And it is still growing. Past players, coaches, officials and supporters are encouraged to attend free of charge, without Covid-19 restrictions and raise the roof as they did in 1997 when Kay Symes of Burger Wisconsin won the women's final with a buzzer-beater from halfway.
More magic moments are ahead.
The Raiders have been around club ball for a long time.
Among their number are old Ritana Bulls Billy Maxwell and Chad Rose, 30-year men (although that pales in comparison with Cliff Blumfield, who has blown his whistle for closer to 60 than 55). Anton Riri played for the X-men, Aubrey Yates played for Nova and now these warriors are set to contest the men's open-grade final with the Setting Suns.
Raiders B captain Siaki Tui said: “We're looking forward to the game. As a team of veterans whose average age is 44, we say ‘slow and steady wins the race' — we're hoping that works for us.”
Slightly slower, however, doesn't mean soft. Yates, Tui and Brandon Terekia have an iron grip that few challenging for rebounds can counter.
Matt Tong, whose 13-year-old son Ollie is a Year 9 student at Gisborne Boys' High School, will lead the Suns on to the YMCA floor for the first time on Tuesday at 5.30pm — open-grade games are normally held at the John McFarlane Memorial Sports Centre at Boys' High. Tong junior is a gutsy young player, and his teammates include former Ngati Porou East Coast winger Mike King and Ryan Tapsell, who, in his prime, could outleap any current premier baller.
Tong senior wants his guys to love the moment.
“We're a mixed crew of first-time players and long-time-since players who came into this year keen to get together, have a run around and sink a few buckets,” he said.
“But the competitiveness kicked into gear when we started winning games, and we definitely aren't keen for it to stop. It's been a great season with heaps of laughs and, occasionally, some good basketball.”
Will the women's final of 2022 touch the heights?
This edition has the ingredients of a classic: sharpshooters, superb veterans, quick guards, defensive presence, inside scoring and pure will.
Both teams are well-led — Team 2022 by Janelle Te Rauna-Lamont, Ngati Porou by Bronya McMenamin.
McMenamin has willed and muscled Ngati Porou to victory on the big stage six times in the past eight years: only the Adrian Sparks-coached Campion College, in the 1 v 4 semifinal of 2017 (35-23), and champions Turanga in the 2021 final (50-44), have held up against Ngati Porou in a season-ending situation.
On Tuesday night, Ngati Porou will have inside scoring through skilful Tiara Weir, but Team 2022 titan Jett Pohatu has the armspan to give her crew much-needed defensive presence, and if Pohatu could also be a factor at both ends of the court then Team 2022 will be in great shape.
In terms of what quick guards and superb veterans can put on, perhaps the best example in recent history is what was described at the time as “a one-in-100 play”: the first field goal of the third period, 2020's 1 (Ngati Porou) v 4 (Stretchmarks) semi. Point-guard Courtney Stubbins came down the right sideline, from behind halfway flung a crosscourt pass to her then-Stretchmarks skipper Te Rauna-Lamont, and the left-hander cut in for the lay-up: Stretchmarks 15, Ngati Porou 18.
Jayda Waititi-Leach, a championship-winning captain with Lytton High School in 2017, is a genuine sharpshooter: she scored 24 points on debut for Ngati Porou in 2020, including two three-point shots, and hit two of the same in their 38-32, 1 v 4 semifinal win against Horouta a fortnight ago.
If Team 2022 lose track of Waititi-Leach in transition or fail to check her at the perimeter, she may cut them to pieces.
Waititi-Leach, like Te Rauna-Lamont, has proven for years that basketball brains, ability and heart count for more than size alone.
McMenamin, who first played club ball at the age of 11, said: “We're excited, because this league was tame — but the intensity has ramped up at the business end of the season. The pushes that you see players give each other are testament to their competitiveness.”
Team 2022 skipper Janelle Te Rauna-Lamont said: “We've enjoyed playing with each other and we'd like to say a big thank-you to Amoe Tarsau and Dyani Johnson for organising our young girls — the Matariki team — and ensuring that they got to play this year.”
Green Up need to dig deep.
The Holden Wilson-led defending champions have now played without former captain Tyrese Tuwairua-Brown long enough that they've found ways to win without him. Both their current and former skipper scored 20 points in their 62-53 win against SE Systems in their grand final win last year.
A fortnight ago, 2022 grand finalists Green Up and City Lights pulled the pin on their last meeting at 64-64, with Weighn Wilson and Paddy Blackman of Green Up producing 26 and 24.
A week later, that pair put up 17 and 24 in their 72-49 win against Gisborne Boys' High School under Sebastian Wilson: the standing champs stepped up in that 2 v 3 semi. Wilson (23) was the only GBHS player to score in double-figures.
Green Up do not expect City Lights to show them any mercy on Tuesday night. In his first club ball season in Gisborne, Lights' Tahu-Potiki Te Maru-Doran has shown touches, strapping leftie Paora Dewes's explosiveness reminds of a young Aubrey Yates, while Ryan Walters and Scott Muncaster have been the spine of the team since their formation in 2016.
But the acid test for courage will come in the form of City Lights' big men Rongomai Smith and Reggie Namana — both are very strong, very aggressive. They were members of the Pirates crew that toppled the Dream Team on the grand stage. Green Up are capable of taking it all on Tuesday night . . . but discomfort may be the price.
Muncaster's mind is made up.
“We have a team that can do it all and we're feeling good,” he said.
“We've big men who can defend or score inside, guards who can defend — then get out and run — and guys who can shoot the three-pointer. We played badly against Green Up the first time we got them, and then mucked around for three quarters of a ‘friendly' game but, other than that, we've been solid.”
In the last fortnight, Green Up captain Holden Wilson has nursed his left ankle. He rolled it during a clash with GBHS. But he won't be taking Tuesday night off.
“It feels like just another game — we've just got to be focused,” Wilson said.
“That means shutting down Rongomai Smith, because he's their main scorer.”
