Bruins dynamic duo take 2026 title to the 'Bank-stown'

• Bankstown beat Manly Warringah 90-85 for a first NBL1 East championship
• Norths downed Sutherland 76-64 for their fourth men's title, first since 2017
• Shyla Heal scored 26 and Tahlia Tupaea went 19-from-19 at the line

Bankstown guard Shyla Heal had 19 of her 26 points by half-time and took the Grand Final MVP as the Bruins beat defending champion Manly Warringah 90-85 for a first NBL1 East championship.

Her back-court partner did not miss. Tahlia Tupaea went to the foul line 19 times and made all 19, the last of them sealing a title Bankstown have not held in any form since 2015, and the club's 11th dating back to 1997.

Three and a half hours later on the same floor at Guzman y Gomez Stadium on the Central Coast, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk scored 12 points in the final quarter to drag the Norths Bears past the Sutherland Sharks 76-64 for a fourth men's championship and a first since 2017.

Neither winner was convincing for four quarters. Bankstown managed 11 points in the third and won anyway. Norths managed 11 in the first, went 4-from-20 from the field, trailed by 14 inside the second, and won anyway.

The Bruins built their afternoon in the opening 10 minutes, putting 33 points on the Sea Eagles and shooting 11-from-20 to lead by 12. By the second quarter it was 19. Manly stayed alive at the foul line, 12-from-13 in the first term and 18-from-20 by the break, but they had fallen in love with quick three-pointers and went 3-from-16 from the outside before half-time.

Then Bankstown stopped scoring as the Sea Eagles went into a 3-2 zone but the Sea Eagles went scoreless themselves for more than five minutes after the restart before Bree Delaney hit from range, hit another, and turned it into an 8-0 run that cut the margin to nine. Jayda Jansen made it three points with a clutch triple inside the last three minutes, Shalome Dunlop answered from deep, and Zoey Miller twice hit late from range to make it three again before Tupaea closed it out.

Miller finished with 19 points, eight assists, four rebounds and two steals, Jansen 15, Bree Delaney 14, Alex Delaney 13, and Kimberley Dickinson 13 points with 11 rebounds. Manly Warringah were in a third Grand Final in four years and remain the last side to win one. No women's team has gone back-to-back since Bankstown themselves won four straight from 2003 to 2006.

The men's decider inverted the shape. Sutherland led 18-11 at quarter time and pushed it to 14 in the second before Norths scored 27 in the term to lead 38-37 at the main break, and 55-51 at the last change.

Swaka Lo Buluk settled it from there. The four-time NBL champion, with two titles at Perth and one each at Sydney and Illawarra, hit two three-pointers and three other baskets in the final quarter, 12 of the 21 points Norths scored in it, and finished with 18.

Fabijan Krslovic took the MVP with eight points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks, the last a rejection of Jason Spurgin inside the final minute that ended the contest. He won it at the club where he grew up, on a return season, and where he played in a 2016 championship alongside Tom Garlepp, who now coaches the side.

Hunter Goodrick, off to South East Melbourne Phoenix for NBL27, had 16 points and nine rebounds on 7-from-10 shooting. Iggy Mitchell added 13 and nine, Lachie Bofinger 10 and eight, and Jake Weinstein nine points on 3-from-3 from three.

Tyler Robertson was the best player on the floor in defeat, 29 points and 11 rebounds while hobbled through the second half. Spurgin had 13 points and 12 rebounds and Lochlan Hutchison 10 points, nine assists and six steals, but Sutherland scored 27 after half-time and lost by 12.