Bendigo in for a rude shock

Adelaide expats played great D last week, but just cant see them getting past dandy who have the guns

Oops I meant rangers ...

Awesome performance Townsville! Well done girls.

I agree they were terrible!!!!!!! Then they walk off smiles I will never to go to another game ever what a disgrace... No wonder there is no sponsorship in this very unimportant game

Townsville really played some great ball. Challenged several times but struck back with some big time baskets.

Dandy's team mentality from last season cracked big time today.

Lots of bitching at refs. Phillips lucky not to be T'd up.

Think Weight even raised his voice during time out a couple of times.

Best team on the day won ...

Dandy struggle big time with McLeod not at 100% ... no other real option to control the point.

Rangers looked like they just expected to play and win ... not good enough in finals.

Great job by the Fire and great to see two teams in their first ever Grand Final.

Both Adelaide and Dandy in theory had more talent, but talent alone does not win finals games against more composed and gritty opposition.

adelaide mark 2 wins !

I'm not sure what business the Rangers would have in Townsville... definitely getting ahead of yourself, Dunkin' Dan!

Awesome game by Townsville, not so much by Dandenong.

Not a huge fan of Mark Wright after watching Dandenong the past two weeks: he sticks to that 2-3 zone like glue (even if it isn't working).

Townsville deserved to win - they played real positive basketball and were superbly coached.

Dandenong played ugly basketball nearly all game although the commentators kept referring to Townsville as playing ugly basketball because they beat Adelaide.

Because the underdog gets up to win its ugly basketball??

The only time Dandenong looked good was in the third term and the bench was playing awesome but then the coach makes the mistake that he assumes the starters will finish it off and guess what - no they couldn't get it done.

They'd lost the momentum - he should have left the 5 girls who finished the third term to start the fourth to continue the good work.

Now they will never know what could have been!

well done Chris and the Townsville girls. Good Luck against Bendigo.

hope there are a lot of red faces in Adelaide.

"Because the underdog gets up to win its ugly basketball??"

In Australia ugly basketball usually means a team not running up and down trying to score 100! Superb playoff game by Townsville today, such composure.

Well, Wright can't coach, and the team have a few prima donnas.

Many people I know were disappointed when they won it last year, as it meant Wright would be reappointed!

They missed the 'salt of the earth' team and role players from last year - they lacked maturity, wisdom and focus.

Ugly...who cares its all bout the score line in the end.....no bonus points cause it looks pretty!

dandy out coached but then Wright an his assistants aren't exactly known as the thinking outside of the box either so once they put a plan in place they don't make many adjustments!

Loved it!
Huge congrats to the Fire. Once again Chris Lucas coaches the hell out of his opponent.

CR: "Dandy struggle big time with McLeod not at 100% ... no other real option to control the point." I disagree. The Rangers looked just fine while Clydesdale was running things. In fact I'd be curious to see the +/- on it because I thought they played better with her than MacLeod at the point.

Excellent contributions across the board for the Fire. Could say good things about every one of them (even Adair, who I really wanted to reach through the TV and throttle every time she committed a stupid foul, but who also redeemed herself in the 4th with some huge plays), but how big were Micaela Cocks' threes down the stretch. It's all very well to burn clock but if you don't score at the end of it an opponent can get on a roll quickly. Couple of prime time daggers she threw at Dandenong down the stretch.

Only thing that puzzled me ever so slightly was why Olivia Thompson didn't get a little more burn - especially when Adair was in foul trouble. I rate Livvy and she played an important role in the win over the Lightning. But it's hard to argue with the players they went with. Job got done.

Bring on the GF. I really did not expect this matchup and at this point I have no idea who to cheer for. Loving both of these teams right now.

Oh, too more things.

1. Ugly basketball? I disagree. I think to most true basketballs fan watching the way the Fire went about overcoming their deeper & more talented opponents that would have been quite pretty.

2. To those people who keep bringing up Mark Wright's name in the context of Opals head coach - these last couple of weeks demonstrate why I disagree. Telling players to "just get it done" is incredibly unhelpful. A timeout in a preliminary final is not the time to effectively tell your team that you have nothing constructive to tell them.

ive got to say if i ever get to coach at the elite level if they played like those townville girls i would be happy man

Dunkin Dan - Livvy was out of her depth yesterday & still needs to understand what a good shot is compared to a bad shot.

Dandenong need to learn how to run an offence. Its either a run and gun fast break or one on one and everyone watches.

Also having played poorly during the regular season and then lifting her team in the playoffs - Kayla Standish is now honourary Kayla StanLISCH. Good job Townsville.

I've been guilty of throwing Wrights name out there as Opals coach, the past two weeks haven't been great for him.

He certainly doesn't coach a great plan-B, but I think he is great at letting the talented do what they do best and play without putting a shed-load of structure around the offence. He's not the guy you want setting plays with 2 minutes to go and the score tied, but his record this season has meant he hasn't been in that position very often.

Annon - 581. A premilinary final is no time to consider rationing out court time for players. Olivia was on for a couple of minutes, looked out of her depth IMO. Lucas made the right decision in taking her out of the rotation based on this & ultimately got the big 'W' against a very disappointing Dandenong!

i will give wright some credit i dont think at any other stage this season has he had to resort to plan B
i think the ugly basketball referral is townsville ability to take other teams out of there game plan and therefore making them play ugly basketball not them playing it themselves

@DD yeah well Dandy looked to play better when Clydesdale was on because McLeod was very restricted in her movement.

No I have not studied the stats closely, Clydesdale bought some energy but the whole team are used to having McLeod at point for a large chunk of the game.

Was just observing that Dandy looked out of balance without McLeod firing.

Don't watch Dandy a lot, but O'Hea was thrown in as backup at Bulleen, but she was in foul trouble ... so pretty much it all went pear shaped for the Rangers.

Just one of those games and right at the wrong time ... lots of comment in this thread about the coach, will be interesting to see what eventuates for next season.

Dandenongs Plan A Did not work so went to Plan B that did not work so had to go to Plan what the F... do we do now

In the end , Adair a little tooo good in the 2 finals games.

#659, Townsville Flames???

If Wright is anything like Buckle I am not surprised they have under achieved. Buckle has no feel for the game and is psychotic. Cannot make adjustments either.

I feel like Dandy just went wayyyy individual. Some of their star players felt the need to take Townsville on themselves and it backfired and was ugly. Townsville did a great job imo despite less "talent" on their roster.

@Sydney -- yes Macleod tried to do waay too much.
So many forced shots and clear to see she was injured. Ditto the forced shots from Jenna in the 4th qtr.