Save Our South Dragons

December 15 will forever be a special day in the history of the South Dragons.

While the National Basketball League announced on October 19 2005 that the Victoria Giants’ license had been transferred to Mark Cowan and Raphael Geminder, it wasn’t until December 15 that the two Melbourne businessmen announced the new club’s name and colours.

They did it in style, too, with no shortage of razzmatazz on display at Dick Pratt’s Raheen mansion in Kew.

Veteran journalist Ron Reed, writing in the following day’s Herald Sun, reported:

“The launch – sorry, unleashing – was quite a production. It featured dancing girls in bikinis, there was plenty of champagne to wash down the hotdogs and guests were given a bottle of specially labelled “dragon red” to toast the new venture at home later.”

The Age’s Stephen Howell explained that the owners had settled on the name “South Dragons” because the club would be “the southernmost major basketball team in the Asia-Pacific region...and, said Cowan, dragons were big, ferocious, breathed fire and were the stuff of legends.”

It didn’t take long for speculation to build over which players the Dragons would be targeting, with basketball scribe Grantley Bernard revealing on December 16 2005: “The South Dragons are chasing Luke Schenscher as the new NBL team’s first signing.”

While the Dragons would ultimately prove unsuccessful in snaring “the big red”, another player linked to the club was Ash Cannan. Appearing at the launch and modelling the newly-designed Dragons jerseys for the media, Cannan had just returned from Colorado Christian University and would go on to join Dean Brebner as the club’s inaugural development players.

Tragically, we are no longer together to celebrate today’s fourth birthday. However, with your support, we can dream that in twelve month’s time we will be reunited for our fifth.

Let’s lock it in the calendar now: Wednesday December 15 2010, Dragons Vs Tigers at Hisense Arena.

That’s what I call a happy birthday.

Happy Birthday South Dragons,

Lets get serious about saving our Dragons and getting them to play once more.

15 December next year, Dragons vs Tigers @ a full Hisense.

I'm ready breathing fire, are you?