Petrie will continue to be aggressive and will be all the better for the run on Thursday, he should be a big factor tomorrow.

The Blaze need to get into the lane to create shots for Maxey and Bradshaw. Thurs they couldnt penetrate Perth's defence nor get open shots off the pick and roll/pop. They need to get some easy baskets in transition to take the pressure off the half court.

Gibbo and Goulding didnt handle the extra pressure applied by Perth and didnt get into the offence until too late in the shot clock. Needed to see more decent screens set high to free them up - but Vanderjagt seemed top be the nly one who was actually doing a decent job in that department! Really missed Ubaka and his explosiveness to blow past a defender who is up in your face and get into the lane. Will be a big call tomorrow night for Joey as Ubaka still isnt quite ready but is keen to play.

Agreed with Petrie, will need to use his speed and look to score or draw fouls and get to the line

IMO though it all comes down to the guards hitting their shots. If Gibbo, Harvey and Goulding can hit early then it all opens up for the Blaze and the crowd will be in full voice to hopefully help get the team over the line and back to Perth for game 3

We ALL love Petrie.

The amazing thing is Petrie played for the Canberra Gunners in the SEABL for 5 years and never got a look into the NBL even though he was tearing up the SEABL.
And the Gunners players have never received ANY payments.

Seriously how good is this guy! And then you have players such as Cooper and to en extent Holmes who have been thrust into teams on reputation. I would take Petrie injured than either of these guys.

Sadly...Cats are so far better than anyone else this year.

Cats by 10

Not so sure about that being correct away from home me. To date this season home court has been a huge advantage - with all teams - so I think the Blaze are at least an even money chance, if not slight favourites at home (yes even though I am biased)

Anonymous,

Just for your information it was Rugby League that Petrie went back and played, pity some of the other players wouldn't go and have a game of league it might toughen them up a bit and stop them being such sooks when they get a tiny slap on the wrist.

Also note that he was MVP of SEABL 2 years running 2005 and 2006

my tip is blaze by 5, maxey to have a double dopuble

Cats in overtime! with old Cat staring :)

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Quick, someone accuse Redhage of being a flopper.

Redhage is a massive flopper!

How does Galen get free-throws at the end of the game without the Blaze getting the ball back? Wouldn't have mattered anyway because he hit both FT's but these refs are a major screwup waiting to happen. They can't handle the clock in late game situations.

go Harvey you are my hero! YOU ARE THE BEST
IF YOU READ THIS I LOVE YOU

Why is Redhage a flopper? Because he gets knocked over three times in a half by clumsy and/or physical defenders?

Hmm... I can't tell whether you're joking/baiting or not, lol, so I'm just going to ignore that. If you ACTUALLY don't think Redhage is a flopper I don't think I can be bothered...

...but surely you're smarter than that, right? Yeah.

Missed it by 6 points :(

Cats will beat whoever... in straight sets

Xztatik, you made the comment after game 1. I did respond but you probably didn't see it so we'll go back to that.

Watching the replay, Redhage was on the ground three times in the game. The first time was when he was starting to run down the court on a possible break when Vukona stepped into him. Not a huge hip and shoulder but enough to impede his progress. There is no problem with selling that call.

Second time when part time player Demos made zero attempt to go through his screen and slammed straight in to him. He couldn't have even flopped if he tried because he was going down no matter what.

Third time was after a series of fumbles and saves between the teo teams. Redhage found himself unguarded for a short time and was calling for the ball. Goulding comes from nowhere and knocks him off balance. Again, no problem with selling that call because he was fouled.

So that's why I don't think he is a flopper. If it's ok for these defenders to hold him, push him, bump him, do whatever to him because they can't stop him any other way then there is no problem with him selling the call. It's not like he takes a Hinder-esque approach to things and acts like he is shot when there is zero contact.

Holy shit you're serious!

Apologies for not returning to the game 1 thread, I didn't think Redhage being a flopper would be major news to anyone.

You're obviously a passionate Wildcats fan and I'd probably defend a 36er in this situation, but I think his manipulation of the refs is pretty common-knowledge around the league.

Ok so I have to admit I can only recall one of those times Redhage hit the ground, but obviously I'm not only talking about last night when I say he's a flopper. Anyway:

"Second time when part time player Demos made zero attempt to go through his screen and slammed straight in to him. He couldn't have even flopped if he tried because he was going down no matter what."

