Hoops

Melbourne v Perth GF game 2 - Game Day Thread

Melbourne in 4 games. Wildcats were shithouse and no way will they win game 3. Terrible, worst game by them all season.

Perth did well to get this far, but at the important part of the season they still have the same problems that have plagued them all year.

I still find it utterly incomprehensible that after 6 months of insisting that they did not need to replace Hire with an import, they wait until the day after the deadline, then announce his retirement and sit him on the end of the bench.

The dominance of Kennedy in this series is critical and informative. The Wildcats won championships with Ennis and Prather, and we have seen what other brilliant small forwards can do. Yet for some reason Perth hired another shooting guard supposedly to boost their 3 point %, and he has sucked from that range.

Stiendl is too hit and miss. Bottom line is that guys are valued on what they can do when the season is on the line, and so far he's gone missing when it counts.

Same with Wagstaff. He hasn't necessarily gotten worse with age, just more and more erratic.

Perth seem to have no plan to combat Boone and Pledge. Considering they each have a range of about 2 feet, it shouldn't be this difficult to keep them off the glass and stop them shoving it back in. Jervis just seems to have completely lost his bottle since returning to Perth.

Vague I think has had an ok year but he has no finals experience.

I think this will go to 5 games, but I don't feel comfortable relying on home court to bring that 3rd win

AngusH that makes perfect sense as they are the sneakiest type. Thanks.

There's no conspiracy. The refs are just bad, not paid off.

Moller and Hooley chip in playing very good D for around 10-15 minutes per game, grab a few points and Moller take boards, all very useful while the stars rest, especially with Goulding on the floor at same time as he can get a few points.
In hind sight it looks like the reason Hooley was kept and Adnam was let go. Melbourne are very strong through the two, three spot. Goulding, McCarron, Kennedy, Moller.
Home court still should make Perth favourites though.

@ Perthworld; the shape shifting lizard kind, like the British royal family, duh.

Barlow McCarron Pledger, Boon laid the foundation for superstars to finish Perth off. Perth has to get significant offensive help from Kay, Steindl, Wagstaff, Norton or Brandt to stay in this. White, Cotton have to do too much. Winner of G3 will go on to title.

What type of reptilian is LK?

'I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.'

Don't you mean Tequilla?

It's not rigged, the refs just suck

I do recall a year when a Victorian team looked headed for an unexpected championship. Unfortunately the NBL had recently decided but not yet announced to sanction the club for massive salary cap rorting. Clearly, letting them win, then being forced to strip them of their title, would have been a major embarrassment for the league.

Instead the team got totally screwed over by the refs and lost the last two games. Actually there were even rumours the coach had been told to lose the last game.

In fairness the result was the same either way, it just looked a lot better that way.

^^^^
Give it a rest, what an absolute load of shite.

LMAO at those pretending that LK is the first time the League has interfered and pushed for contrived results.

Anybody who has watched this league for a while has witnessed games of unbelievably biased reffing.
So I suppose there are a few possible explanations for this:
A) The refs are shit, make hundreds of bad calls every game, and it is simply happenstance when they all go one way in a critical game.
B) The refs are biased in favour or against certain teams, and allow that to impact their reffing, but those biases may change and even reverse from game to game.
C) The refs are cooperating to bet on the games and then affecting the outcomes and spread.
D) The refs don't like getting yelled at by crowds and so engage in home cooking. But may from time to time stop home cooking and in fact favour the visiting team.
E) The refs are dependent on the league for their livelihood, perks, and prestige and so obey directions given by the league, and the league has a vested interest in outcomes they consider to be in the league's best interest.

Defamation, bahahahahahaha.

I can confirm #630's post as entirely factual.

Lol At #626

LK is a reptilian and has the refs controlled like string puppets, but with his telepathic powers. He requires a game 4 win as the number 4 has cosmic signify and will open a stargate portal for players like Cadee to exit the league and be dumped in another dimension, alongside giving him cheap shipping for First Ever to be sold intergalactically.

In fairness, his CEO was silly enough to hire a substandard coach, not all plans are fool proof ;-)

Larry bought the league in 2015

Letting United get swept in the 2016 semis and miss the playoffs in 2017 was all part of his evil plan too.....

#608 I hope you have a good lawyer because if anyone wanted too you could easily be done with defamation as a start

So conspiracy-theorist anon, the home cooking in Perth was just part of Larry's plan for a blowout Perth win in game 1?

"If Perth don't get mugged by the refs, I'll shut up."
PLease make that true.

Surprised at the naivety of some.

Melbourne is Larry's team, Fact.
Larry controls the League and therefore the refs, Fact.
Refs so flagrantly (and unnecessarily) favoured Melbourne even LV was struck dumb, Fact.

But sure, go on believing its all coincidence.

As I said, wait and see what happens on Friday.
If Perth don't get mugged by the refs, I'll shut up.

"Damo. Time to retire. Legend undoubtedly. Time to retire."

yeah was good 48 hours ago but is now not nbl standard

What brand neck brace will Goulding wear this week. Gotta rest those muscles

Damo. Time to retire. Legend undoubtedly. Time to retire.

Ok, now its coach time, who has set their teams up as flexibile and smart enough to significantly treak and re-treak in the weeks training between games 3 and 4, and during the game 3 and 4.

