I heard Phil and Adrian Hurley talking at the recent game against the Pirates, both saying about how their is a alck of Australian free agents at the moment.

The only NBL experienced guard I can think of that would be worth signing at the moment is Travis Lane.

Considering we are now over the halfway mark - and how long it takjes someone to learn the system and fit in - maybe it isnt worth it?

He would atleast provide a little more scoring punch at the 1.

Farley was a work horse that arvo and dusty played awesome but you could tell townsville had more contributors

The only ex-NBL players I can think of that would be worth signing in the guard department are players such as James Harvey, Damian Ryan, even Frank Drmic (although I hated him when he was at the Magic/Titans) or possibly Darren Smith or Travis Lane.

I haven't heard about Ryan or Drmic in years and presume they are earning lots in Europe.

Harvey would be great but he doesn't come across as a Garrison type player that would be happy to be underpaid and coming off the bench to contend for a championship.

Lane has been available all off-season and we didn't target him so I don't see why we would now.

It is quite depressing as Newley really was the perfect compliment to the group we already had.

I don't buy that the 36ers didn't know he would be a good player. I just think we played by the rules and offered him what the league rookie salary was. $15k or whatever the max rookie salary is was never going to get a player of his calibre wespecially when big NCAA schools were after him.

The only way $15k would be enough is if year 2 was guaranteed around the $100k mark. I couldn't see the 36ers opening the cheque book like years gone past considering that at the start of the off season when Newley signed with Townsville we didn't have much cap space and had no bigs. We didn't even know if Cat was staying at that time.

In fairness to the 36ers they probably viewed Newley as a small forward and considering they had Cat, Nash, Holmes and to a degree Oscar that could all play small forward at the time, probably were more worried about filling the centre position.

Townsville were probably smarter and knew he was no average rookie and treated him accordingly. I'm not saying they cheated but even if they did good luck to them. They have one of Australia's most exciting talents. He will be one of Australia's best players for many years to come.

Townsville must have made more than one phone call.

Think minimum salary is $25,000 but rookie cap is $40,000 (well it was back in 1998).

T'ville just tried harder to get him, that's all. Natural human instinct - go where you feel wanted.

Sapwell?

I don't think Sapwell covers the deficiency. Against Townsville, we were definitely a guard short on defense and Robertson had his season-high because of it.

I'd rather see them bring Paul Bauer back (who could be fairly considered to have had his career cut prematurely short anyway). Bit outlandish as ideas go, but there'd be worse options. He already works for the club -- do any other teams have player-managers? Haha.

Sap was at the game watching the 6ers and he still looks fit enough to play