At times like this we must heed the words of the great Mr Bendat.
It's not how you play the game, it's how you win, and you must win, and you must win.

Does anyone know who is reffing this game? I have checked Vukona's and Corletto's twitter accounts but can't find anything.

^ Whichever three crowd members fit the available ref shirts best.

Cats auctioning off the players' signed, game-worn jerseys after this one also for the bushfire appeal.

To bid:
http://t.co/kBqkxbqeTs

Should be a great game.

If Ennis goes over the top of Casey Frank I think we could chalk this season up as a success no matter what happens.

Casey Frank used to have the biggest vert in the NZNBL (by a fair bit from memory but that was pre-Abercrombie etc) and is quite the unit and strong, he would foul real hard before he would let that happen.

Oh, it wouldn't be easy, but then it wouldn't make the season a success all by itself if it was easy.

But he did throw down on Wilkinson and that's not the easiest thing to manage in the NBL either.

Frank took to the court like a duck to water, so will be interesting to see how he goes here. Probably just as well the league has (mostly) moved on from its little jail-ball era.

please excuse yourself . ennis dunks because of his height
he doesnt get up and above like abercrombie or te rangi
and if he was to jam over frank itll be from a tip in

I think the moment you include "or te rangi" you can just go ahead and excuse yourself as well. :)

Wait what has Te Rangi done now ? Has it affected his cheaper than chips Dream Team score of about $47k... Some rookie of the year we have there!

Can't wait for the game, Townsville game was a cracker and it was a bit of a shame that the second quarter was such a blow out (19 points or so) as the crowd was really set to explode... So with the 4th level opened up hopefully more come in and enjoy the most bitter rivalry the NBL currently possesses (with respect to reptile rumble that lost its gusto when Cairns was fighting for the Crocs survival).

Great work by Marvin, Bendat and all involved... Breakers auctioning off their jerseys too?

Ennis dunking over Frank and Abercrombie would blow the roof off the arena... It probably has as much probability too but one can only hope and make no mistake Ennis is a hell of an athlete and he is devastatingly quick... His leap isn't that bad surely!

Ennis is a great athlete, what are people talking about?!?! Yeah he's tall and long, but that dunk in Auckland was special and he went up high and quick.

Great athlete my arse. The guy just has a natural advantage being 6'7 tall. Are his dunks really any better than similar sized players like Wortho, Holmes or Petrie?

He's basically a black Greg Hire.

Good lord

Somd people have no f**kn idea about anything! Just a waste of putting a thread on here!!

Te Rangi has ups . trust me
he just been playing a role for the breakers
if they let him him play his natural game shit happens
but we cant expect to see this? why?
politics . abercrombie is a slashing small forward that is handy from range . but he cant post up
Ennis plays american ball
knows how to get buckets
its all about the buckets and getn $$$$$$$$

Te Rangi would athletically outperform Ennis except for politics getting in the way?

and a cloud of pot smoke

Bad for the game, good for the season, they were wrong to rush him back.

How is the ticket sales going? Even with out knight, perth a good and nz have to shoot the rock and stay out of foul trouble. Would never count out nz but

Vukona is key. 3 fouls by half time would see Perth win by 30. If he can stay out of foul trouble Perth will only win by 10. :)

Its ok, Jervis will also be in foul trouble by quarter time too. Not that he is as important as Vukona but it will give the Breakers are decent size and political advantage.

Hahaha political advantage

Jervis can only dunk because he's tall.

This is going to fall short of a sell-out unless the game-day walkups are extensive.

8200-ish?

not like perth has a strong rugby team to go watch? looks like the only sport their good at

Jervis = local legend

perth by 5

You are correct. There are only two sports in the world - basketball and rugby.

Pikachu = local dipshit

Oh Pikachu, I really don't know whether to laugh or cry sometimes.

If you want to run it down, you could always point to the cricket; they got 20,000 yesterday, clearly we need to pull up our socks and improve.

Wildcats get crowds because the Western Force is no good, Ennis only dunks because he's tall, and Te Rangi would be more athletic than Ennis if only politics didn't get in the way. Oh and Australia only plays rugby and basketball.

Do you have any more pearls of wisdom for us?

Rugby and basketball aren't even on at the same time.

Perth Glory are also playing tonight. That's significantly more relevant.

Pickachu, are you trying to be funny or are you just that stupid?

I was actually laughing above because I thought Situation made a ridiculously sounding typo. But my god...this pickachu bloke is a f***ing idiot haha.

Shake.my.head.

