Nice matchup for the TV game this week, between the league's two "small ball" teams. I'm hoping for some Lynxkrieg in this one. Certainly expecting a significant lift from last round's 54-63 tv game scoreline.

Can the Caps can maintain their hot start? A road trip to Townsville is probably the toughest game in the league this season. Back at home vs Melbourne not easy either, but definitely winnable.

The WNBL Show - Episode 2 (with Abby Bishop)

Basket Case - Episode 2 (with Jordan Hooper & Sami Whitcomb)

Where will these games be streamed from? What website?

Capitals have has a really impressive start, probably the game of the round.

If Perth are really out of form could find themselves 0 and 3 very quickly with this road double.

The WNBL twitter account did reply to a tweet last weekend stating that clubs were allowed to stream and would be starting next week (i.e. this round). I guess it would be up to individual clubs though and their budgets to fund these streams. A shame that the Caps won't be doing their own stream this season, but I guess it is what it is.

This round looks like every game could be a thriller, so hopefully we see some all round great basketball after teams have ironed out their issues during the week.

You'd think the league or even Fox would chip in and help. Help increase the exposure of the league and their own interests. What's the minimum required? One camera at the halfway line is enough for most of us.

From what I've heard, Foxtel owning the rights allows them to set the specifications for any streaming, and those specifications make it an even more expensive exercise for the clubs than it already was. So don't expect many (or any) to take them up on it.
Pretty disappointing after being able to see > half the games last season.

WNBL is a joke. Why they can't get the NBL.tv to look after the streams?

Why even go with Foxtel, just develop NBL.tv

Looks like another man's league that has to look after a women's league.

@ Waves2Lynx: "What's the minimum required? One camera at the halfway line is enough for most of us."

Wholeheartedly agree! I liked the original Rangers streams, with stadium sounds but without commentary noring away at me while I'm trying to enjoy the game.

Shouldn't the Capitals be on top of the ladder?

http://wnbl.com.au/stats/?WHurl=%2Fstandings%3F

RUN AT ME Nbl lover. Disrespectful

NBL over, what a load of BS....you do realise the WNBL had a good viable broadcast every week with the ABC until cutbacks happened and they decided that the one women's sport that actually had a good following g was the one that needed cutting, meanwhile they kept all the boring men's sports even bloody darts...Great example of men looking after women lol

And most clubs had a great system of live streaming happening to cover the lack of actual TV coverage, NRA t it was reachingba huge audience at no cost at all, but it didn't help get sponsors unfortunately, big sponsors want actual,air time.......they did that without the help of any "mensleague"

if Abby Bishop doesn't win P.O.W. I'll be very surprised - doubt tonight's performance will be beaten.

Very impressive performance by Bishop, though I suspect Cambage or someone from Melbourne may try and up that against Bendigo tonight - they won't have Griffin (personal commitment) and possibly no Richards or Oliver through injury.

Pretty sure that won't be the only time a quality big feasts against the Lynx this season. Still, that is a phenomenal stat line all the same.

Lynx are a great team, but thir lack of a defensive big, is going to hurt.

It will also be interesting to see how they go as they transition from Sami's team to Courtney's team.

Had Sami's shots dropped last night it would have been over.

I'm a bit surprised the Lynx only played Dowe for 26 mins, she was +10 and probably the closest player they have to a defensive big.

Sami's shot had disapeared by the back of the WNBA season. The form has apparently carried through.

Townsville to punish the Capitals tonight?

@ Hoops, I like the way Capitals are shaping up and give them decent chance tonight.

I reckon it'd be a close one.. It'll be good to see (fingers crossed on a stream by the Fire!!) the match up between George/Batkovic/Garbin and Scherf/Bass/Magbegor. Also keen to see Sydney Wiese's debut game

http://www.botinagy.com/blog/hodges-out-for-season/

Laura Hodges is likely out for the rest of the season with a broken finger. Just reading the article makes me think this is the end for Laura, if so such a sad way for a champion to leave the game. Hopefully she has a successful surgery.

