man this team cant buy a trick at the moment with injuries! Well as tough as that is, with davidson out, they just need to suck it up and go get the win! IMO its another mini final, as a win keeps the season series alive, and would most definitely give the 36ers a huge change in momentum towards stringing together some wins!

Infact woudl be worth going over for the dragons game if we were to go in on a 3 game win streak

Shame the classic "Nut Cracker suite" Jones won't be part of the mix.

Could not agree more. Just sick and tired of all these injuries. Probably have somebody else injured during training this week too.

Will Brad be back for Saturday night?

Looked to me like his groin, was seen icing it up late in the fourth on the bench.

Skip, iffy for the Cairns game I think.

Panther, stomach/abductor muscle was the report from Boti, FWIW.

Perhaps there preseason training wasn't quite right and now over training injuries we couldn't be that unlucky.There are just to many soft tissue injuries.

What injuries have we had?

Maher
Davidson
Ballinger (back, gastro)
Winitana (foot?)

Anything else?

First two are towards the end of their careers and might be more susceptible to this sort of thing. Ballinger's gastro is unrelated to any pre-season training and the back issue was a recurring problem well before this season started.

That leaves Winitana's foot. Hoban had a problem the other week (bump during training) and came back fine. Hill seems to have come back from his problem well, Schenscher also. Holmes and Tyndale have been fine, and Coops recovered from the hit to the face too.

Just remembered Bruce - what was his injury?

They were saying that Bruce tweaked his knee, not a sprain, just caused him some slight discomfort if I remember correctly

Hammy.

The injuires have sucked and seem to be coming at us in buncjes, but one guy who is not soft and never ever will be is Brad Davidson! In the mold of a 80's footballer that just try and play through ANYTHING, so he must be pretty badly hurt right now.

Kersten injury, is another, but there are always going to be player injuries. For a start, they carry residual injuries from season to season & play through them, every game. It's only when they're unable to suit up, that it becomes an issue for fans.
Daily practice sessions are an obvious source of injury as well. It's got nothing to do with Scottie, the physio, or strength & conditioning guys, teams train hard & don't hold back. Injuries are a fact of life for professional sportsmen. There's also a lot of pressure for players to get back into the line-up when they're the crowd drawcard. Not many teams have the luxury of resting players back to 100% health, the season's too short & it can have a huge impact in placings in the finals.

Ddfan last year you blamed Smyth for everything this year its no ones fault lots of injuries but no ones fault interesting.How is it then that all the teams above us have less injuries don't they train hard.No past injuries or is it clear you really have no idea

I don't remember DDFan ever getting stuck into Smyth. You must be thinking of someone else.

All teams have had some injuries at least: Worthington, Tanner, Behrendorff, (K) Williams, Rampton, Rush, Caporn, Robbins, Crawford, Rogers, Hawkins, Whitehead, McGregor, Black, etc.

It's clear we've been hit by injuries the worst though.

DDfan don't rule out the possibility that it's the coaching and medical staff's fault, they have a huge say in the fitness of the players. I'm not saying it IS their fault but don't say it CAN'T be.

What a great opportunity for Tyndale to step up.

Tyndale eye injury.. in last NZ game, wasn't it.
So many injuries, I think there might be one more, that we had. Too many to think of, right now.

Nifty, you are definitely thinking of someone else. I'm all about the players & coaches.
I probably didn't make myself clear before, but I was referring to injuries that come from practice sessions, things like dislocated fingers, ankle sprains from players treading on ankles, collisions, or court surface issues. They don't pussy around, there competetiveness runs hot even during practices.

I'd be disappointed if Winnitana didn't play a good one in this.

Yes, Tyndale's eye injury - think that was the Spirit game? Not related to pre-season or training.

Agree Issac Tyndale's eye injury is not soft tissue and not related that one is just bad luck.DDfan sorry if I had you mixed up with someone else.

Isaac, with the number of injuries the Sixers have at present, either Burdon or Hoban would fit into the 10. What's the likelihood the Sixers take either of them to NZ?

Obviously we're a bit short of guards at the moment with Davo, Brett and Kersten all injured so you'd think Burdon could get significant minutes in a backcourt rotation which will consist of just Bruce, Tyndale, Hill and Winitana.

Isaac - was the Aaron Bruce injury you were thinking of the sore leg he had early in the season? The one that put him out of the first Breakers' game. I can't recall specifically what it was but hamstring soreness comes to mind.

Anon, I think NBLStats only has game-by-game stats for the last couple of seasons.

Peter, yeah, Bruce had the problem that kept him out of the Breakers game, a family issue, and then the minor issue from training last week. Not sure any relate to pre-season training as he arrived fairly late in the picture.

I think the injuries are mostly a case of bad luck (Tyndale, Hoban, Ballinger's gastro, etc), veteran players (Maher, Davidson), and an existing issue (Ballinger's back).

Nothing personal against the Breakers and the players, but it would be good to see "Spend a" Penney have a bad game (28 ppg is insane), Oscar miss a few from the 3, and the Kiwi umpires actually call some fouls against the Breakers.

Just behind our bench are two clowns. One with a pink wig and the other a blue and white wig. They call themselves "The Noize". During the time outs they bash their drums right in our boy's ears.

I know where I would like to ram their drums.

Is the game on Foxtel?

Jack, the Breakers/fans are always unhappy that they rarely get calls from their Kiwi refs! Didn't you see the numbers from that Cairns game?

C'mon Isaac,
The Cairns game (in Cairns) did look pretty biased towards Cairns (11 fouls to 28).

I wasn't referring to the fouls called, but the fouls uncalled. NZ seem to be a hustling type of team (average 28 fpg - highest in league)and these teams tend to give away more hacking fouls than most as they try to reach in to steal the ball. With their team makeup it seems they like to get a defensive turnover through a steal.

However, in NZ the fouls so far have been
Hawks 14/25
Tigers 24/24
Sixers 18/29
Cairns 24/37
Blaze 30/25
Perth 26/18
TOTAL 136 / 158

In Aus:
Blaze 30/28
Cairns 11/28
Crocs 22/21
TOTAL 63 / 77

Yes, they have heaps of fouls called on them, but the team is a high fouling team. I would suggest that 28 fpg is still a bit light on when compared to the actual number of fouls that could be called.

Anonymous:
"Some of these guys are like tampons!

In 1 week, out for 3!"

With all the cost savings happening, how'd want to do 36er laundry duty?
If it takes your fancy, pull a few strings & you're in.

Not proof, but can be an indication. Mostly responding to the comment suggesting that NZ get home calls when they were supposedly looking at flying in Australian refs instead!

Anonymous:
"Can someone please explain to me how a lopsided foul count means that one team was favoured over another?"
Last season's win over the Kings, saw us accused of hometown ref bias. Pretty hard to have much conviction when the Eastern State bashers (both highly respected Sydney-based fans) didn't have access to either an auio or video live feed.
Draw your own conclusion from that. ; )