Hoops

West Coast - Can it get any worse?

I feel like I have said this a thousand times before but the Waves are not far from having a competitive team. The 4 young girls Dunkin Dan mentioned are all improving, If they can keep those 4 plus D.Smith and keep the 2 NZ girls (both good back-up bench players) and Marsh, then they just need a Big strong Import like a Jessica Adair or a Krista Phillips, that makes 9 on the roster leaving 1 position which they should look for a role player like a Sarah Graham type, this team would be very competitive team and give fans hope, espically for home games at least.

The way I see it, it's a fan's role to support the team (and the coach) that is there on game night.
However, if the team isn't performing then any fan that actually cares can and should be asking questions. What kind of fan wouldn't want their club to improve?

Just blindly being all "Rah Rah Rah! Hooray for Everything!" when your team is sitting on the bottom of the ladder isn't helpful.

Anon 2 posts up is just trolling right, and has never actually seen a Waves game? (1) Amos is not a "big name", she is the exact opposite. She is a young local who has played her way from the far edges of the squad into now getting regular minutes. (For the record, the only big name in the entire squad has spent the season wearing a moon boot. And if we go down to the next tier of players like Marsh, Edmondson, Wallbutton & Todhunter, Shani's profile is still not even close)
(2) One of the main reasons I named her above is because she does NOT just "play as though her spot is guaranteed every week", unlike some others.
I imagine she will build on this season with a dominant run in the SBL over the winter.

It has not been a good season for her. I wonder if her heart is still in it.

Doccy was our franchise player and she got hurt. That's just terrible luck and probably cost us a couple of extra wins. Harper's injuries have hurt too since we don't have a centre when Burton needs a spell or gets in foul trouble.

The team was actually great to watch in the first half of the season. Obviously not stacked with talent, but they played hard and played together, and they definitely punched above their weight. I was pretty pleased with how they went.

The Christmas-New Year break was where it all seemed to go horribly wrong, made even worse by the fact that we had a bye in the first round back. The players seemed to take extended breaks from basketball, and looked embarrassingly unprepared in our first game of the new year when Canberra came to town on their huge losing streak. It's a game we should have won, or at least pushed them hard in. We blew it big time, and haven't looked like the same team since.
The last couple of games have been just awful. No question. Embarrassing stuff, and as the original post here demonstrates quite clearly the team is undoing their great work and progress of the first half of the season the way they've lost the plot since Christmas.

Bright spots for me:

Shani Amos
Tremendous progress at both ends of the floor over the course of the season. Todhunter was the better option as a starter at the beginning of the season. Amos has now overtaken her IMO. I'd be starting her if I was the coach. Look towards the future.

Nat Burton
Has matched it with some very talended centres in the league this season and has been our most consistent scoring option in the half court. Great to have her on the team.

Darcee Garbin
Young & raw but genuinely talended and along with Burton could be our starting front court for many years to come if she keeps working on her game. Still has some way to go defensively, but as with Amos I would be starting her for the rest of the season.

Kaye Tucker
Not a player whose inclusion in the squad really inspired me, but her versatility, experience and effort has shone through lately while some of her other more highly regarded teammates have appeared to be off with the fairies. Good onya Tucks.

Can it get any worse? Yep, recruit Marty Clarke as your next Head Coach ;)