23-8 First quarter for the Boomers against the Spirit who are without Gabe and Griffin. Cambage already up to 13pts 4 reb.

In Townsville Gorris being punished appropriately for persevering too long with Bass. But what's happening in Geelong? Did the Spirit decide to concede this one before the start and save everything for the Lynx?

Looks like a great match in Townsville. Where are the streams? Ffs WNBL :(

Griffin had a personal commitment tonight but will be back for tomorrow's game vs the Lynx, while Gabe has a knee injury - so may not play tomorrow. Oliver was also under an injury cloud and has only played the 11 mins nearing the end of the third.

Cambage is up to 23 pts, 13 reb, 4 blk

Just going by this article - http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/4983168/spirit-leader-to-miss-clash-against-boomers/

iirc Hodges missed a game last season as she was a bridesmaid and the wedding clashed with a game.

Caps down by 4, but hanging around. Magbegor and Aokuso, Scherff, Bass, Garbin, Batkovic and George all in one game?!? Just fantastic. But deeply disappointing that a cashed up team like the Fire are not streaming it?

Useless to speculate on what personal commitments means unless they tell us.

Batkovic helping lead the way for Townsville who are 13 points ahead of the Capitals. Looked like a close encounter in the first half.

These players are also people, who do have lives away from the sport, thevworld won't end if they have to miss a game for a wedding or a funeral or family Occassion occasionally in their career.

A nine point final quarter for Cayla George seems to have been vital.

The tv match is shaping up as the battle for the bottom.

A disgraceful comment about Conti above

^exactly right, I know if I was lured into being a sponsor by claims the league was now televised and with that information I would be expecting my brand to Rea him a much larger audience , to then find what I get is nothing like what I'm paying for, my sponsorship would not be so easily found the following year.

Sponsors don't just give their money away for something to do, they hope to get something in return

All well and good sticking a sponsors name on the back of a warm up top, but if it's never seen or announced what good is that.

Definitely agree, even when the league was not on television the clubs could at least stream games so sponsors could be seen by those at the game and those watching at home. IMO it's a big backwards step for those clubs only getting 2-3 foxtel games - especially if streams aren't going ahead. Could be wrong, but a photo I saw of Courtney Williams last game made it seem like the Lynx don't even have sponsors on their uniforms?

The fixture that has me the most perplexed is the round 9 one - Dandenong v Bendigo is the televised game while at the exact same time Adelaide plays Perth and Sydney plays Townsville. Two of the teams with the most televised games get the week's televised game while four of the teams who have the least games miss out.

I hope they decide to add the double header games at least to the television schedule. Does anyone know the ratings figures so far and/or how they stacked up against competing sports last weekend?

We already went through this when the tv schedule first came out.
Yes, it is unbalanced. Yes, the teams far from Melbourne get less coverage. Yes, we only get one game per week. None of that is ideal.
But the fact is that the existing model of having nothing on tv and streaming games to the same 63 fans each weekend was not getting the league anywhere. The WNBL were desperate to get the product on tv, and they've done it.
As a fan (one of those 63 who tuned in whenever I could) it's unfortunate to see less action this season when the comp is such a high standard. But the big picture is the health of the league overall. That's more important right now than being able to watch Canberra's green-tinged stream, Adelaide's one that cut out regularly, or Melbourne's person sitting at court level with their phone camera with the ref in front of the action half the time.

If the TV thing doesn't pay off, then there's nothing stopping the league going back to amateur mode again. But if it does pay off then maybe we end up with more games in high quality, and we'll never know if they don't have a crack.

Canberra's stream was always yellow tinged for me Luuc!