I was actually laughing above because I thought Situation made a ridiculously sounding typo. But my god...this pickachu bloke is a f***ing idiot haha.

Shake.my.head.

One thing I will add, wouldn't it be great if Perth sporting teams could sit down and all agree a fixture that didn't see them clash- last week and this week got Glory and Cats on the same night. I know in Melbourne it is almost unavoidable- victory/heart/aus open/etc but would be better for all.

I also realise that bball and soccer fans are 'separate' but for the nuetral or just a trueblue west aussie who likes their sports!!

I agree Tyrell. Clashing of sports is not ideal, and is also not done with the good of the community in mind either. However generally speaking the Wildcats and Glory barely ever clash. Having 2 in a row though is quite unusual.

There was a time in the 80's and 90's where everyone supported all the local teams. Now its more just fans supporting the club of their choice only. Every team is competing with each other for sponsors and attendances, rather than working along side each other. Its unfortunate, but its the way it is these days.

Still, with the Wildcats out-attending the Glory these days, it doesn't really bother me as Ive always found the Glory to be a very unlikeable club anyway.

the Breakers ticket sales have been pretty good considering you don't have to purchase a ticket to the game to watch it live.
no other NBL franchises ticket sales are up against a live broadcast every single home game.
the australian broadcasters also don't have to worry about any of the commentary crew being required to play in case of injuries either.

well done to Perth, that is pretty impressive.

OMG ENNIS!!!!

R.I.P Casey Frank

1977 - 2013

1977 - 2014

Il still be calling it 2013 for at least another few weeks/months.


Ennis makes Abercrombie look a bit ordinary. Abo just cant get anything done and looks like he is travelling every play

Well played Wildcats!! Refereeing was absolutely f....n shit, sooooo many soft fouls.

Also, any info on why the Breakers only suited 9 guys but flew Pledger over?

Great to get the win.
Game was a pretty boring freethrowfest though. After an impressive 1st quarter (from one team at least) it was bit of a painful grind the rest of the way. Feels wrong to say that about a 97 point effort, but it was so stop-start.

Thanks for the dumb cheap fouls, Mika.

Is there any truth to the rumour that following the success of the Casey Frank experiment, Tony Ronaldson (aka The Bear) may be suiting up for the Wildcats in the event that Matty Knight is out for an extended period?

Ronaldson was seen deep in conversation with the Wildcats coaching staff today (while 13,000 people were waiting for the game to begin) so seems to be planning something.

It is well known that The Bear remains in the same shape he was in when he played in the NBL so there might be something in this one. He would bring an extra dimension to the Wildcats team and would certainly force opposing players to go the long way to the basket.

Can anyone shed any light on this rumour?

Nathan of Perth: "If Ennis goes over the top of Casey Frank I think we could chalk this season up as a success no matter what happens."
Mystro: "Casey Frank used to have the biggest vert in the NZNBL (by a fair bit from memory but that was pre-Abercrombie etc) and is quite the unit and strong, he would foul real hard before he would let that happen."



Well then.

I couldn't believe he did it and in the 1st quarter, it was exactly how I envisioned it too.

Like all my Christmases come at once.

Wilkinson was brilliant today, but not enough support. I think the Wildcats had their plans and who to go after to try and get them in early foul trouble, and it all came off without a hitch. Solid hit-out for the Wildcats given Ennis had a very serious down week by his standards.

"Casey Frank ‏@Kseefrank 4h
Hmmmm. Might need to a couple more weeks of training before I contest that one..."

I was disappointed Johnson and Te Rangi didn't foul out. 5-on-4 would've been interesting to see.

Nathan of Perth: "If Ennis goes over the top of Casey Frank I think we could chalk this season up as a success no matter what happens."
Mystro: "Casey Frank used to have the biggest vert in the NZNBL (by a fair bit from memory but that was pre-Abercrombie etc) and is quite the unit and strong, he would foul real hard before he would let that happen."

I knew as I typed that there was a real good chance of it happening just because I typed that haha but WOW! that was a DUNK!
props to Casey for contesting it and bigger props to Ennis for finishing it!

I think what he was saying was top 10 regular season crowds. Most of those 15,000 crowds at Melbourne Park were in the playoffs.

Am interested to know if Perth's average crowd last year was the highest in NBL history? From memory the highest a Melbourne team ever averaged was around 9900.

I think I read an article somewhere that mentioned it was the highest season average in NBL history. Only the Tigers or Magic could possibly better it, but from memory those 15,000 crowds were only for derbys. I remember crowds around the 9000 mark for many non derby games in Melbourne and that would have brought the average down a bit.