A pretty clear flop for me. Demos (what's he? 190-195cm? 85-90kg?) was not travelling very fast at all at the point of contact, he made no attempt to dodge the screen, you're right, but I reckon even Darren Ng could've stood his ground in that situation, meanwhile Redhage goes flying at twice the speed at which Demos hit him.

The other 'flop' I recall from last night (which you didn't list because he never actually fell down) was when Vukona grazed his head on a rebound after a free-throw. Redhage stood his ground at first, then a whole second later he lunged forward holding his head in pain. That was an embarrassing delayed reaction! Luckily the ref didn't fall for it, in fact the ref even gave him a nice "are you kidding me" expression.

"So that's why I don't think he is a flopper. If it's ok for these defenders to hold him, push him, bump him, do whatever to him because they can't stop him any other way then there is no problem with him selling the call. It's not like he takes a Hinder-esque approach to things and acts like he is shot when there is zero contact."

I'm not sure if you've seen any of my posts about Russ Hinder on here, but to wrap them up in a short statement, until Judas came along he was my most hated player in the league by a fair way, so you can forget any suggestion of bias when I say that when it comes to acting, Redhage has a cabinet full of Oscars while Hinder is stuck on Neighbours.

Pleeeease don't claim that he is mistreated by opponents, ask any unbiased basketball supporter who's seen him, he is one of the dirtiest players in the league off the ball, constantly holding his man and throwing elbows at both ends of the floor, then if he gets the slightest hint of a retaliation he hits the floor before you can say "Action".

You can't hold it against him too much, if the referees keep falling for it why would you stop doing it? But you can't say he doesn't flop. It's just embarrassing sometimes.

You are over-stating the Demos incident. His size and weight is irrelevant - Demos ran straight in to a stationary player and he fell backwards. it was the only call of the ones I mentioned that he didn't have to sell.

I realise that it's league-wide opinion that Redhage is this and that but that doesn't make it true. Hell, Dusty Rychart's recent tweet was the most hypocrtical thing I have ever read.

I know that he plays for the fouls and is often the centre of confrontation but he is certainly not the biggest flopper or actor or anything. The guy plays hard, he gets held and bumped a lot. I'm not claiming mistreatment either - Redhage has lately picked up early fouls in games for the same things so it's not like his opponent is too manly to try and draw attention to the goings on.

While I dont think Redhage is a flopper I have to agree with X on the Demos one. Redhage saw him coming, braced to take the hit and still went flying backwards. Totally agree it was a foul on Demos but I still feel that Redhage made the most of the contact and 'chose' to go to ground. Probably not so much to get the call from the ref (it was always going to be called on Demos) but more to help fire up the home crowd, and it worked. Demos was then added to the Harvey and Goulding list and copped an earful all night.

Redhage is just one of those players I love to hate. If I was a perth fan Id love him, but Im not so he gets up my nose and I love to see him have a bad night! Its great to have players like that - and luckily for Perth they have a team full of em! (yeah Im still pissed off about last night)

So TC2 - care to enlighten this non twitterer what Dusty said?

I'm still not agreeing on the Demos play. I think you guys are exaggerating Redhage's actions. And Demos hardly copped anything from the crowd - we won't waste out booing on a nobody like him!

After the Cats-Pans game, Rychart twittered something like "Robbins called me a flopper and said I am bad for the league. Well Perth has the biggest flopper in the league in Redhage"

Good to add a bit of spice to the next encounter.

TC2, I don't think it's just opposing teams that don't love Redhage, I think it extends to half his own team too!

I won't ask who but for what reasons?

Can't say I'm the biggest Dusty fan either but that's a great call!

General personality. (And it wasn't via the obvious guess/link either.)

That's compelling evidence! It proves he took a dive when Demos barely touched him.

Wasn't discussing that issue and didn't see it, just saying that I wouldn't rush to appoint myself Defender of All Things Redhage.

Dude, we were talking about flopping. If you have heard a rumour that would make HAHA jizz in his pants then that's fine, but it's entirely irrelevant to the discussion.

Besides, I don't base my thoughts on people based on what others think.

(Mod: Seriously, just let it go.)

I've let it go.

TC2 is arguing on the side of Redhage so the entire league already feels sorry for him.

Plus, no reason HAHA had to take the bait and stoop to TC2's level!

If people are going to jump on the "lets hate somebody" bandwagon and I don't agree with their reasons, I'm going to say something. Sorry that I just don't accept the majority opinion and move on.

Bet you love Heal! Good to be unique I guess, in that regard. ;)