Haha ... yellow/green/mustard.. whatever you want to call it. It wasn't quite pro standard.
(Though I hope I haven't heard the last of Jacko & The Juice on commentary)

lol long live the memories of that yellow/green stream and the court side iPhone stream. Was a little surprised the Boomers didn't stream the Geelong game - last season iirc it was streamed by one of their sponsors on their website (I think it was CMS). I hope the league will get more exposure out of the Fox Sports coverage - they already have in my eyes, there are plenty of media outlets doing write ups and radio segments i.e SEN. Hopefully that will in time translate into improved crowds across the board and more televised games.

Perth is playing much better. Good intensity and great heart shown. Passing the ball to find the open man.

Should be a walk in the park for these Lynx team.

Anyone know if this is live and streaming?

The tempo of this game is just as insane as I thought it would be. I wouldn't say we're playing much better, but I can't question the effort. A lot of exhausted players at the end of that half.

that colour tinge would be lighting levels

It's just white balance, which takes two seconds to sort on a decent camera:

41-15 in the 3rd quarter. Yikes.

My bad. 43-17. WNBL "live scores" are still frozen.

Sheesh... looks like Banham has found her shooting range

Not even Courtney Williams is going to be able to steal wins for Perth this seasons. No amount of offence can help if you give 40 points in a quarter. Sami Whitcomb looks like a shadow of herself. No off-season rest catching up with her I think.

We're in for a long season

Lock Perth Lynx in for wooden spoon as they are an insipid defensive team who is not interested at all in attempting to stop their opposition. Kunek, Standish & Thompson would struggle to defend a concrete garden gnome! It appears at times that Whitcomb, Williams & Kunek are in a competition to see who can take the most ill advised shots 3 seconds into their offensive set. Long, long, long year for the Perth Lynx!

Do Perth have another import spot?

They need a Hamson type, to protect the rim.

Hespect, I think dowe was recruited to do exactly that!

I'm just watching the live score so not sure how she is going but the score is pretty damning

Pretty good performance from the Lynx, shots just didn't fall as planned. Nice to see a good offensive rebound count, and nice to see some moments of brilliance. Once the shots drop more consistently you'll find Perth climb up to finish number 1.

It seems to me that media coverage of the WNBL is up quite a bit this year

Luuuc, how does having one game per week on Foxtel suddenly make the league professional, & if not on TV, the league is suddenly in amateur mode?

Well, picturing games just like that one is exactly why I posted "Hate to say it but I wouldn't be shocked if we ended up 8th" on the eve of the season. Even if Whitcomb & Williams are on fire (which they obviously weren't today anyway), 2 players can't win games on their own.
When things don't gel for this team, it really gets ugly in a hurry. Especially if we lose the plot on offence in addition to looking completely clueless on D.

The Spirit shooting in the 2nd half was awesome, even taking into account what was defending it.

Only thing more painful than perths play is laurens special comments

I'll keep Standish, thanks, but Ruef sure would have been handy. It was instant concern once our recruit at the centre position was announced.

What else has changed this year? The standard of the league has certainly gone up with the influx of players.

Perth are paying the price for dithering on signings during the off-season and turning up now with a weak roster. Still don't know how they're allowed only 9 contracted players. They can still improve though, and mor games together can only help with improving continuity. Season is a long way from over.

Watched both Bendigo games this weekend and was quite impressed with what Ebony Rolph contributed. From a depth point of view she looked liked she belonged out there.

@AshT, she and Sarah came out of the Supercats championship EABL season with huge confidence and improvement, can play...

...SEABL...

This is the original quote:

If the TV thing doesn't pay off, then there's nothing stopping the league going back to amateur mode again.

So you want to know what Luuuc was referring to as being more professional, and you're excluding the only thing he was referring to as being more professional from the set of available answers?

That's one way to win an argument, I guess.

Luuuc insists that the league broadcast is professional because it has a broadcaster and not professional if it does not have a broadcaster.

What I was trying to say is that the league felt that current course was a path to guaranteed mediocrity/failure. So, the logical thing to do is try something different. Clubs rely on sponsorship to stay afloat, and the best way to improve your sponsorship is to deliver sponsors more value - i.e. getting their names in front of more eyes.

