little more because I don’t have to think too much. I can just do the one pointer role and do my job so that’s always been nicer for me to be honest.”

“Particularly against the Darwin lows, Sammy (White) and Jannik (Blair) they’re fast and they’re speedy so  I don’t really get a break chasing those boys around so I know I’m going to have to work hard. I think we played as hard as we could.”