MJ's dead but the thriller lives on. I'm still shaking. Gilchrist aka Pitbull (yep, Toft won the comp) you bloody star!!!! Soooo clutch.
Wow, obviously it didn't have to be that hard but they wanted to give the fans a show, they could've at least warned us at half time so we sould've gone and had a drink for 10 mins.
Burston. thanks for the signed ball after the game mate!
Balls: D and Rebounding was well below par, can't fault him on offence though (except for the third, of course).
Holmes: Typical game for Jake, D and Rebounding excellent, and he hit the open J when he needed to.
Herbert: Tried hard but he's just not a starting SF. I have a feeling Hill would respond really well to grabbing that starting spot. Will be interesting against the Tigers, surely we won't start Herbie on SammyMack/Wortho.
Tez: Getting to the hole with ease and I love the way he goes straight at (and over) the big guys in the paint for the layup rather than pulling up a bit at the end as a few of our players do too often. Needs to pick his outside shot choice a bit better, granted, he was left in a bad situation a few times tonight with the shotclock running down but personally I don't like to see him shooting any more than 3-4 threes a game unless he's on fire. I'm growing in confidence that he'll still be there for the finals.
PITBULL!!!: The man who recieved more nicknames in one week than some guy called Nick. CLUTCHNESS!!! Looks like we know who'll be taking the last shot from now on. He looked really hesitant to shoot the three at most times tonight as well, usually preferring to reset the offence if he caught it wide open after an O rebound, but he certainly wasn't hesitant in shooting those last two. Maybe that was his plan, get the D to sag off and then knock it on their heads when it counted. Thought he had the better of Homicide for all but the third. What more can I say? He's a legitimate challenger to CJ and Homicide (McKee's coming too) as the best PG in the league. Gun.
Cooper: CATCH THE FLIPPIN BALL!!!!!!! ANGRYYYYYY! How was he not credited with a TO? The passes he fumbled were fine, the TO's were clearly his fault. Guess they've got some guidelines for that, luckily for him. I don't want to be a Cooper-hater but his start to this season has been shocking.
Garlepp: Would've liked to see him play, he would've been pretty confident of getting some garbage time at the half but he was never going to play once it got close again. Then again he couldn't have done much worse than the man above^^^
Hill: Obviously didn't have his best game but attacked the rim as always and didn't make too many mistakes. Ninja's hot form hurt his minutes a bit, and that injury.
The Asian Brett Maher: Play of the year so far. First he hit a sweeeet three, then he blocks a transition layup, then he somehow keeps it inbounds, and then he hits another three at the other end thanks to some good hustle by Hill. That alone set the place off and caused TVL to call a timeout. Brilliant stuff. 5-6 from three says it all. Interseting to see Ninnis have the confidence to put him on Homicide later in the game as well. He probably wasn't as effective as Pitbull and Herbert but wasn't terrible.
Crocs: Well Homicide certainly shut me up didn't he!(82 DT points for those interested) Hinder too, the animal. Clearly an inferior team but give them full credit for that comeback. PC needs to know when to stop shooting and Tovey should look to attack more, he's too much of a confidence player atm and goes into his shell a bit. Rolan Roberts is an absolute beast! You let him catch the ball that close to the hoop and you're gone. Probably the strongest player in the league and he makes up for his height (201) with a seemingly huge winspan... plus he's my DT and FNBL captain ;)
Refs: Props to them for not falling for Crawford's flopping. But this travel 'interpretation' is still killing me. It's ridiculous. They're not taking three steps= it's not a travel. Saw a few 50/50 charging/blocking calls that could've easily gone the other way, and a few very soft bumps called. Just happy they didn't call the last one. The one that looks like the bald guy on Masterchef isn't a bad ref.
Skip: I will give you $5 at the next game to stop playing the Presets song. Deal? Other than that great job. Might be time to start playing "Krazy" by Pitbull now that Gilchrist has his nickname.
Crowd: I think it would be awesome to introduce a new thing during opposition free-throws. If we had a short countdown in which we are all quiet and then we all erupt at the same time right as his hand comes up. Could be done by Skip maybe. If not, red 'noodles' behind the baskets are always good. It was a great, lively crowd tonight though. It's such a great atmosphere when everyone goes nuts like that :D
I sussed the apollo menu after the game. Might try that garfish in a few weeks if we can get a spot, and I think they misspelt "Caesar", could be wrong. Not worth changing anyway.
Bring on the Tiggers, hopefully with Burston to swat Daniel Johnson aka Hinder jnr. all night. He said he was 50/50 after the game.
