Would have thought Buckle would have learnt his lesson last year and come up with a plan B in case Batkovic goes cold. Obviously not - she goes 5-23 from the field and he still persists in dumping it into her.

Talbot and Hodges had mismatches the entire game and they were never given the option.

Adelaide looked much better without the ball in Angela's hands, a great 3pt shooter. Not a great distributor of the ball, finds players too late and dribbles too much.

fire played great D - had us worked out and we shot poorly.

IMO - 2 years now and we have finished a position lower that where I feel we should have - last year should have made GF and this year prelim

Watched the last three quarters and thought Talbot was pretty good.

Why was the car park not open?? Agree Talbot was good, sabotaged herself with two early fouls but deserved more time late I thought.

Amy Lewis being unavailable really hurt the Lightning but Townsville were fantastic, their shooting and defensive rotation was excellent. Townsville played out of their skin and the Lightning....well they were well out of sorts..

Spare a thought for Rachel Flanagan, she'll need the Fire to win next week if she has any chance of seeing action again this year. Might be in her best interests to go straight to RAH and get her cheekbone/eye socket dealt with.

Very, very ordinary result by the Lighting. Buckle is far too negative with his coaching. You should sense the panic in his voice during timeouts & the Lightning players played with a sense of panic in their games. Clearly no other options than trying to play through Batkovic. Marino's effort was pathetic & surely Buckle must realise that he can not win a WNBL Championship with her at the starting PG! This loss confirms to me that Buckle is not the right man to lead the Lightning to their next WNBL Championship. Let's the lead the charge for SA's own Dean Kinsman to return & take over the reigns at the Lightning!

I will never again pay to see the lightning play, while Marino is on the roster!!

Worst player in the WNBL... would not get a gig anywhere else.

sad finish for the lightning

Can someone also educate the ABC cameraman to NOT display the coaches white board on the big screen.

Lucas thought Christmas had arrived when he looked up and saw what Buckle was going to run

he then quickly changed what he was going to do..Poor effort ABC!!!

Fire did great job by letting Marino dribble the air out of the ball and putting enough pressure on Suzy to make her shoot tough shots.

But FTs and some gimme lay ups gone begging - not one shot made in the paint in the 4th.

Flanagan was player of game for mine.

Marino's porous, stay home D was very costly!

I don't support either of these teams so this is supposed to be an unbiased comment.

Can believe the WNBL as an "elite" competition are still playing single knock out games for every finals round.

Man, even some of the state leagues have gone to three game series for finals.

Every team can have an off game as the Lightning did today ... should not be single game knockout at this level.

Marino is a decent player.

Undersized ... Yes ... Talented and full of heart ....no.

Always a spot for her on my team

I went to the game & Angela Marino was magnificent to look @. What a gorgeous girl with the looks. :)

Didn't see the game, but it doesn't take a genius to work out that Batkovic is overrated - former MVP and WNBA player... yikes! Take away her left-hand drive, lefty hook and O-boards and she's as useless as they comes with her lack of shot selection.

Not looking forward to the highlights of Marino from the sounds of things, either...

yes the white board on the big screen needs to be addressed so that does not happen any more when a live feed takes place inside the stadium.

a good minor round by our girls again - some great results the last few weeks showed just how close it will be.

Too one dimensional offence - "lob to bigs" both this season and last season did not work in finals.

We must have a plan B, but I don't think we have the pure good shooters in the team to do this ATM.

Looking at some stats I note the Jenny S had more minutes on court than anyone from either team.

Time Shooting % Pts

Angela M 29.18 1/6 17 6
Jenny S 36.05 1/5 20 3
Lauren M 16.21 1/6 17 2

Total 81.44 3/17 18 11

Rachel F 28.30 5/8 63 17

There lies a problem that the Lightening will have to fix in future (Phillips?)

Getting the ball in the hoop was the biggest problem I could see yesterday....to win you actually need to score and Lightning had plenty of opportunity to do so! I don't know what the shooting stats were but they can't have been pretty!

Lightning 31% from the field overall, Fire 37% ...

So neither team exactly lit it up .. but hey, finals basketball always moves to a new level of defensive intensity so the offense needs to be ready to adjust.

Adelaide too Batkovic centric, where was plan B ... 5 from 23 aint gonna cut it for a finals win.

Hmmmm .... "where was plan B" ... I think I've seen that in a few 36ers threads lately ... LOL ... must be an Adelaide thing ...

