dench was clearly more deserving of padding his stats with turnovers.

Would have been nice TT44 but I guess it was absolute garbage time, Ballinger was suffering with a bad back and I guess his health is more important than a record.

I doubt whether Smyth would have even known that no one had scored 50 before, and even if he did, his care factor would no doubt have been zero. Probably from his perspective, there are more important things for the team to worry about than individual records (again, as nice as it would have been though).

Great opportunity missed Phil. Would've been a great way to finish the game and biuld a little bit of excitement up for the next game, which we certainly need. How many players can get the opportunity to score 50pts in a game in their career, Ballinger prob wont get another chance to get close and Phil stuffed it up for him. I bet he would be pissed, although he would not say that publicly. Great cameo from Dodman though, bout time he got some minutes.

back more important

hey may just do it again - so 50 is never out of the question

health always comes first - get more in the long run

really depends on what the back issue is

if his back was good enough for the first 3/4 of the last quarter i don't think 3 or 4 minutes was going to do much. All he needed to do was hit 2 baskets and when they were looking for him i don't think that was a big ask. I just think phil could have left him in that bit longer and i'm sure if it was really an issue he would have pulled himself.

In the interveiw on the radio feed, he said he was in alot of pain and needed to go to the physio tomorrow. Yer 50 would have been nice but atleast phill gave dodman and gerlach a run. That was awesome when dodman scored, everyone really enjoyed it!. Nice job phill for giving the bench a crack i say!

Adam said after the game that his back was sore for the whole first quarter. He will have plenty of more opportunities to score whatever score he likes, he is that good.

It was total garbage time at the end, and only deserving of bench players.

No way should anyone get on Phil for that , c'mon be reasonable .

2 more minutes for Ballinger could have been the straw that broke the camel's back, pardon the pun. Sure a record breaking score would have been good, but preserving him for the next game was better. Good call Smyth.

If Adam had stayed on and got his 50 or 60 or whatever, Jordy would not have scored, Sutts would not have scored, Burdon and Gerlach got an opportunity....
come on these guys deserve this court time, its reward for the bench guys.

I got more excitement from watching some of these guys get their opportunity. And loved the Jordy Dodman chant, he is our current cult hero.

players get a free pizza for each charge taken hey Jordy took 2 charges in under 5 minutes ! He is one focused machine.

"players get a free pizza for each charge taken hey Jordy took 2 charges in under 5 minutes ! He is one focused machine."

I predict this will be the end of dodmans career.

30pt win and it still isn't good enough for some of you people. Leave the dude alone for one week!!!

Good call Phil to rest him,clearly he was in pain from the first Qtr onwards(although Im not so sure Phil realised this himself). It just shows what type of character the man has to be able to play through the pain barrier and so damm well , besides he had oppurtunity to hit 50 look at his stats he did miss a few open three's and shots that he could of made, but still for a big man he has got a sweet looking shot very controlled , maybe Phil should actually call plays to single him out who knows 60 or 70 could be on the cards.

This is a strange one. I think he should have been rested much earlier but then Smyth let him continue and then got so close with about 3 minutes to go then subs him. Either sub him early or let him get two more baskets. Its like someone getting to 199 in cricket and then the captain declaring.

I totally agree that Ballinger should have stayed on to get his 50! Slingers were over the foul limit etc, and with 2:12 left, he wouldve got it. Just what the club needed too, a import playing well, and getting such stats that the everyday sports fan would talk about in the office Monday! Smyth did this to Dusty one season too, im pretty sure he had 44 against NZ and got subbed off. Rings a bell anyways.

Pretty sure id much rather celebrate Ballinger, a 36er, getting 50 than seeing Sutts finally make a shot! Smyth needs to understand, 50pt games and triple doubles etc, are just the thing that sells tickets, and this IS a business!

Disappointed of course when he was taken off.
Guess they could have quickly feed him 4, then put the bench on. The consolation is that he is hungry for 50 and you can see he will do it.

Bloody hell guys.
The 36ers finally win a good game and now all you can complain about is that ballinger didnt get 50points?
Cant you just be happy that it was a great performance and stop arguing about pointless crap!
geez

You whine when the rookies arent given minutes, now your Whining again when they are. A TEAMS effort is not about one player scoring 50 points, and its alot better to pull him off and prevent him from injuring himself in those last fw minutes.

It is unusual to take a player off when 3 points short of the club record.
That's why it gets a mention.

Ballinger finishing with 46 points was an excellent effort in anyone's language, however keeping him on for 2 more minutes and feeding him the ball deliberately to gain the extra 4 points sounds like padding stats and not a true indication of a 50 point game. I value his 46 points more which came in the normal flow of the game, than 50 which was orchestrated to reach that figure.

Your probably correct, plus running all the bench and his back. They wouldn't have been thinking 'bout Darryl Pearce's club record of 48points in 1988.

EC, not much different to force-feeding him all game trying to get points on the board...

Would've been nice for him to get 50 and break the record, but it was also great to see the bench cleared for the first time in quite a while.

Great performance either way.

Smyth said they left him on longer than they intended as it was to allow him to break his PB of 42.

There really is no point having your best players on court at the end of a 30 point thrashing just to acheive club records. If it was close, and we needed him on the court then so be it. But that 48 point record shouldn't in my view be broken against the Slingers in a blowout just because it could.

No disrespect XY, but I'm lik'n you a lot.
As you say, it's pretty superficial to hold a club record, if it came when playing against scrubs like the Slingers.
He got topped his PB, & he looked happy today.
All is well.

Made me wonder about the opponents for the other top games. Pearce's 48 came against the 88 Newcastle side (13-11, 5th); Green's 47 was against the 85 Hawks (10-16, 9th); Davis' 46 was against Newcastle in 87 (6-20, 12th).

I bash Phil as much as the next guy, but geez guys, relax.

WOuld it have been nice? Yes.

Was it so important to risk your best player? Definitely not.

Correct Call.

History became a lie.