Corio Bay Stingrays

The Corio Bay Stingrays were a basketball team based in Geelong, Victoria. The Stingrays competed in the men's Big V and played their home games at Geelong Basketball Netball Centre.^[1] The team was affiliated with Corio Bay Basketball Association (CBBA), which later merged to create Geelong United Basketball.

Corio Bay Stingrays
Leagues	Big V
History	Corio Bay Stingrays 2012–2019
Arena	Geelong Basketball Netball Centre
Location	Geelong, Victoria
Team colors	White, blue, black
Championships	2 (2013, 2015)

Team history

CBL origins

Corio Bay Basketball Association originated with the Corio Bay-Barwon Bullets entering the men's Country Basketball League (CBL) in Victoria in 2009.^[2][3] The team won back-to-back CBL championships.^[4][5][6][7]

Big V

In December 2011, the Corio Bay Stingrays were accepted into the Big V for the 2012 season.^[8][9]

In 2013, the Stingrays reached the Big V grand final series, where they defeated the Ringwood Hawks 2–0 to win the championship.^[10][11] In 2014, the Stingrays reached the grand final series for the second straight year, where they lost 2–1 to the Hawks despite winning game one.^[12][13][14] In 2015, after five years being coached by Dan Riches, the Stingrays appointed Mark Leader as head coach.^[15] They went on to reach their third straight grand final series, where they defeated the McKinnon Cougars 2–0 to win their second Big V championship.^[16] The Stingrays returned to the grand final series in 2016, where they were defeated 2–0 by the Hawks.^[17]

After four straight grand final appearances, the Stingrays fell to eleventh in 2017 and then twelfth in 2018.^[18] A ninth-place finish in 2019 marked the team's final season in the top Big V division.^[18][19] That same year, Corio Bay Basketball Association and Basketball Geelong amalgamated under a new banner, Geelong United Basketball.^[20]

Post-amalgamation

For the 2020 season, a senior Stingrays women's team entered the Big V for the first time in Division Two. The men's team dropped to Division One.^[21][22][23] All home games were shifted to Geelong United's home bases of AWA Alliance Bank Stadium and Geelong Arena.^[24][25] The season ultimately did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[26] In 2021 and 2022, the men remained in Division One and the women remained in Division Two.^{[27][28][29][30]} The Corio Bay Stingrays ceased to exist from 2023 onwards.^[31][32]