Hoops

ABL CHAMPIONS

yes anonymous, i'm a norwood fan?

As previously posted i agree Jacob's attempt to rebound was slightly over the top and should have resulted in an over the back foul.

Props to Tom Daly, really stepped up and proved himself. Was great to watch!

Sturt definately the better team on the night!

Now ease up on the refs! Nathan Wieland umpired exactly how he umpired all season. Consistently terrible so did anyone expect anything different on Saturday night?

Umpiring standards in general in SA has been steadily decling so we should just all expect them to be bad and get on with it! Until we all take up umpiring we should zip our mouths and hail thier greatness and bow to thier strangeness and egotistical ways! Otherwise they will all be on here attacking the masses for criticising them!

As for Spuds 'dirty act' he wasn't the one underneath Jacob and from my view actually just held Jacob from falling? I don't think anyone was at fault and the 'Golden Child' Jacob took his chance to throw a cheap shot and then walked away like an innocent victim! He should of got thrown out simple as that! I think Truslove is the biggest wanker in the league and if he had done that he would of been tossed on reputation alone. Got to be consistent!

Sturt won on offensive execution alone because if you give up as many lay ups as West did you shouldn't win! 92 points is too many in a 40 minute game let alone Grand Final!

That's Ok Hanging Round, been hanging onto that one, but was waiting for the right time to bring it in - reckon you did well!

Sorry- Bad mistake on my part
Tom played a blinder and it would be fitting to see him find a spot with a NBL team.
(Sam failed to score all night until later perhaps)

Agreed! Well done to Sturt & Forestville.
The women thoroughly deserved their win by being dominant after a flying start. The 2 Jess's were on fire and impossible to stop.
The Men's game was unbelievable. Jacob was more protected than a 'Panda in the Adelaide Zoo' (Apologies to JackToft for using one of his possible lines).
To say that refs do not affect the outcome of a game was blown out of reality Sat Night. Two female refs would have had more 'balls' than the 2 grey shirts out there. They lost control and respect early, then put themselves in a hole too deep to dig out. Blanant errors in 'out of bounds' calls will infuriate most teams, never mind a Grand Final.
Even many Sturt fans could not believe some calls!
That "Monster" Spud should pick on someone his own size instead of someone 36cm taller. What a crock the refs called on that play!
As Brad Davidson said " Sam Daly played an unbelievable game and kept on coming up with some great shots, but there are some things you cannot control". When a spectator (or 2 or 300 called out "refs sucked", his response of 'you got it', summed it up.
End of day, the trophy will be engraved "Sturt"

As a Norwood fan I went to the dome expecting a bruising encounter and after the level that West played at last week to dismiss us I expected that it would go right down to the wire.

I think the levels of physicality at times were poorly managed by the umpires which lead to some out of control/dirty plays by both sides.Spadavecchia and davidson were lively all night, Ifelt that most of their aggression was because of some of the umpiring decisions that went wrongly went against them.

Fromwhat i remember,i thought Jacobjumped over Josh Bonds back to follow his shot and came crashing down on Bonds back. Spadavecchia put his two cents in and Jacob retaliated.

As for dirty play i think the dirtiest from each team were:

Blake Truslove (West) Couldnt handle being beaten by the sturt bigs and threw huge elbows at Jacob a few times that were lucky not to connect. Played little game time and was outclassed when he was on the floor.

Jacob Holmes (Sturt) Was heavily protected by some umpiring and was never going to be thrown out. The last unsportsmanlike that was called on spadavecchia was a disgrace. Holmes clearly fouled him (was head high contact as well) and spadavecchia ended up on the floor with an unsportsmanlike. I'll agree he was niggled during the night but didnt warrant some of the elbows he threw at some of the west guards. Didnt see him pick on any of the guys his size. Was content with throwing elbows and spadavecchia, bond and davo but was very quiet when big truslove was throwing a few at him.

Tom Daly was absolutely fantastic, although Jacob did it all, both were deserving of the award, would've been nice to find a joint winner actually!

In the end Sturt were deserving winners, they outplayed West all over the court and did everything that was required to win.

Agree, Holmes was lucky as he clearly overreacted with the aggression he showed towards Spud.

He might have thought Bondy channelled him on the dunk, it all happened so quickly. I think something got under his skin after D Ng was put on his butt earlier by Spud.

Nathan "squared" did not not bring their best tonight and I'm sure their contribution will add to the rivilary between the clubs.