Go the Sixers, hope they pull of a win.

Cats will win by 20+ points

Martin vs Warren should be fun to watch.
Would have been good to see Redhage vs Ballinger again.
DJ and Weigh to be our go to guys. Nevill and DJ could both score big as both are big offensive threats, but pretty suspect defensively.
I'd imagine they will have too much size and defense for us to beat them.
Weigh vs Tovey should be a cracker. Tovey overtook Weigh last year (somehow), Weigh should have a point to prove.
Every year I go into this game expecting a thrashing. Then we go out and win. Ballinger usually has a big hand in that though.

Warren has to play well or were screwed but hes got some tough matchups tonight Martin,Robbins

I really hope Marty doesn't start Helliwell and DJ together in this game. It's just asking for trouble making DJ guard Redhage.

Looking forward to seeing how Weigh goes against his old club and how Warren goes against the toughest backcourt pressure in the league. Hopefully DJ continues his pre-season form now that the games count for something.

Think the Sixers are too short-handed to beat the Cats tonight, but then again I thought the same last season at this time and we came out so ferociously we beat Perth at their own game!

so cant wait, BRING IT ON
36ers by 12 points

Johnson to dominate with, 32 points 12 rebounds

IM SO EXCITED!!!

I'm really hoping for a sixers win, so i'm gonna say sixers by 5

Lets Go Boys!!!

I'm cautiously optimistic even though we are down Ballinger and an import. Perth is a very physical team and we can’t afford DJ or Helliwell to get caught up in it and pick up stupid fouls because we don’t have the cover for it and that will lead to all kind of trouble. I think one of the keys is getting the ball early to DJ and try get his confidence up from the get go. He showed at the end of last season that he is capable of being a number one offensive option but if things didn’t go his way he often went missing. Hopefully he is a match up problem for Perth because he should be too agile for Nevill and too big for Redhage.

There will be many interesting match ups defensively but when we played them at the end of last season we showed we could compete with them by matching their intensity and pressure. I have very high hopes for Warren and he could very well be the import find of the season.

Sixers by 3.

Beantown, who would you have guarding Redhage then? DJ might not be the best defender but out of the current line up he is the best option to guard him. Weigh, Creek, Herbert are all too small to guard him, so there is no other option then to have DJ on him if we play man which I suspect we will.

Also I think besides Khazzouh (Schenscher injured) there is no one better to guard Nevill then Helliwell. Training against him at Tigers would help also.

Any team can win at home in the first round but I don't think Adelaide will win this time around. If we can put in a good 4 quarter performance then that would be good.

Perth by 8

Perth by 12

Agree with Bean. DJ will get slaughtered by Redhage if he starts PF. Weigh and Creek both far better defensive options despite their size. And Hendo's got me looking forward to Weigh v Toves now too.

I got on the Adelaide/Perth Halftime/Fulltime double at $6 and I think that's exactly what'll happen. Perth by 5-10.

Adelaide by 2 in OT

Geez im getting excited!!

Sitting at home waiting for the boys to pick me up and reading all the talk on the forum im wondering what line up we should start.

Im thinking start Helliwell on the bench....(he wont be there long, with our lack of hight tonight DJ, Helliwell and weigh will have to rotate through all game)until we find the right mix.

Start Weigh at the 4.... Im confident in knowing that while playing together in Perth, Weigh could certanly hold his own at both Ends while matched up during Trainings against Redhage . He would play the 3 at times but i just want to see how we go early on with him there.

Start Mitch at the 3....Let him go head to head with Tovey early on. I see this as a big challenge for mitch, if he wants to start doing some damage at the small forward in the NBL then here is his chance. Tovey aint that great.

Herbert at the 2 guard
Warren at the Point

No doubt we are up against it tonight, the bigs gotta stay out of foul trouble and compete well if we are any chance.

Herbert back is Massive..... He was my favorite player before getting hurt. He brings that intensity and fighting spirit and shows alot of heart out there and has improved to be a crucial player for us. If all the boys can show that tonight we'll be fine and get a W

Im out, thats my two bit! See you at the sporn bar for pre-game frothies(here's hoping there on tap?)

