According to a poll of all 12 National Basketball League head coaches, the Melbourne Tigers are the favourites to win both the minor premiership and the title when the 2006/07 Philips Championships season opens on 20 September.

The NBL conducted its annual poll of all head coaches and found that Chris Anstey’s Tigers were the clear favourites to finish on top of the ladder. When asked to list the finish order of all teams at the end of the regular season, five coaches tabbed Melbourne to finish first and five picked the Tigers to come second. The lowest any coach had Melbourne ranked was fourth.

The Brisbane Bullets narrowly edged out Sydney and Cairns as the second most popular choice. To allocate final rankings, teams were given 12 points for a first place selection, 11 for second, 10 for third and so on down to one point if they were chosen to finish last. The Tigers finished clearly top with 134 points while the Bullets (three first-place selections) came in second with 115 ahead of Cairns and Sydney (113 points each).

In some good news for debut team, the South Dragons, the coaches tipped them to make the finals at the end of the year by ranking them eighth of the 12 clubs. The other new NBL team, the Singapore Slingers, didn’t fare as well however with the coaches tabbing them to take the wooden spoon and finish 12th.

Coaches were also asked to name the two teams they believed would make the Grand Final as well as the club they felt would win it all. The Tigers again polled the most votes, with five coaches saying they would win back-to-back titles and six others believing they would be runners-up. Brisbane was the second favourite in this category, with three first-place votes and two coaches tipping them to come second.

The flood of talent back into the Philips Championship has made the race for this year’s coveted Most Valuable Player trophy a close one according to the men who should know. Nine different players received votes but it was Melbourne’s reigning MVP Chris Anstey who led the field with three coaches believing he would once again raise the Andrew Gaze trophy at the end of the season.

The Tigers star centre also was given the nod by the coaches for inclusion in the NBL’s All-Star Five and an All-Australian Team, underlining Anstey’s dominance in the competition since his return from Europe.

South Dragons fans have something special to look forward to when the season tips-off if the coaches are any judge. Rookie Joe Ingles was named as the player most likely to have an impact on the Philips Championship in his debut season. Ingles received votes from four coaches to finish just ahead of Wollongong youngster Daniel Joyce (two) but in a sign of the continuing surge of local talent being injected into the League, five Australian rookies and one New Zealander were named.

After celebrating their team’s win in the Virgin Blue NBL Pre-Season Blitz, Brisbane Bullets fans have good reason to eagerly anticipate the season tip-off. According to the coaches, Brisbane did the best in the off-season recruiting stakes. After signing the likes of CJ Bruton, Ebi Ere, Dusty Rychart and Dillon Boucher, it’s hard to argue with the five coaches who said the Bullets who did the best job of bolstering their line-up in the off-season. Brisbane finished just ahead of the South Dragons (four votes) in the category.

Full results for all questions in the NBL Coaches Poll are listed below.

Q. Please indicate your predicted order of finish for all 12 teams, 1 through 12, at the end of the regular season.

1. Melbourne Tigers 134
2. Brisbane Bullets 115
3. Cairns Taipans 113
4. Sydney Kings 113
5. Wollongong Hawks 84
6. Perth Wildcats 73
7. Adelaide 36ers 70
8. South Dragons 69
9. NZ Breakers 54
10. Townsville Crocs 47
11. West Sydney Razorbacks 32
12. Singapore Slingers 31

Q. Which two teams will advance to the Grand Final series this season?

Melbourne 11
Brisbane 5
Sydney 3
Cairns 2
Perth 1
Wollongong 1
Adelaide 1

Q. Which team will win the title this season?

Melbourne 6
Cairns 2
Brisbane 2
Sydney 2

Q. Which player do you believe will win the league MVP award this season?

Chris Anstey (Melb) 3
Sam Mackinnon (Bris) 2
Willie Farley (Ade) 1
Darnell Mee (Cair) 1
Ebi Ere (Bris) 1
Brad Newley (Tvl) 1
Glen Saville (Woll) 1
Martin Cattalini (Cair) 1
Larry Abney (Tvl) 1

Q. Which five players will make up the All-NBL First Team this season? (Choose two guards, two forwards and a centre)

CJ Bruton (Bris) 9
Chris Anstey (Melb) 9
Sam Mackinnon (Bris) 6
Martin Cattalini (Cair) 4
Jason Smith (Syd) 3
Darnell Mee (Cair) 3
Larry Abney (Tvl) 3
Brian Wethers (NZ) 2
Dave Thomas (Melb) 2
Glen Saville (Woll) 2
Cortez Groves (Woll) 2
Dusty Rychart (Bris) 1
Shawn Redhage (Per) 1
Ben Pepper (NZ) 1
Kevin Owens (Cair) 1
Brad Newley (Tvl) 1
Brett Maher (Ade) 1
Nick Horvath (Ade) 1
Shane Heal (Sou) 1
Willie Farley (Ade) 1
Ebi Ere (Bris) 1
Peter Cornell (WS) 1
Mark Bradtke (Bris) 1

Q. Which five Australian players (ie: no imports) would you select to an All-NBL Australian Team? (Choose two guards, two forwards and a centre)

Chris Anstey (Melb) 11
Sam Mackinnon (Bris) 11
CJ Bruton (Bris) 10
Glen Saville (Woll) 5
Martin Cattalini (Cair) 4
Brett Maher (Ade) 3
Jason Smith (Syd) 3
Brad Newley (Tvl) 3
David Barlow (Syd) 2
David Stiff (Mel) 1
Stephen Black (Bris) 1
Ben Pepper (NZ) 1
Paul Rogers (Per) 1
Shane Heal (Sou) 1
James Harvey (WS) 1
Mark Bradtke (Bris) 1

Q. Which first-year player do you believe will have the most impact on the league this season?*

Joe Ingles (Sou) 3
Daniel Joyce (Woll) 2
Julian Khazzouh (WS) 1
Jeremy Kench (Sing) 1
Ben Hunt (Per) 1

* Note: Not all coaches submitted votes in this category.

Q. Which team performed the best in the off-season recruiting stakes?
Brisbane 5
South 4
Adelaide 2
Singapore 1