I'm a fan of the league. My first priority is being able to see as many of my team's games as I can, and my second priority is being able to see as many of the other games as I can. But not just for 1 season, for years to come. So if the league thinks that they're on a path that's more likely to lead to prosperity, then personally I'm cool with accepting that and giving it a chance even if it means seeing fewer games for now. Even if it means listening to Lauren Jackson instead of the commentators from Adelaide, Bendigo, Dandenong, Canberra & Perth from last season who knew the league and its players.

So I'm talking about both the quality of the broadcast and the health of the league, because for a modest league like the WNBL, those two things are very much related.

In Sally I trust at the moment, because she's the first person in many years who has gone in there with a genuine passion and matching work ethic, and tried to turn things around.

I think getting a minimum wage in place was a positive step too, given the way women's sport in general is gaining traction

I agree that we should trust in Sally but feel that whilst it's good to have any TV coverage at all, no streams for any game so far is definitely a step back on coverage from last year.

Boomers to announce a player signing during the week?
Adding to there already stacked team or a player who has re signed ??

At last night's game, the Flames were running a full 'trial' streaming in association with FOX and in accordance with FOXs requirements. One of these requirements is having the cameras and commentary position on the same side as the officials benches. Sally was there, a senior Fox rep was there sitting with her to see the game. After the cabling issues are ironed out I think we can assume that every game at Bryden's Stadium will be streamed and available via FOXs website.

Yeah i reckon it's a contract extension announcement, they've already got O'Hea, Purcell, Grant and Conti signed on for next season. Though in saying that I wouldn't be surprised if Garrick and/or Cole headed off to try Europe next season and can't really see Cambage coming back.

Great news re streaming at Brydens, hopefully they'll start rolling out those trial streams at other stadiums over the next few rounds too!

Could it possibly be a return to the Boomers for 2018 season for Tess Madgen?

Would LOVE that move, but seems a bit odd pretty much putting the writing on the wall for one of their guards so early on in the season. I didn't think they'd be able to retain Cole, Smart, Conti and Garrick on top of O'Hea this season, and I highly doubt they could retain all four with Madgen added to that list of guards.

Anyone got thoughts on today's match?
I'm finding it really tough to pick a winner. Leaning towards Melbourne, but Canberra being at home pulls it almost back to 50/50 for me. (As much as 6 hours in an airport is annoying, they still got home at a reasonable hour, so I doubt that will factor much into things unless they mentally choose to let it)

That's great news re. the Sydney streaming. I really hope it works out for them.

Just looking at the Syd/Dan live stats.. Did Sydney's bench seriously not score at all that game? Yikes. Dandenong weren't much better with only Roberts scoring 8 from the bench.

I'm tipping it will be a nail biter today and Canberra will follow the trend of all the home teams winning so far this round. I'm looking forward to seeing how Magbegor goes up against Cambage as well.

Full report later, please :)

@ Melb fan - noticed that last night when I took a look at the box scores and also noticed that Sydney's bench has scored a grand total of 7 points across its three games this season

I hope the Opals give Madgen a chance for the world cup team next year - IMO she was very stiff to miss out on Rio. Tough one coming back from such a serious injury, but it did work out well for Tolo so I guess you can never say never.

Sydney's bench were my reason for putting them outside of my pre-season top 4 predictions. Certainly will be interesting to see how they go as the season progresses - I doubt they can throw 35+ mins per game at Ebzery, Snell and Wilson every game. Their starters are excellent, but they don't look to have a viable plan B should any injuries arise.

Good performance by the Melbourne Boomers today. Running up a score on the road against a tough Canberra team is a good sign.

Quite impressed by Melbourne, I thought it'd be a hell of a lot closer than it ended up - I thought the Caps would win to be honest. They seemed to do a good job of shutting down Hooper and Wehrung, and limited Hurst's impact. Great to see Ezi top scoring for the Caps with 11 pts as well.

