96-92 Melbourne won. I was very impressed with Winitana with 25 points

It was a decent game to see, with a fair crowd out for a pre-season game.

Was especially impresse with Winitana, strong on his rebounds, good court vision and played some good defence on Grizzard to deny him the ball at some points.

Only thing I noticed was that we seemed lost at times at both ends of the floor, but that comes from a new playing group, new system and new coach so we should see this improve by the time the season starts.

Great game though....
I was pretty impressed by most of the team

Winitana was most impressive tonight. Must say it, but Hill was very impressive as well considering my expectations. I thought Kersten carried the ball well but his size just goes against him as he can't make a layup without his shot being blocked. Hope he won't attempt too many of those in future. Overall, I still don't like our chances against the Tigers come regular season. We were missing some key players, but they were missing more than we were. Add Anstey, Barlow and MacKinnon to the group on the floor tonight and it gets pretty intimidating. One thing that I thought was in our favour was the fact that the starters did not see a lot of court time. Come crunch time, they will be relied upon more.

Melbourne were missing Anstey, Barlow, Mackinnon and an import. We were missing Bruce, Davidson, Tyndale.

Thought Sturt from Melbourne was quite good and Johnson has some range for his size. Crosswell, Hoare and Greer were good too.

Winitana was the stand-out with 25 or so points - hustled, hit threes, got on the boards - generally won over the crowd I'd say.

Schenscher, Maher and Ballinger all scored in double figures. Ballinger was used sparingly and was his usual self, hitting some great jumpers. Maher came on and off in patches and hasn't lost anything on his shot. Ran off screens all night and hit some good buckets.

Schenscher was a bit loose (a travel in the post, blocked once, etc) but showed good potential. Got to the line, finished a couple of feeds from Holmes. At one point, he and Cooper combined to block a Tiger twice in a row which brought an appreciative cheer from the crowd.

Kersten was good though as EC said, is easy to block when he drives. Hill played his role well. Coops and Holmes too. Burdon got a few minutes.

Bruce, Davidson and Hoban were on the bench.

was a good nite, winitana really did impress, couple times he came close to some awesome dunks of the rebounds.

his defence was solid shot was good and hustle was spot on to, can see him gathering a "cult" following

our play was patchy as you'd expect for a first game. Both teams had plenty of open shots lots of holes in the d.
Wintana was great lots of hustle crowd loved it.
Balls & Mahersy hit their shots that they took, everyone else shot poorly. I think we shot about 40 odd percent.
From memory we actually got out rebounded.
A lil commentary from the coach tonight on some of our poor defence. guys that was sh#thouse! we had a laugh during a timeout. (we sat behind sixer bench)

No offense intended but ,

200770 "Downside, Jacob doing back stretches in warm up (cause for his bad shooting?)"

think you will find shooting is cause of bad back .

Wintana made an extremely impressive debut and I liked what he produced. Intelligent player, good court vision, scores, plays tough defence. Plenty of potential and excitement.

Team did look lost and confused @ times. However this is normal and expected given it's a very new team, new system, new coaching etc. They have 1 month to go until the regular season. The team shall improve and gel more you'd think.

However I don't like our chances Vs the Tigers come real season and when the others return.

Grizzard was 'Lampley' tonight which hasn't been mentioned. Hasn't got a singlet with his name etc lined-up. Bit pathetic if you ask me considering they knew he signed as a Tiger 2-3 months ago. Plenty of time.

Looking forward to the season.

Thanks for the news about tonights game guys. Great to hear Winitana played so well. Will he be our new Rupert?

Why didn't Bruce suit up?

Because he only flew in yesterday, maybe?

good effort with the music, just a few times it played on abit long, thought i was listening to MMM

the court announcer was trying to put to much into the names that it got laughable at times it almost felt like wwf match, hopefully they try others out before making a decision

Any ideas on the crowd number?

Did you have to pay admission? How much or were members free to trial games?

Ballinger's back was also getting treatment at the breaks. He also didn't play much. What is with the Sixers and back complaints?

Schench played an Ok first game. He is slow and slightly lumbering, never going to be first up the court and may be in trouble against the faster bigs in the comp (Anstey). However, he is BIG. He dwarfs Cooper and was a huge target when they went down low to him. Will draw double teams regularly and looks like he has the vision to find the open player. And he has quite nice touch around the basket. All in all my first impressions are good.

Everything I have ever said about Winitana I take back. He plays a very athletic intelligent game. He should get a solid role in the rotation behind Tyndale. We will miss him on Sundays.

EC, you thought Hill was better than expected. I think he was Ok. However, I still have real concerns about his basketball IQ. Ninnis and dad appeared to get frustrated on a number of occasions with his defensive errors in particular. Hopefully he will find his groove in the system.

I thought Kersten and Burdon did well at the point, given that come the real season they will be sitting behind Davidson and Bruce. Maher only ran the point for about 4 minutes of the game, I doubt he will get many minutes there this season. Plenty of options for Ninnis in the guard stocks all round.

