Southern Basketball Association is the bayside association based at Southern Basketball Stadium, 150 Tulip Street, Cheltenham. Its representative teams are the Sandringham Sabres, who play VJBL as juniors and NBL1 as seniors. Junior domestic covers Under 8s to Under 23s and runs on season names most parents find unusual: autumn and spring.
Written by Cameron James, founder and head coach at Liddicoat Basketball. Over a decade coaching junior basketball in Melbourne, including at Big V level, and rep teams from Under 12s through to Under 18s.
Last updated August 2026.
Southern Basketball Association, or SBA, is the association covering Melbourne's bayside area. It is based at Southern Basketball Stadium, 150 Tulip Street, Cheltenham, with a postal address in Sandringham.
The representative teams are the Sandringham Sabres. So the association is Southern, the stadium is in Cheltenham, and the teams are Sandringham. All three names are correct and all three appear in different places, which is the single most confusing thing about this association for a new family.
The Sabres name runs the whole way up. Junior Sabres play in the VJBL, and the senior program includes NBL1 men's and women's teams plus Victorian Youth Championship squads.
Most Victorian associations split the year into a summer season and a winter season. SBA does not use those labels. Its junior competition runs on autumn and spring seasons, with registration windows that open a couple of months before each one starts.
That matters if you are coordinating with a sibling at another association, or trying to line basketball up against a footy or netball season. Do not assume the calendar matches the association next door.
Junior grades run from Under 8s through to Under 23s. Under 20s and Under 23s are treated as senior competition under the association's by laws, which affects the rules about playing up or down a grade if your child is in more than one team.
Teams need a minimum number of registered players before they can be fixtured, and every player has to be registered to their team before their first game. That is worth checking with your club rather than assuming it has been handled.
Almost all junior players come in through a domestic club rather than through the association. SBA lists a long roster of bayside clubs on its site, and each one has its own contact, its own training night and its own fee structure.
Those clubs vary a lot in character. Some are school linked, some are attached to a broader football and netball club, and some are basketball only community clubs with paid coaches. Reading the club descriptions on the association's own domestic clubs page is a genuinely good use of twenty minutes.
There is a second route. SBA also accepts entity team registrations, which are teams entered directly rather than through a domestic club. If you have a full group of friends who want to play together, ask the association about that pathway.
One local quirk to budget for: adults need a stadium entry card to get into domestic games, bought through the association's app, or you pay a per visit entry fee at the door. Kids and under 18s do not need one unless they are playing in the senior grades.
The Junior Sabres play in the VJBL, and the association runs a full set of supporting programs around it, including a domestic academy, a Future Sabres academy and a Sabres Ready program for players thinking about their first tryout.
VJBL tryouts sit in October for the following season, in line with every other Victorian association. The association publishes its tryout dates and the tryout process on its site each year.
Above the juniors, the Sabres field NBL1 men's and women's teams and Victorian Youth Championship squads, all out of the same Cheltenham stadium. For a junior, that means the pathway above them is visible in the same building rather than somewhere abstract.
For young beginners, Sabre Cubs is the entry program, and the association runs school holiday camps and shooting school sessions through the year.
Get the current season calendar from the association rather than working off last year's dates. Because SBA uses autumn and spring seasons, guessing wrong here costs you a registration window rather than a week.
Ask your club which night they train and where. Clubs at SBA are spread across a wide bayside catchment and the training venue may not be the stadium your games are at.
Budget for three separate things: the club's season fee, the Basketball Victoria participant licence, and the stadium entry card for the adult bringing your child. They are billed separately.
If the cost is a stretch, check whether your family qualifies for a Get Active Kids voucher before you register, because the voucher rounds have their own timing and do not follow the basketball calendar.
Southern Basketball Stadium at 150 Tulip Street, Cheltenham. The association's postal address is in Sandringham, which is why you will see both suburbs used.
The association is Southern Basketball Association and its representative teams carry the Sandringham Sabres name, from junior VJBL through to NBL1. Both names are correct and both are in active use.
SBA labels its seasons autumn and spring rather than summer and winter. Registration for each opens a couple of months before the season starts, so check the association's junior calendar rather than assuming a standard year.
Under 8s through to Under 23s. Under 20s and Under 23s are treated as senior competition under the association's by laws.
Adults over 18 need a stadium entry card for domestic games, purchased through the association's app, or they pay an entry fee at the door. Players and spectators under 18 do not, unless playing in the senior grades.
Other associations in Melbourne's south east
Next questions parents ask
Every competition in this guide
Facts on this page were compiled from the official sources below and written up in our own words. Dates, fees and venues change every season, so confirm anything you are relying on with the association directly.
This page was last updated August 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
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