Frankston Basketball: a parent's guide to the Blues

Who the FDBA are

Frankston and District Basketball Association, almost always shortened to FDBA, is the association covering Frankston and the top of the Mornington Peninsula. Its representative teams are the Blues.

The association has been based at Kananook Reserve in Seaford for more than 30 years. Its main venue, Frankston Basketball Stadium, has six courts at 90 Bardia Avenue, and that is where the office and most association business sits.

FDBA runs junior and senior domestic competitions, beginner programs for young children, holiday camps, a 3x3 program, and the Blues representative teams from juniors through to NBL1 men and women.

Junior domestic, and which day your child plays

The junior domestic competition runs from Under 8s to Under 21s, and the day depends on both age and gender, which trips up a lot of new families.

Girls play Under 8, Under 10, Under 12 and Under 14 on Saturday, then Under 16, Under 18 and Under 21 on Monday after school.

Boys play Under 8, Under 10, Under 12 and Under 14 on Saturday, Under 16 on Wednesday after school, and Under 18 and Under 21 on Thursday after school.

Saturday games run from 8am through to about 7pm. The association says Under 8s and Under 10s generally start from 8am, Under 12s land in the early afternoon and Under 14s from mid afternoon. Midweek games are usually scheduled at 4:45pm, 5:30pm and 6:15pm, with a 7pm slot added when needed.

The venue list, and a stadium name that confuses people

FDBA fixtures across a long list of venues, not just its home stadium. That list includes Elisabeth Murdoch College at Langwarrin, Carrum Downs Secondary College, Flinders College at Carrum Downs, Frankston High School, McClelland College, Monash Peninsula, Patterson River Secondary College at Seaford and John Paul College.

Here is the one worth writing on the fridge. Frankston Basketball Stadium is at 90 Bardia Avenue, Seaford. Jubilee Park Stadium is a different building at 83 to 85 Hillcrest Road, Frankston. Both are used, both appear on fixtures, and they are not the same place.

Most of the older midweek games are scheduled at the main stadium and at Elisabeth Murdoch College, with other venues added depending on how many teams enter a given season.

Check your fixture the night before, not on the morning. Fixtures are published online and the association warns that they change, which is why it asks teams not to print them.

Seasons, grading and how registration works

There are two seasons a year. Summer runs across school terms 4 and 1, winter across terms 2 and 3. Games are not scheduled on public holidays or school holidays, so the season calendar is the document to look at rather than counting weeks yourself.

Each season starts with grading. Rounds 1 and 2 are the first grading phase and rounds 3 and 4 the second, and none of those games count towards the ladder. Rounds 5 and 6 are a confirmation phase played for premiership points, then the top four go into a two round finals series.

That structure is genuinely useful for a new player. The first month is the competition working out where your child's team belongs, so an early loss really does not mean anything.

Teams are entered by affiliated clubs. FDBA does not accept independent team entries, and each club sets its own registration form and fee structure. Registration opens roughly four to six weeks before each season starts. There is also an annual Basketball Victoria participant licence handled through PlayHQ as part of club registration.

The Junior Blues and the VJBL

The Junior Blues field teams from Under 12 to Under 21 in the VJBL, Victoria's Friday night representative competition, and the program feeds directly into the association's Under 21s, Youth League and NBL1 teams.

Tryouts are held each October. The association describes what follows as a twelve month commitment: an intensive grading period from November to February, the VJBL season from March to September, and various tournaments through the year.

The association's own page describes the VJBL as three levels, with Victorian Championship at the top, numbered Victorian Junior League divisions below it, and a regional tier underneath split by geography. Basketball Victoria restructured that third tier from the 2025/26 season and now calls it Regional League, organised into geographic pools to cut travel. Both descriptions are aiming at the same shape, but if the names on the two sites do not match when you read them, that is why.

As with every association, tryouts do not guarantee a place. Plan for the possibility that your child stays in domestic another year, and treat that as normal rather than a setback.