Speaking of Mahersy, he definitely still has it at the offensive end, but he was being murdered by guys like Crosswell and Corletto at the other end. We need to be able to keep those guys in front of us come the real season. Hopefully that will come with some more team defence and Mahersy's fitness improves. Having guys like Davidson on the court will help.

For the Tiges, Grizzard was quiet, but is a large presence on the boards. Looked like he didn't quite know his place in the system yet. One concern for the Tigers may be that Grizzard looks like a guy used to being the Man, not sure that he enjoys being the fourth or fifth scoring option on the team.

Greer is a very promising player for them. We really didn't pay him enough respect, I think he was their highest scorer. Greer should get pretty good minutes this season I would think.

The rest played like they usually play. The Tigers looked like a more settled team and keeping a core group of players together has been good for them. They will be formidable once they add most of their starting 5 to that lineup.

The Sixers have got work to do at both ends of the floor. For all our size, we need to crash the boards and block out more. We were the taller side, but they were getting plenty of second looks. I think some of that will come together over the next month.

Statman, tickets were $10 adults, $5 kids, and parking was free. The crowd was smaller than I expected - might've been a few kept away thinking that they'd miss the Boomers game if they went to the Dome. From memory, the game wrapped up at about 8:30, so no dramas there.

About a thousand there, I think?
Those around me got a bit excited about Sturt's rejections. Three in a row early, including one on big Luke. ( Winitana best on court, by a long way)
$10 for me and $5 for the kids.

I thought we looked a bit disjointed offensively, but that is probably to be expected without Davidson and Bruce. Schenscher was impressive offensively, but his lack of mobility was shown up by Sturt and Johnson when they drew him 15 feet from the basket, which makes me worry what Anstey will do when he camps 10 feet further out than that.

Winitana was a revelation. I loved his hustle.

Holmes shooting has not improved and he must never be allowed to take that many shots again. He must have been about 3/20. On the boards and in defense he is solid as always though.

Hill's first half was excellent, his second erratic.

It was impressive how Melbourne's 2nd and 3rd unit players ran their system. Greer was a real standout.

Loved Big Lukes defence, but i thought he overdribbled in the key on offence, either that or his teammates were just passing the ball too low to him or the offence was just getting the ball to him in the block too late.

Winitana, Hill and Maher all had a ton of screens set for them, but Paora's work ethic was enormous, and he looked in a different league to everyone else.

Would like to think the two new recruits yet to come are athletic, because the 36ers had a few gravity prisoners last night, but a new system can do that to you.

Liked the coaching emphasis on defence, and the court time given to the new guys. And Bruce's enthusiam on the bench, that guy cannot sit still.

Mutley, I believe a lot of those Melbourne scrubs regularly play together as part of the Tigers' team in the Big V - Corletto, Greer, Sturt, O'Hea and Johnson are all in that squad.

Was quite impressed by Sturt, Greer is a bit underrated at NBL level, and Johnson should be useful for them.

Ballinger Fan - gravity prisoners - true. It was quite a vanilla team out there besides Winitana's athleticism!

Not only do they play together in the BigV, but the assistant coach DMac is the BigV coach, so all sets would be the same.

When a guy like Sturty can come in and do what he did, you would like to think Big Red, Jake and Coops are just blowing out the cobwebs.

Balls forgot to remove his warm-up shirt @ the when he first checked into the game. He was quickly reminded and everybody had a chuckle.

I thought I'd share that. It's easy to do sometimes when you're comfortable.

Does any one know where to find a boxscore for this game so I can see stats.

We laughed, so relaxed.
Sturt won the kids over. Winitana won me.

Winitana was excellent and I am looking forward to seeing a lot more of him this coming season.
I agree with Mutley re Holmes, never gives up, his hussle and rebounding are first class, but his shooting, well really it hasn't changed!
That Sturt really impressed me, very athletic and such a smooth shot.
Too early to make any call yet I think, but we did see some good signs.

yep Forestville have to play half that team saturday night...Greer, Corletto, Sturt, O'hea, Johnson. Their ABA team has an import point guard too!

Boti's Report is now online.
http://linky.com.au/70oxq

on luke were people dissapointed by his lack of D in the post against sturt? i supose with the level he has played at he should be able to stop post moves but hey maybe i'm expecting to much.
another thing will luke win a jerry denard look-a-like compition? all he needs is the all over shag pile coat and he's got it down pat......

I liked Neil, but I think the club thought a change would be good. Not sure if last night was an audition for the new guy or his debut in the role?

Im heading upto Whyalla myself. Looking forward to hopefully seeing Bruce suit up.

Not an easy job with a small, quiet crowd.
( Aw, I got a bit excited when Aaron Bruce was calling me to come on down!.... But... it was to his girlfriend, sitting near me.)

i believe last night was just an audition for the court announcing position. i think it is time for a change though, Neil was good but things gotta change. new guy sounded alright. be interesting to hear him with a full house if he gets the gig.