Overtime and sixers by 2 on the buzzer :)

Cant wait to watch this on TV.. only 6 hour delay!

Just need to avoid the internet from 4:30 till 10:30

Sorry but really do not like your chances...

Perth by 16

Very much looking forward to the game and honestly think we will win. Yeah we are 1 import down but have a feeling that Warren will be in the zone and get us over the line not by much but who cares as long as we get the W. Go 36ers !

Getting pumped. My biggest disappointment is that while I'm at the game I'll be missing several old episodes of Cops on OneHD.

KingJames, thats the problem, I don't think the Sixers really have a guy to matchup on Redhage. Common problem though, that's why he is such a gun player in the NBL!

I just think its tempting fate to put one of our two main scoring weapons on one of the best and wiliest veterans in the league.

I'd run Weigh on him to start with, but be quick to switch him off Redhage if he looked like getting into foul trouble. Then use Creek on him a fair bit as it doesn't matter if he fouls out.

Has Diamon Simpson signed with Adelaide? Former Saint Mary's Gaels teammate of Patty Mills?

Anyone know anything about this?

Don't worry billo I'll tape them for you, put them online and send you a link ;)

Diamon Simpson, if true looks to be a good pick up, very solid dleague numbers

From Twitter:

SportandoBasket Sportando Basket
Australian team Adelaide 36ers signed Diamon Simpson. The big man spent last season with Turk Telekom Ankara av. 4.1ppg and 3.4rpg in TBL

It was a bit fuzzy but on abc radio balls said there was an announcement after the game about an import, it was fuzzy so I may have miss heard

Said he think it might be done and might be announcement after this game.

Diamon Simpson is a great defensive forward. If true, would be a great addition to Adelaide's front line.

Crowd of 5,632 is pretty quiet.
Seems we gave our bench a run , to start the second.

Very good crowd attendance, not much to show from it. The dude with the cheerleaders is getting the most response from the crowd.

according to the live stats at the moment- 7.01 to go in the final quarter, the wildcats are playing with 4 on the court- lisch, williamson, redhage and martin- and the 6ers still struggling!!!!!

Mmmmm, yeah, Simpson a good defender and rebounder, but we need him to be mobile enough to matchup on the mobile bigs like Wagstaff and Redhage, who have predictably killed us tonight. Not sure if that's the case or not.

In any case, we better hope the cavalry isn't too far away. A 33 point drubbing on your homecourt on opening night is downright embarassing.

A bad loss against a great team.

Welcome back from injury Redhage!

Ah Clarke back to your shitty coaching ways.

Near the end of the first quarter with 2:30 to go decides to go with Creek and Weigh playing center. Forget about momentum lets put on a Random team for comedy sakes. Lucky for them they hit a flukey 3 to put the margin back to 3. Then to start the second quarter lets start off our import who has been resting for close to 5 minutes (2:30 minutes plus the quarter time break) and put him on over 3 minutes later, what a brilliant idea. We go from 3 points down to being down by double digits.

Sometimes we can come back from this with a couple of 3's so what do we do we keep our best 3 point shooter, a guy that hit what 6 or 7 3's in a game during pre-season, locked to the bench. How Ng could get so little time I don't know. Herbert who was in apparently for his defense got destroyed by Lisch and resembled Mark Nash on offense. Ng wasn't very good in the 2 minutes he was on during the 1st quarter and few minutes in the 2nd quarter but he was on at the same time as the worst team. Put him on when the best team is on then they can penterate to make him open for 3's. Yet we persisted with Herbert and Weigh who played 38 minutes and looked embrassing out there against his old team who obviously have him worked out yet Clarke plays him the whole game almost.

Obviously the defense was pathetic right from the start but having no momentem and poor subs hurt. The sixers having two players out is no excuse either as Perth had a starter out also. The fact is we shouldn't lose like that on our home court. No heart or effort shown.

I didn't think any one man could turn a proud franchise into a joke.

