Was at the game last night, despite a great atmosphere from a sold-out convention centre I was disappointed.. again.. by a lackluster Taipans performance. Anonymous above has hit the nail on the head: "too many OK players not enough great ones".
A couple of other things:
1. Aaron Fearne looked broken last night. I've always though he gets too much flack from armchair critics but he really doesn't look like he's got any answers anymore. And he would have been livid if they lost by two after he got tech'd for chasing down the ref. If Taipans finish bottom two he needs to go.
2. Half the team just look like they're going through the motions. I've heard a few rumours from people who are more involved with the team than me and the mood in the Taipans camp is apparently just rock bottom atm. Again, the coach should be pulling the team together but it seems the opposite is happening.
3. Edwards in particular needs to decide if he can be bothered and if not he needs to be moved on. He was atrocious last night, two or three silly, silly turnovers. I've seen him come to life 2 or 3 times this season but the rest of the time he just doesn't seem to care and shuffles about like he's waiting for the bar to open.
4. The Taipans needs a major cleanout at the end of the year and people need to start making decisions based on performance in games rather than popularity with the locals. Dusty Rychart's 3 year contract is up this season, Brad Hill still isn't amounting to much, even Alex Loughton (who is a lovely guy) just gets less effective each year.
5. Aaron Grabau is still a classy, classy player. It's worth the price of admission just to watch him wind up whoever he ends up guarding.
6. It's like 2010/2011 all over again.. what the hell's happened to the free throws?
All in all a frustrating game, largely because although the Taipans were off there was a real sense that they could have had it if they'd shot better from the freethrow line, came up for a few more rebounds and paid a bit more attention.