NBL in 1983. Championship Years Under new coach Brian Kerle, who would go on to win the 1984 Coach of the Year award, the Bullets' first playoffs appearance since 1981 came about after finishing the 1984 regular season in first place with a 19–5 record, a major improvement on their 10–12 record in 1983. After defeating the Coburg Giants and the Geelong Supercats in the finals, the team were into their first ever NBL Grand Final with the game to be played at The Glass House in Melbourne (1984 would be the last year that the NBL Grand Final was played at a pre-determined 'neutral' venue). Unfortunately, they were not successful in capturing their first championship, losing to the defending champion Canberra Cannons 84–82 who were led by the Australian Boomers point guard Phil Smyth. Star import Leroy Loggins, who had returned to the Bullets in 1984 after two seasons with the West Adelaide Bearcats, capped off a great season with the Bullets by winning his first of 3 NBL Most Valuable Player Awards as well as being named at Small forward in the All-NBL Team. The Bullets had emerged as the league's most powerful team under Brian Kerle and again finished in first place the 1985 season with a 20–6 record, and were again Grand Finalists after a hard fought win over the Cannons in the finals. With the game being held at their home venue, the Chandler Arena, the Bullets were still favourites to defeat the Adelaide 36ers (whose merger with the Bearcats in 1985 had seen them become an NBL force for the first time) in what was to be the last single game grand final in NBL history despite the 36ers defeating the Newcastle Falcons by the record score of 151–103 in their Semi-final. Leading 78–74 going into the last period of play, the Bullets then outscored Adelaide 42–21, setting an NBL grand final record for points scored in the final period and easily accounting for the 36ers 120–95 to record their first ever championship win. The team's major change during the 1986 season was when they moved out of the 2,700 seat Chandler Arena and into the brand new Brisbane Entertainment Centre which could seat up to 13,500 fans, easily giving the Bullets the largest and newest home arena in the NBL at the time (the next largest venue in the league was The Glass