^^Wayne^^ surely you jest about Marino being a decent player? Her performance yesterday was horrible, Buckle didn't have any faith in her defensively so he sent Talbot after Flannigan (which in hindsight was a horrendous decision). With Talbot making 2 dumb fouls in the 1st qtr & then showing some signs from her past with the extremely poor body language! When Buckle reviews the game with his expert coaching panel (???) he is going to realise he made some very stupid & fundamental match up mistakes. Bottom line Lightning must recruit aggresively a quality PG to get them over the hump next season. Lucas IMO clearly outcoached Buckle & I'm sure the first beer Lucas had last night tasted very sweet given the history of Lucas being removed/sacked from the Lightning!

I thought Adelaide just got plain out-coached yesterday. The Fire came in with a game plan tailored to taking the Lightning down, whereas Adelaide seemed to have nothing in place to exploit their strengths or Townsville's weaknesses, and Buckle's adjustments on the day were either awful or non-existent, I can't quite figure out which.
It was a good old fashioned ambush, and really it should not have happened.
Two very disappointing playoff exits in a row for the Lightning. I really believed they could challenge for the title this season too. (and I still do. The talent is there for sure)

Adair was very solid defensively and forced Batkovic into some bad shots. Merino tries to get as much TV time as possible keeping the ball in her hands for the full 24 - Mansfield offered more in her limited minutes even though she made a couple of errors.

^ ... Merino ?????

Hahahahaha Freudian slip ... or not ...

Two other previous Lightning coaches also in the crowd, may have been better off if they had been on the bench!!

I wouldn't blame "Merino" on the loss... Give her due - she took out Flanigan and got up without a scratch in her. Tough as nails.

TMK

Yeah that was a brutal hit. Ang sure as hell stood back up unshaken.

Yesterday's game plan seemed to be based more around Batkovic missing layups than about Marino killing the ball.

The Fire were the better team on the day, They always play well in finals, they play a finals style of basketball all year and when their defence is switched on they can beat anyone. Rachael Flannagan is just an awesome team leader and any team would be lucky to have her, she does all the small things and controls the game tempo as good as any of the best PG'S in the league and when it matters most in finals the Fire do very well. Townsville fans are lucky to have this team who have a great culture and confidence. I respect them more every year they play finals and wish Logan Thunder could take note of how they do it. They will give everything they have against Dandy next week, look for Adair to have a big game against the Rangers talls. Should be another great final. GO FIRE!

I was at the game and I dont think Lightning were outcoached , The team didnt look as though they were running their complete set plays with some players trying to take it on themselves which is selfish. Adelaide lost the game more than Townsville won the game in my opion. If you are not having a good night at shooting pass the ball to someone else that may - Lightning 31% from the field overall, Suzy 5 from 23 shoots 22% come on.
I think some players need to step up and take the responsibilty for this lose not blame the coach , it was clear that the team was not doing some of the things Bucks was telling them to do. I didnt see Bucks out on the court shooting and missing.Blame the players not the coach.

^^Anonymous^^ I'm sure Buckle will take ownership of his part but its disappointing when the public always blames the coach of a losing team more than the players. if the team does not excute what is said in time outs etc and take it on themselves the players only have them selves to blame. 4 of the starters just do what they want I agree should have given the bench some court time maybe that would have made the others wake up , Im sure on review they will see that. It is disappointing finish to the season.

It was a disapointing end to the season.
^^Anonomous^^ 23 Feb Talbot has played well this year but gets in to early foul trouble but that will get better with age, just hope her body language does it is a shocker, I wonder if she ever rewatches games and sees herself. Hill doesnt need to retire she is a experience player that gives the team reliability. Payne slow on defense you have to be kidding - she did great work for her 15min on the court - Standish didnt score on her she got a stop on Adair, maybe she needs to stop listening to the coach and take it on herself at the other end more but the set play isnt for her to do that. I agree about Marino but bit hard with ownership of the team.Loz Mansfield is impressive. Screen - Under decided seems to go missing in lots of games.

Also could some one fill me in on the real reasons not what the club say why the Fire do not have on their list the following players .
Vivian Frieson - 2011/12 season
Shanavia Dowdell - 2012/13
Casey Lockwood - 2012/13
Yinka Olorunnife - 2012/13

@titan28, Townsville won the game, they caused Adelaide to play badly, thats the way the Fire play, they have played this way for several years now. I think this style of basketball will bring them a title in the near future. Everyone needs to remember what they did with a understrengthed team last year, they pushed Dandy all the way in the Prelim and were leading in the last quarter. Congrat's Townsville, you clearly play finals basketball better than Adelaide and Goodluck against Dandy next week.

Triton 95 - Last year Fire would have beaten Dandy but for some bad coaching decisions in the last quarter.

I think they just ran out of legs last year, but the game could have gone either way. I love the way the Fire play finals basketball. Dandy better be on guard this weekend.