Basketball ACT division one runners-up Norths have called on officials to fix its eligibility guidelines to avoid another grand final debacle like the one that divided Canberra teams this week.
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Norths lost the grand final to Wests on Wednesday night, but the week was marred by Basketball ACT's decision to disqualify Norths from the competition and then backflipping on its ruling just 24 hours before the championship game.
Norths captain Chris Weir said Wests were the best team in the competition and deserved their grand final trophy.
But he hoped Basketball ACT would fix "the cracks" in its competitions by laws after his team was dragged through a week of off-court drama.
"It isn't about the loss, it was a fair grand final and Wests were the better team on the night, they deserved the trophy," Weir said.
"But the whole lead-up has exposed a lot of cracks in the association and hopefully they can turn that into a positive and sort a lot of underlying factors out.
"It's up to them to learn from the mistakes of this week and hopefully in the seasons to come it can only get better."
Norths and the Belconnen Ramblers were the victims in a week of bizarre decisions in Basketball ACT's premier competition, which led to a public apology from officials.
Norths were initially disqualified from the finals because one of their players, Jamie Mesman, was ineligible to take part in the finals because he had not filled his games quota.
Basketball ACT then elevated the Ramblers into the grand final, but reversed its decision the day before the game after discovering most teams in the competition had fielded ineligible players.
It has emerged that Basketball ACT had given initial approval for Mesman to play. However, the approval was retracted just hours before the semi-final without Norths knowledge and Mesman continued to play.
Norths were unaware they had been disqualified until they checked the Basketball ACT website to see what time the grand final was, prompting them to launch an appeal.
Mesman had been playing with the Canberra Gunners and was interstate for school as part of his career, contributing to him falling short of the 13 games required to be eligible to play in the finals.
"It was tough on the Ramblers and us ... I'm just proud of how the boys played and the resilience they showed was amazing, I couldn't have asked for any more," Weir said.
Wests won the men's and women's division one grand finals at the Belconnen Basketball Stadium on Wednesday night.
