Hoops

Townsville vs Perth, November 4

It certainly is, Bear.

Crocs had plenty of it last night when it mattered. Even when the Cats started putting some scores on the board, the Crocs just came right back at us with intent and were clearly not in the mood to be stopped.
If they take that same mindset into tomorrow night's game there's no reason they can't win that as well.
The Crocs might be an ordinary looking roster, but they clearly don't fear the Wildcats right now.

One comment on this game, 'confidence is king'

Even if they did rest Nate, surely the rest of the team could have stepped up. Something that did not happen, how can you go from beating a much better team on paper like Illawarra to losing to a couple of Americans and a bunch of kids. Just goes to show if you have the right attitude you will win. Townsville had the right attitude to the game whilst the Wildcats just thought it would happen. You cannot turn up every 2nd game like the Wildcats have been doing and be a serious threat, their mindset needs to change.

Well, there's 'for no actual reason' and there's 'without it being 100% necessary'.

If it was the deciding game of the grand final, Jawai would have played. At this stage of the season, you can be more cautious. The question is how cautious they were justified in being and what they would have done against different opposition.

Would they have rested Jawai if they were playing Melbourne?

Jawai was noticeably limping last game. He might have been able to push through and play this one, but why risk further damage.

"This sentiment is floating around a bit but it's pretty silly."

It sure is.

Next game I suppose we will leave a different player out of the team who is 100% healthy, because ... well, just because we can! Totally logical right? That's what sports teams do, after all. They omit important players for no actual reason.

Here's my take on the HORRIFIC game

http://wildcatsviews.com/2015/11/04/perth-wildcats-vs-crocs-it-happened-again/

Conklin has probably forgotten what crowd noise is, playing up in that empty shed all the time.
I'm sure we'll give him a good demonstration on Friday ;)

(FWIW I didn't think it was intentional either. I'll still happily boo him though)

Credit to the Crocs, they out hustled the Cats big time. Looks like they will be Perths bogey team this season.

That hit on Damo made me feel sick. One of the most respected players in the NBL and fingers crossed he is ok.

No way in hell Conklin intended it, Damo was just in the wrong place at the wrong time but I do agree that he has been flailing his arms around a bit and needs to tone it down. Didn't look like he even went over to see if Damo was alright either which is a bit disappointing.

I would hate to be Conklin coming to Perth on Friday lol There's going to be 10000 + fans screaming for his blood.

@6PRSportsToday
Trevor Gleeson says they will put Nate Jawai on Conklin on Friday night and he can pick on someone his own size.

Give it a rest LV. Your "common sense" perspective, or whatever that was meant to be, has no place in this thread.

I really hope the rumours of Damo breaking his jaw are false. He's too good a dude to have this happen to him.

I do think Conklin should reign in the arm flailing that he's started to do the last few weeks.

Why are some people suddenly acting like this Cats team should be invincible?

The thing that gives it away to me was that they said he was expected to play in Friday night's home game. So clearly it's nothing too serious.

I don't think it's a big deal though. They wouldn't rest him for no reason at all, let's face it. I'm sure the Cats will be keen all season not to overload him, but they also won't want to overload Knight either. They made a judgement call, and it may well have cost them a win tonight. (but the way we played, who knows. We might have lost with him too, and further aggravated the injury, which would have been a far worse outcome)

Insipid effort.

Was probably an accident but this flailing of the arms business needs to stop. He always does it. It's stupid.

Pretty disgusting performance by Perth. A real sense of arrogance and cockiness tonight. Let's be real..they rested Jawai because they expected tonight would be an easy victory. Absolutely no heart or determination tonight. If i was a fan i would be very very upset.

Hope he's still got all his teeth after that

9 rebounds in a 2nd half shows you how much effort they have put in. This team ain't winning a title this year unless something changes.

Ouch, doesn't look good for Damo. Conklin flails his arms about again.

Ouch! Damo

Yep missed Knight, and Jervis does but he sits on the pine , so can't really be critical of him. But rest just go through the motions.

Crocs played some nice D on us tonight. They've played well on our reluctance/inability to shoot.

This will put me off side with fellow Wildcats fans, but does Beal ever play any half decent defense.

Very ordinary game again, only one person on the whole team seems to care, and that is Martin, the rest including the coach don't seem to give a crap. Either attitude chance or we are not winning title.

Gotta be something wrong with Beal, he is not with it.

Norton needs to play the whole 4th quarter

Interesting exchange Dennis and Maynard.

Not sure who seemed angrier, him or Geisch the ref.

Jervis just needs the minutes to be effective. He's hitting the boards hard and keeping his arms up. Great technique for taller guys to emulate.

Conklin really seems like a ticking time bomb, he may explode for either 15 points or techs, I'm not sure which.

Looked like there was contact and Damo was there but his fall didn't match the impact.

On another note, Jervis is killing the O boards

@PeterJohn: uniform rules were changed after the demerger.

Okay, what do we think about that charge on Martin by the Croc's player backing into him?

Technically, I guess it was a charge, but seriously Martin made the most of it didn't he?

Not saying he flopped, but geeze louise how easily did he fall backwards...

Townsvilles only hope is going to be in transition, yet they seem to want to slow it down 3 out of 4 plays.

Really, where is that written, I thought every team had two options with their home as the third?

No matter, the game is interesting, I think as soon as the Croc's heard Nate wasn't coming their confidence would have risen 200%, will it be the difference though??

Love the Wildcats uniform, finally someone has an away strip that looks great and makes sense.

Actually, swap the name on the front for Dragons and I reckon I have one... ;)

I remember when Townsville use to sell out every game. I'm pretty sure they hold or atleast held at the time the record for most consecutive sell outs. WTF happened?

It's not a preview to the game but i did a little breakdown of the Wildcats big lineup versus small ball teams if anyone's interested. It has Gifs!

http://wildcatsviews.com/2015/11/03/wildcats-going-big-when-everyones-going-small/

Let's just see whether you do actually get within single digits before we bother rebutting that, hey.
In case you missed all the memos, this is the blowout league, where no one gets within single digits!

Biggest risk in travelling to Townsville is not rolling over and dying of boredom in the 36 hours you're forced to spend there :-)

Biggest risk of flying Nate across the country & back is to the plane I reckon :p

Great time to rest him IMO, play the Crocs again on Friday - give him the week off, get it right.

There's no way 'Cats lose again to Crocs - well there is a chance if we lose 3 starters again.

They can't think it's too severe if they're leaving him out of Wednesday's match but expecting him to play 2 days later.

If there's one thing Perth isn't short on its bigs. They should be able to cover Jawai no problem.

Predictions?

Blaze match up well with perth, harvey even stating hes glad to be playing at the jungle. with petrie and chewy likely to play, though not 100percent, guys like maxey goulding and mika will need to step up. Cant help but feel blaze will ge tthis in 2, perth are still young.

Bradshaw Schenscher
Petrie Cattalini
Vukona Weigh
Harvey Lisch
Gibson Martin

Vandy
Maxey Young
Ubaka Wagstaff
Goulding
Demos Robbins

Discuss.