Teams from Monaghan and Tipperary added to Men's National League for 2024/25

Basketball Ireland’s National League Men’s Division One will include teams from Tipperary and Monaghan for the first time, as Tipp Talons and Carrick Cruisers Basketball Club take up a place in the competition for the 2024/25 season. 

Both played in the inaugural season of the Basketball Ireland Development League (BIDL), which saw Carrick Cruisers reach the final at the National Basketball Arena in April and Tipperary Talons finish third in their conference with a 5-2 record.

Carrick Cruisers, based out of Carrickmacross Co.Monaghan was founded in 1988 and is currently home to 13 underage boys and girls teams, competing in the North East Basketball Board competitions. They will play their home games at Phoenix Leisure Centre in Carrickmacross, with Darren O’Neill stepping in as head coach for the upcoming National League campaign.

‘‘Looking forward to a new season, excited to start a new journey with Carrickmacross Cruisers Basketball Club. It’ll be a tough year ahead adapting to the National League as a new team, but I’m confident that we will compete to the best of our abilities and hopeful of a good year,” said O’Neill, who has previously coached Belfast Star to a Men's Super League title, also taking the regins at Killester BC and Marian BC previously. 

The club has retained the majority of that National Cup winning team. Notable players include former Super League players with DCU Saints: Martins Provizors, Kevin O’Hanlon and Audrius Urbanavicius. The squad also boasts former National League player with Moy Tolka Rovers Ramunas Ramanauskas and exciting young talent in the form of Danas Smigelskis. The club also plans to bring overseas players into the fold who will be announced in the not-too-distant future.

Ramunas Ramanauskas of Carrick Cruisers in possession during the Basketball Ireland Development League Final at the National Basketball Arena. 

Tipperary Talons started out life in the 1970’s competing in the Midland League for three decades, before entering a team in the Women’s National League in 2001.

While that team would only compete for one season, the club continued to develop on solid foundations over the last twenty years and now boasts more than 200 members, with teams fulfilling fixtures at every age group from U8 to senior in both men’s and women’s competitions. There are further plans to enter the club in the U20 National League and also into the Cork leagues in order to provide a high-performance pathway for members in the coming years.

They will play the majority of their home games in Scoil Ruain, Killenaule, Co. Tipperary with a few possible games in the Ursuline Secondary School, Thurles, and Moyle Park, Monroe, Clonmel. Current Ireland U18 men’s head coach Niall Berry will oversee the debut campaign – bringing in Declan Berry as Head of Strength and Conditioning and John Coffey as a Performance Analyst for the 2024/25 season.

“The club is very proud of the strides we have made over the last two seasons,” said Chairperson of Tipperary Talons, Lorraine O’Connor. “Being able to take the step-up last year into the BIDL has been instrumental in preparing the club for our first National League men’s team in club history. We look forward to seeing what we can bring to the league and also in what we can achieve in pushing basketball forward in Tipperary. It is an exciting time," she added. 

Head coach Nial Berry gives instructions to his Tipp Talons squad during a pause in play of the Basketball Ireland Development League. 

Berry is still working in the composition of his squad for the forthcoming National League season and plans to hold try-outs in August to finalise their Irish based players, complimenting their BIDL squad from a year ago. They are also looking at bringing in players from overseas but are not close to confirming any additions at the current time. 

You can watch every Carrick Cruisers and Tipperary Talons game live on basketballireland.tv in the 2024/25 season.