Clarke has me stood corrected.

Congrats on your 3 year plan.

King James, spot on about Herbert. I was in fact comparing him too tonight to Nash. The guy cannot rebound, cannot defend, can't shoot, has little or no pace, but apart from that he is brilliant!
As for Mitch Creek, well sorry but the lad simply cannot play. Worst shot in the league, no skills.
I was conned into buying season tickets again sadly. What a terrible way to impress such a good crowd this evening. The players and coach should be ashamed of themselves. A total embarrassment.

I could have handled a competitive loss against Perth but not a 30+ point blow out where the final quarter and a half resembled a training drill.

Also asking fans to applaud after a performance like that isn't the best of requests... again.

A coach is only as good as the cattle, maybe people should look at the reason he has the cattle he has.
The owners have no money to invest into the team. Therefore you get recruits like helliwell, Weigh who was a bench player from Perth, Herbert basically hasn't played for 2 years, again can't afford to recruit anyone else, Ng is a good ABA player no other NBL club would recruit him. I also believe that our development players are the only ones in the league not to get paid unless they get on the court, yet expected to do all the training.

I say to the owners, get serious, spend some money on a decent team or sell it to Ken Cole and go back to Sturt where you belong!!!!!!

well, poor effort, keep in mind ballinger was a big out for us.

from a personel view we missed a go to guy on scoring and old heads, both of which he gives us.

troubling how we let their medium players turn every rebound into a contested ball.

too many easy shots given up.

we rely on the ball going through many hands to get us an open shot, very little penetration or anything like an ability to finish by beating a man off a dribble.

Sorry to spoil your story Shooter but the Sixers spend the Cap.

Both teams at full strength, I'd tip Perth by 10.

Adelaide had both 4 men out and you could argue that Ballinger and Williamson would have been the teams best two players.

Redhage is Perth's go to man. Wagstaff played for the Boomers this year.

30 points is about where you could honestly pick the result tonight.

Don't jump off the bandwagon, you played the championship favourites heavily under-manned. It will only get better from here.

Then they are not getting value for money, and I know for a fact the development players don't get squat, so stop sticking up for your mates from sturt king james

I am dumbfounded by people who continually dropkick a club cos it loses. When it wins they are the first to congratulate or wanna give someone a hi 5.

End of the day, there are 2000 people who are members of the club. 2000 people tonight would be disappointed however guess what? If the sun rises tomorrow as it has done over the past 2000 years, then it gives us hope to eventually get it right and start winning or giving ourselves a half decent chance.

Its the first game of the season and people already are turning their noses towards their season tickets.

Give it a few weeks, then we can see where we are at.
Jumping to conclusions doesnt help the cause at the moment

I think the problem with the 36ers is that they lack a gamebreaker..They have a team of some of the best role players, but no Mills, Khazzouh, Worthington or Redhage.
Looking at the lineup, it appears as though Clarke has gone out and got a bunch of really good role players and thrust them into the spotlight and asked them to be stars.

Look at the 36ers...
Crosswell: Role player
Creek: Young player, should/could not expect him to light up scoring
Helliwell: Was used sparingly in Melbourne and can see why
Darren Ng: A deadly scorer in the ABL, but nothing more than a 'off the bench' shooter in the NBL.
Herbert: Averaged 19.8mpg in the NBL over his career, only averaged 6.1ppg and he is coming off a fairly major injury.
Weigh: I think he could be the 'star' of the team and the go to guy more than anyone else; But is he really familiar with this role..At Perth last season he had heaps of support with Lisch and Martin who got him some open looks.
Daly: 2nd year player--cannot expect too much
DJ: Is growing into a 'go-to player' in the post..BUT he isn't there yet. Close though.

DJ has improved 50% on last year...
Ballinger and an import and they will improve 15-20 points...still would have got beat tonight tho by 12..

still, if they can make a game of it I will be happy..

Anon prove my facts incorrect then!!

Defense was a disgrace

However some positives
Warren is a real find, was pressured all night by martin and friends and looked composed the entire time, great shooter to boot to.