Crikey, bag LJ for her commentary skills if you wish but seriously going after her appearance says more about the person whingeing.

Big weekend for Cambage and the Boomers. She's getting her groove back. Ominous.

Talent-wise I think we all recognised what the Boomers were capable of. On paper doesn't always translate to on court, but if they're doing damage like this at this early stage of the season it's a great sign for them (and ominous for everyone else!)

Seems like Guy is doing a good job with this squad. The antiquated shuffle is gone and the team is getting high quality looks most times down the floor.

2 games I thought would be close turned out to be spankings!

O'Hea is earning her keep so far!

Boomers did not have to,contend with Richards and Griffith, so don't think the result was a fare evaluation, though Canberra was a surprise, would like to be able to see just how that game panned out to bring about that result.
Without Liz Boomers would struggle like before, when she's not on the crt they look the same as last season.

Agree though I think LJ could smarten up her appearance for national TV , just remember how The others always looked sharp when they did the WNBL commentary on the ABC , hopefully she will get the hang of it as the weeks progress ,irscall new to her right now

oh my goodness ... e.cambage and j.ohea look pretty good....

I like what I saw from the Lynx, they showed great patches of form, so when they get a home game, this weekend, then watch out.

I didn't.
Seeing sporadic patches of individual talent can be entertaining, but it doesn't do much for my hopes of winning games when it's surrounded by so much ordinary play.
Someone said it above ... that the Lynx looked like they were playing as individuals. I get that that can happen when you're trying to dig your way out of a hole, but it also needs to stop.

Not that I'm losing all hope 2 rounds in. There are some quality players on this roster. But the mix we've got is going to be constantly dealing with mismatches this season, and we have to figure out how to exploit any advantages we have. Because so far, other teams are having no problems at all exploiting the ones they've got.

"I like what I saw from the Lynx, they showed great patches of form, so when they get a home game, this weekend, then watch out."

I didn't see any patches what so ever, might have been a good pass or drive to the basket a couple of times, but I don't think they actually ran one offence, it was all just. "I've got the ball so I'm shooting it" to hell with passing.

It should not matter what crt they play on, they still should be able to get it together, think it's going to be a very long season for the Lynx

The D is more a concern for me than the O anyway.
Scoring 77.3 per game is bang on the league average.
Conceding 96 per game though is :O

Hopefully that figure conceded will drop once the team gels a bit better - or goes to a plan B.

For those mentioning it last week, it looks like the WNBL have listened to our complaints over the stats page - they're now sortable by each category. Though in saying that I'm not completely sold on their accuracy as there is a 'N.Beaumont' who I'm assuming is actually Katie Rae Ebzery with the lone game stats of 40 mins & 14 pts which align with her game this round. Sami Whitcomb also has a clone according to the stats page.

Sami Whitcomb also has a clone according to the stats page.

I knew Perth would resort to cloning their best players if they got off to a bad start.

I'm complaining to BA as I don't think cloning is legal in professional sports.

I heard that Jack Bendat bought the entire town of Folkston, Georgia to get Courtney Williams re-classified as an aussie.

The League is to be congratulated for it's advanced approach in regard to cloning. But should teams now be restricted in their use of cloned players? Is it already time for a cloning cap? For example, each team could be allowed one cloned player and one 'in development' each season.

N. Beaumont's name will hopefully be a real identity in the League's stats, in years to come.

I've seen movies like The Island and Never Let Me Go. If it has come to clones, I'm worried, very worried.

Good news on the stats sites though it really does still need a complete work ove I need how they've layed it out.

I have been waiting for Anonymous to comment on Perth's win over Bendigo last Thursday. When Perth plays some defence they will win more games. As far as Kunek leave Melbourne, its amazing more players didn't leave.
How does a coach get an extension on his contract with a loosing record!!!!!!!!!!!
Last season he lost the team at least 5 games with his subbing.
He should have been sacked when at a press interview he said " this team practicing loosing "