Just did some digging - the Tigers' top 10 crowds:

15,366 v Magic (96 regular season)
15,129 v Magic (94 reg)
15,122 v Giants (94 reg)
15,099 v Kings (94 reg)
15,064 v Magic (96 playoffs)
15,049 v Magic (92 playoffs)
15,034 v Magic (92 playoffs)
15,028 v Wildcats (93 playoffs)
15,000 v Magic (97 playoffs)
14,979 v Magic (95 reg)

So Friday's crowd at Perth Arena has at least six regular season crowds ahead of it, and probably at least a couple more Melbourne derbies from the mid 90s.

You lot are all forgetting the 1999/2000 season opener for the Kings....17,000 or 18,000 odd (it was a double header with a Canberra home game before hand).

Time to sharpen up on your NBL crowd history you lot.

Perth crowd of 13206 still miles ahead of the rest of the nbl right now

We will see!

Top ten of all time:

17143 02/10/99 SYDNEY vs CANBERRA
17000 02/10/99 WEST SYDNEY vs BRISBANE
15366 22/06/96 STH EAST MELB. vs MELBOURNE
15129 11/07/94 MELBOURNE vs STH EAST MELB.
15122 23/09/94 MELBOURNE vs NORTH MELB.
15099 23/07/94 MELBOURNE vs SYDNEY
15064 01/11/96 MELBOURNE vs STH EAST MELB. *
15049 24/10/92 MELBOURNE vs STH EAST MELB. *
15034 30/10/92 STH EAST MELB. vs MELBOURNE *
15028 23/10/93 MELBOURNE vs PERTH *

Six regular season/four playoff games (*)

The top two are the double-header Swagger mentioned which opened the Superdome. 17143 & 17000.

A fictional game between Sydney and West Sydney with a crowd of either 17803 or 17800 is attributed as the record online (I saw it on the internet so it must be true). Incorrect as the highest Sydney derby ever was another double-header with the Globetrotters playing beforehand:

14805 26/11/04 WEST SYDNEY vs SYDNEY

The rest are Tigers games or when Magic hosted them. Many of these are in the 14000-15000 range so Perth won't be able to break into the list.

A shame we won't be able to break into the list but all things considered, that's a very minor complaint to have.

Yeah, a hypothetical Cats home grand final this season in a larger Arena would likely end up on that list.

Anyway, breaking high attendance records is not nearly as important in the NBL right now as avoiding the lowest ones on the list in places like Wollongong.

What is peoples obsession with the large crowds of the 1990s, FFS guys it is 2014.

Interesting definition of obsession you have there

that dunk ! wow
cant say much . thanks for the memories Casey

I'm trying decide when it was the Breakers threw in the towel on this match. Because there definitely seemed to be a bit of defeatism out there, players performing below their level (Abercrombie, Webster, Corletto, etc). There was a bit of a fightback around the third quarter where they had an short early run and won the quarter by 2, but apart from that, the Breakers just looked like they were going through the motions?

I was surprised given their good play in Melbourne.

> Why isn't anyone in a management capacity asking why Perth
> are leaps and bounds in every aspect above the rest of
> the league?
> Is it solely the Bendat factor or something else?

I think Perth has a lot of advantages over other clubs, many of which would not be possible to replicate.

1. Long history of success --> fairly good general awareness of the team from the heydays
2. Quality stadium close to A) a shitload of people, and B) places to go before & after games
3. The Bendat factor. He was willing to spend money to make money. It was a big call, and so far it has paid great dividends, but it was still a brave/generous call.
4. A cashed-up city. I don't think you could get away with charging this amount for skyboxes, corporate boxes or even the good quality public seating, in too many places. There's no way it would fly in the regional centres. But it's pretty much the only way to stay in the black in a stadium this expensive
5. Good media coverage. NBL came pretty close to falling off the radar of big media here, but I think due to the history of success factor it just managed to maintain traction. The Perth Arena move was then a springboard back to semi-decent coverage, and now the Ennis factor has got outlets almost scrambling for places on the bandwagon. That move really has been gold.

But I think it all ties in together and snowballs itself. And it also doesn't hurt that the Perth Glory kinda suck these days.

I don't think it's the right model for the majority of clubs to try and emulate. Though I do wish the general professionalism was a little more contagious.

Great summary Dunkin Dan. Was nodding to all of that.

A successful history, the Bendat money, a fantastic arena and a basketball friendly media (mainly channel 10 perth) are probably the main factors that other other teams can't replicate.

Theres something missing in the Breakers system atm
Perth has both imports firing on all cylinders