Weigh looked pretty good too

Really need balls and another import pf.

Helliwell will be a reasonable backup.

Firstly, Perth's defensive pressure tonight was unbelievable.
Welcome back Redhage. Just as automatic as he's always been.
Impressive first half by Wagstaff and Lisch.

Warren: can't be too disappointed with that effort. Impressive shooter. Struggled a lot with Martin and Robbins' defense at times, but showed good control, speed and shooting. Noone wanted to shoot, so can't judge his 2 assists to harshly.

Weigh: struggled a bit. Shots weren't dropping and Perth obviously know hoe to play him. 10 rebounds and missed some gettable shots, so could have easily with other things going his way had a good line tonight.

DJ: battled hard. Nice spin moves, could have finished better at times perhaps. 15 and 8 is an ok line. Probably could have gone to him more. Could be a force this year

Herbert: foul trouble all night. Lisch made him look amateur. Looks slow and was beaten far too easily. Fouled when it wasn't necessary. Not impressed.

Ng: 9 minutes? We had 8 players, get him out there FFS, at least he might take a shot.

Helliwell: finding it hard to assess his game. Looked scared to shoot at times. Hook shots weren't falling. Big body who worked hard. Wasn't great by any stretch, but not our worse.

Crosswell: hmm... Don't know.

Creek: still can't shoot, doesn't have any discernable moves. Didn't fit tonight.

Expected to lose. Expected more than that.
Perth were impressive, but not that impressive
Ballinger needs to get out there asap. New import better be good.

and to add to that Sturt is probably my least favourite ABA team. Also development players usually never make it in the league so whatever money they get helps them while they are studying at uni/Tafe for a career other then basketball.

Helliwel ain't getting paid that much here he is a budget buy because that's all they can afford.
Weigh won't get in the boomers team, it will be full of players playing in NBA, Europe or college with probably 3 NBL players in it he is boomers training fodder at the moment.
Ken Cole was offering 10 million to buy the team and the stadium. And was willing to invest more on both
Like I said they aren't getting value for money!
My source is very close to one of the players

King James go ask daly or warbout how much time they have to go to TAFE/uni/work you will be surprised how they live

Well I've seen the first half now. Plenty to get annoyed about, but I'm gonna stick with the positives:
- DJ looked great offensively - can't wait to see more of that.
- Despite some silly early TO's, Chris Warren looks like the best import we've signed in a loooong time. Great handles, speed to burn and sweetest of all is the man's jumpshot.
- Nate Crosswell looked very solid off the bench. Glad Marty picked him up.

Shooter that is their choice isn't it. Why should NBL teams pay more for a development player, Is there actually one former development player in the league that has actually made a career out of the NBL? To make it to the NBL is a great achievement for them. Good on them for chasing their dreams but If they can't grind out a career from it which will be very unlikely then they need to look at their future options. Other people would love to take their development place in the team regardless of the money they get.

"Creek get aggressive please"
I get the impression from the side that Creek would love to get aggressive and drive hard to the ring and maybe entertain us a more than he is currently allowed. He seems to be going through the motions as instructed and it appears to me that individuality is not encouraged by this coach. If this is the case his natural talent and athleticism which we see only snippets of will be wasted. Tonight in the final minutes he put in a big jam and followed it up taking the ball hard to the ring . The shot rimmed out and he was promptly subbed out. Was a familiar story last season.

As I said this is my impression and I would like to know from others who are closer if I am right. Is Creek on a tight leash?

A rather disappointing start to the season. Perth are rated to win the flag and so this was always going to be tough without Balls and a second import. I hope this is not an entree to a smorgasboard of disappointment.

I ask the question - WTF are we doing wrong? Hill and Holmes were bagged last year, yet slip a different singlet on them and they are different players.

I think the curse is real!

Cole bringing in ten mill..... Hahaha... Comedy of the night...

Perth are a tier above.