On one hand trev has the advantage as he gets a last throw on home court, on the other Dean has an entire 5 days to prep his guys to come at perth with a new look and real grit, having seen them up close for 2 games.

Meanwhile trev has to hope that his group can prevail against whatever new gets thrown at them in game 3, if not, he really has to pull a rabbit VERY quickly out of the hat on the sunday with travel in between.
I think its melboune's advantage ATM.

Surprised only 97 comments? Na not really because perth lost had they won surely the keyboard warriors ala LV would have had a hundred post just on his own.

Lmao at # 583 Pledger please, he’s a liability, especially on D

Lmao at # 585 you know we never landed on the moon either, that was all a conspiracy, say hello to the pixies at end garden for me.

I see someone here already wearing the NBL's new range of tin foil hat merchandise.

Watch and Learn kids, its all going perfectly to script.

Larry did not want Melbourne to win in 5 or even 3 games, because that would mean presenting in Perth.
So it has to be 4 games, that's the only way.

Don't believe yet? That's ok, just wait til next Friday and watch Perth get mugged by the refs, then all will be clear.

On the offensive side it was out 3-point shooting that screwed us, again.

I don't understand how we keep recruiting players to improve that, and it only gets worse?

We can't play small ball if we can't hit outside shots.

We specifically went out and recruited a 2/3 as our staring SF to improve this, and once again White has gone MIA from outside.Might as well have kept Tokoto, at least he didn't even try to hit 3's.

And why give Steindl 17 minutes when his shots aren't dropping?

Pledger is close to the Melb MVP imo so far. Not saying he their best player, but close to most valuable. We just don't have much of an answer for him, especially when he is playing on Jervis/Vague or an undersized Kay/Wagstaff. Always gets rebounds and chip in qith some scores. Pretty handy asset for melb in the minutes he gets and can be a difference maker in 2 pretty even teams.

Brandt not much time, probably saving his shoulders for next Friday. ::))))

Timberball 100% correct. Boards killed perth. Refs helped make it a blowout. We were headed for a close game when mccaron got that freebie even heal said was clean. 11pt game imstead of a possible 7pt game. United may have still won, and win convincingly, but it was decided then. On a side note, do united fans enjoy goulding and wares flopping? Do you know how goulding never even gets a warning?

Ultimately it was Perth's defense that let them down.
When Damo is one of your starters, we're always going to be a bit lighter than average on the offensive end, and typically its our league-leading D that keeps us in it.
That went out the window.

Jervis actually improved this game, so I don't understand why Wagtsaff, Vague, and Steindl got more minutes??

And again, Hire can do two things, defend and rebound, and we needed both.

Was Trev confused as to when game 3 is?
We should have rested the starters more last Friday, today we didn't need to.

The players on the home teams certainly have played better than the players on the away teams in both contests, but this series has made me wonder how much refereeing adds to the home advantage. Is it so difficult to ensure referees don't favour the home team?

We didn't need home cooking to get to this series to 1-1, and it would've felt like a closer contest had the refs called each game evenly. I'd like to see the series come down to a game 5 decider, but not if the referees are required to make that happen.

“Great game United. Hustle was ferocious. Hit the boards with intensity- DJ set the tone on that early.

Casper and United continue to defend Cotton superbly. Perth's role players didn't get going like Friday either.

Possession game is huge in this series. Better decision making with the ball denied Perth the opportunity to score cheap points. ”

What about the refs?

Much better game than the first, refs didn’t decide either game. Melbourne bench better today where as Perth better on Friday. Barlow back to better form.

"As a Cats fan I don't blame the ref's for that one, a lot of calls were shit but it was the offensive boards that were the difference"

Rebounds was pretty much the reason, didn't crash when cats needed to and when they did, it was a long rebound.
Wildcats were picking up momentum getting within 7 but a few iffy calls created the window for Goulding and ware to nail those huge 3s. Game was done after those shots.

I will be very interested to see how refs shape up for game 3 though, they fell for a lots of head flops that on replay stick out a lot. I expect a lot to be let go next week.

Great game United. Hustle was ferocious. Hit the boards with intensity- DJ set the tone on that early.

Casper and United continue to defend Cotton superbly. Perth's role players didn't get going like Friday either.

Possession game is huge in this series. Better decision making with the ball denied Perth the opportunity to score cheap points.

That call when Goulding's hair went out of place and got the foul changed the game. Perth didn't to play to win, don't care what people say. Biggest 2 markets you would think it would go minimum 4 game's.

Next Sunday perth will be different.

Didn't rebound the ball. That's a massive loss. Got smashed in every aspect of the game. Shocking performance. Can't recover from that. Melbourne to win 3-1. Series is all over.

As a Cats fan I don't blame the ref's for that one, a lot of calls were shit but it was the offensive boards that were the difference

It's funny, Larry taking no chances and the refs have been raping us from the tip-off, but Melbourne did not need any help.

Melbourne are going to take the series, with or without the refs help, simply because Perth's bench is crap.

You can't win a 5 game series relying on only your starters

“United getting better of refs

Just like Perth Friday”

So can we expect 700 posts from you complaining about the home cooking that Melbourne got today?

As long as United win I don't see LV having a problem with refereeing.

Perth lost credit to Melbourne this game (like game 1) wasn't decided by refereeing.

Was Brandt injured? Saw no time in the 4th. He was playing crap but have to go with the starters... Not vague

Refs 2 - 0 spectators