Hoops

Big V Finals

Congratulations to the State Championship Men Corio Bay defeating Waverley in a tight one, they now meet McKinnon in the grand final, McKinnon upsetting hot favourites Ringwood in a close another contest.

Also a great win by the Geelong Women in D1 who will also go through to the final in their Division again, after being written off for the season I think these girls have been enormous winning away from home in the semi.

Anon #032 while you are making a comparison between Casey and Corio Bay (shallow as it is), I know of at least two, probably three in their Youth league team who could actually be good enough to play in their senior men's team.

Just because the team is in YLD2 doesn't mean they have no decent junior talent coming through, that is a big call based on what exactly, your personal knowledge?

Maybe at the moment their program relies on imports and out of towners, necessary to keep them in Champs, but if they were to stay there or drop to D1 they would still be competative and they are actually developing their juniors, it will just take time for them to come through for your information...

Yeah good on you Cav Nation and everyone down at Casey. I belong to a much larger club but I admire clubs that are committed to playing higher. Good breeding ground down that way so hopefully lots of good juniors coming through. And good on you for setting up a pathway for them to aspire to. I know Brent and Lester and two nicer guys you would never meet.

Last one for me, sadly I see that the Stingrays were pummeled by the Hawks, who seem to have it over Corio Bay from the end of last seasons finals.

Not getting to that game either, I hate to point out that Corio Bay went 6-28 at 21.4% from the 3 point line while Ringwood went 14-32 at a very decent 43.8%, wow good shooting boys.

Same story for Corio Bay with Ma'alo ending up with 4 fouls and limited minutes for his 5 points and jason Reardon only hitting 2 from behind the arc must have hurt them. Jason still top scores in this one so I am thinking the imports did do enough.

Big scoring games from Ringwood's Unruh, Champion and Weimer with Snowy and Truman all getting double figures, well done Hawks, they will be hard to stop now...

More I read the more interesting results I see, how about Coburg getting up over red hot Blackburn in Youth League D1?

Although Heath shot 25 points, the Vikings went at 16.1% from outside the arc, that isn't going to win you many games when the team relies on hitting these shots to win.

I remember their shootout with Geelong a few weeks back and I didn't quite realise how much they depended on their long range shooting until now.

Good on Coburg for getting up in this one, their team may have more balance across the court?

Once again though, I didn't see this game, happy for anyone there to post their opinions...

Anyone at the Casey v Geelong game, I couldn't get there but waking up to read the match stats was quite interesting. Well done to the Supercats though, I would suggest the cat is well and truly amongst the pigeons now in D1...

Judging solely by the stats (not much more for me to go by), it appears Hutch got a hold of some long range bombs that stuck to top score for the Supercats while bug Ben found some form at the right time.

Also, nice to see Dane get amongst the points with 9, I am tipping he might have got some good open looks created by a double here of there?

Louis, Hobba and Lester Strong as usual had to carry the scoring load for Casey who just did shoot very well from 3 point land at all it seems. Was this the story of the game I wonder??

Exactly anon^, to use the AFL's example, years (perhaps decades) ago it was traditional power clubs that dominated football. Now the likes of Carlton, Essendon, Richmond and alike have been overtaken somewhat by your Hawthorns (nearly merged with Melbourne), Geelongs (almost broke in 2006) and some interstate heavyweights.

Could we see the emergence of the Bulldogs and St Kildas of the AFL in the short term. who knows?

They (the traditional power clubs) can come back, of course, and so much depends on so many variables (coaching, team lists, injuries, funds, facilities, how the money is spent, sponsors, systems etc...).

In the Big V it would be an interesting experiment to conduct an in depth analysis using constant and consistent measures to determine why and how certain clubs have succeeded.

Basketball and the way clubs differ from one another would make this difficult, but using the correct formula and factoring in certain useful tangibles would produce some intriguing results I am sure...

Anon^, I am not disagreeing at all with your choices, they do however create some good talking points.

For whatever reasons these teams may win their divisions, it is apparent that traditional power clubs may be taking a step back this year.

If they win, that is...

Sorry for all the typo's.............

Anon^, that is an interesting set of choices, if they comes to fruition the power base is definately shifting to the middle class belt somewhat.

Casey, Chelsea and Hume Vity, wow, well we will see I guess soon enough...