Disappointing from Adelaide, but will be better against other teams. Lacked confidence. Creek has not gone on with his potential - if he's not a shooter and not tall for his position, he needs to be the shrewd vet like Boucher.

PGs OK, rest pretty unimpressive.

Tough opponent first up, that's for sure.

We played a team who know how to play together, we just looked like we were trying to figure each other out still. Not good enough from the coaching staff to have a team who look that rough around the edges still.

Unleash Creek to do what? He cannot shoot, so what do you actually mean? What would you imagine him actually doing? We cannot win anything with him in the lineup. Same goes for Herbert.
Impressed with Warren and Johnson.
Ballinger would have made no difference last night, but another quality import (uninjured of course) may have made some difference.

You cant comment on Creek yet!! He is only 19 years old!! Cmon Isaac, the kid was just a standout at the world junior champs and simply has to work hard and on his game and develop.

He isnt going to be a star at professional level just yet. But as the Sixers get players back and get better he will show more and more glimpses of what he can do.

Crosswell and Warren are not good together.
Crossewell crapped his pants when he got the ball in a good spot.

Squid
Yesterday
10:59 9 Oct 11

"squid
Reply #333943
re: GameDay: 36ers v Perth
Unleash Creek to do what? He cannot shoot, so what do you actually mean? What would you imagine him actually doing? We cannot win anything with him in the lineup. Same goes for Herbert.
Impressed with Warren and Johnson.
Ballinger would have made no difference last night, but another quality import (uninjured of course) may have made some difference."

Well---- unleash Creek to have a crack at least. Someone has to stand up and try. He looks like one of the only players that would like to go at it if he had approval to do so. Lets not develop him into a trained robotic set play machine and lose his individual talent and athletic ability that won him a place in this side at an early age.

Almost everyone in the side this first game had perimeter shooting options, hesitated and passed it on, just like all of last season.
No player seems to be hungry or confident to take shooting opportunities where as with Perth any player who had a 1/2 second opportunity from the perimeter put the shot straight up!
If we cant shoot effectively from the perimeter we certainly wont win any games pushing every play inside. Just like last season our opposition just contracts their defense into the key and we seem to make play after play into it with predictable result.
Ng is about the only player that actually gets defensive respect out there from the moment he comes on and did we have any plays set up for him--- none that I could see! Nine minutes for our best outside shooter and no strategic help for him on court!

Perimeter shooting should be our primary option with most set plays with default taken opportunistically inside. It is only perimeter shootin that will open the inside for us without having an unbeatable big man.

No team should have ANY " role " player on the court that cannot score whenever the defense gives him space to shoot. ( Days of Nash )
We need more hunger and agression and license to shorten any play for an early shot if it is available.
We seem to pass up multiple shooting chances to complete a play and put up a difficult shot.

Johnson, great game, a good start from him. Warren, yes very impressive but he is too short to shoot inside under a tall defensive umbrella and should be prepared to take the ball in and dish out to a perimeter shooter to be more effective when the bigs are over him. Looks great but for that.

Why do we have such trouble bringing the ball into play against an extended defence? Why do we stop and give in to the pressure instead of taking the ball at them more agressively. When the defense comes at the carrier to set up a double team it is they that are vulnerable and they will foul most times if the carrier is more aggressive and they have to leave a man free! We have lost the play as soon as we hold the ball up.

We were hard pushed by a top side but I am dissapointed that we looked no different from last season in our first game.

Lots of work to do.

Venting my first game frustration and dissapointment here feel free to tell me if you think I am wrong.

paul, then feed him fewer minutes as he comes along, as happens with other younger (development) players. I know he can produce at other levels which is why I watched the game wondering how he was going to put up numbers. He had one massive put-back dunk but at other times looked outfoxed. To be fair, so did the entire team.

ayjay, I also think they avoid the quick-release three. The shot wasn't always there, but someone like Ng should be putting it up every time he's open. Herbert should get to that level as well. Same with Warren and (soon) Ballinger.

I'd show the 36ers tape of Wollongong passing around the perimeter. Seems they're rarely confident in shifting it along quickly and then taking the shot.