Martin & Kenny were both important, and Ingram's 9 points more than handy, when we got past the Hawks at home a week ago.
That suggests we need the others to seriously lift if we're going to compete in Wollongong.

The bookies give us a chance - $2.51 for a win, with Hawks at $1.53
I still like the Hawks at that price though. 77 minutes of backcourt is a huge ask to replace in 1 week.

It's a hard one to pick.
When they met in Perth, several Hawks had what appeared to be a quiet night. It will only take one of two of those to step up at home, to turn the tables.

Without Martin and Kenny, and with others out of position, Perth's defence won't be anywhere near as strong, and I fear that will let some of the Hawks off their leash.
Victory for the Cats would require Wroe to really step up, and for JJ & McKay to have big nights in addition to Prather and Knight.

Heart says Cats, head says Hawks.

The Cats do not particularly travel well and I think there are some games they seem very "blah-zay" going into, especially the "lower ranked" teams.

Having said that, Illawarra have not set the world alight this season. (apart from coming out of the blocks like Usain Bolt in R1) Losses to Syd (H), Mel (A), Per (A), Syd (A) see them on the bottom of the table.

My kiss of death is on the Hawks to claw this one and end the run of outs

"The Cats do not particularly travel well"

No team does.

Re the loss of 77 minutes of Cats backcourt, would expect a lot of Zone D from the Cats, and lots of 3's from Hawks. It could get ugly.

Nonanon, No they don't. I think the teams get about 30% on the road.

Jack Toft, I think you should check your facts on teams winning 30% on the road. That sounds very unlikely.

While I'm at it: "Having said that, Illawarra have not set the world alight this season. (apart from coming out of the blocks like Usain Bolt in R1)"... not the best analogy; Bolt is renowned for being very slow out of the blocks! :D

Is Norton back? He'll help the Hawks.

At some stage the Hawks will have another huge shooting night, and put on 100+ points. It's only a matter of when. With Damo missing, the Cats famed D is significantly weakened, so this could be the night.

If that happens, it might get ugly for the Cats. Perth fans might wanna stay back late at work and avoid this one.

If all teams combined get 30% on the road, and the Cats won 6 from 14 last year, you'd consider them to travel especially well! ;-)

It all starts with D. Hawks will run their typical full court pressure. Can Jackson Hussey and Corban Wroe handle it, and consistently get the Cats into cohesive half court sets or press breaking transition/broken play buckets? If not, it'll be a long night and Gleeson will be dreaming of stepping onto that plane and back to the comforting confines of Perth Arena, where the crowd brings the intimidation and the refs help out where they can.

Exactly Nonanon. Perth are better than average on the road. You kind of have to be to keep making the finals.

They were the equal second best road team last year (6-8), fourth the year before (also 6-8), and the best road team the year before that (9-5).

The away team won 29.5% of the time last year, down from 41% each of the previous two years.

The commentators from Sunday's game kept on banging on about a "rare" road win for Perth. They were counting the two finals away losses in the 7 game streak. Thats fine, but it also means they were 6-3 in their first 9 road games of the season. Talk about cherry-picking stats!

I'm going with the Hawks tonight (as much as it pains me). While they may not be the form team at present, the backcourt of Harris, Clarke, Martin and even White may be a bit too much for Wroe, Hussey, DKD and Johnson.

The defense of Kenny and Damo is going to be sorely missed.

Norton is back. He's their quickest guard, he will help them with the pressure and pace game plan, which doesn't suit Martin as much.

It certainly helps having a fit roster, any team losing a key player, or two is going to struggle in this league when up against the odds as has been proven time and again.

Too many obstacles for the Wildcats tonight I fear, so looking for the Hawks to swoop down and pluck a win, by 12 points.

Okay, so damo out is a massive out. Cats at $2.51 I think is incredible value, rarely see the betting agencies give them that sort of money.

Johnson I think will counter the Ingram out, if not provide more. Redhage showed last week that he can still step up when required, I'm guessing he will be asked to do so tonight.

Hawks have lost the last 4 games and are coming off a drubbing at the hands of the kings (17pt loss couldve been worse had Gaze not played his bench towards the end) and the Cats through all their rotations, no knight, johnson/ingram in and out have managed to win the last 4. 2nd spot vs last spot...


Am I the only one that thinks this is an incredible value bet?

The perfect end to the Cats import saga is JJ going for 40 and winning the game for Perth(again).

SC6017 I can't say I'm seeing the same value in the Cats you are, but I like your optimism :)

I think losing Martin & Kenny leaves a bigger hole than most people realise. The things they achieve defensively compensates for a lot of our offensive issues. We're going to need to find a lot of extra points tonight from somewhere.

Odds have extended out to $2.71 for the Cats since last night btw.

The odds are very good value....if you're betting on Illawarra.

"The things they achieve defensively compensates for a lot of our offensive issues."

Not to mention generates a lot of easier scoring opportunities.

Unless Prather plays like James Harden yesterday in a points guard role, I can't see the Wildcats getting up today.

If both teams were fully fit I would say Perth ass they are better but Perth are decimated with injuries so Hawks by 10

Okay so I guess I am the only one.

I've doubled my bet at $2.71. Can't remember the last time cats were paying this much

Hawks from what Ive seen the last few games havent looked that flash.

Although I agree the hawks SHOULD win, I think the cats do stand a good chance.

Cats still have a good defensive presence in knight and mackay protecting the rim, Brandt is solid too.

I doubt Hire would start, my guess is

Johnson
Prather
Wagstaff
Mckay
Knight

Not a bad starting five still.

They paid around $2.50 against Melbourne a week ago. That was with point guards on the roster.

I'd put my money on Wroe starting for Cats.

"Wroe, a development player with 19 games under his belt, is likely to go from the end of the bench to starter in the space of five days with injuries to fellow point guards Damian Martin and Jarrod Kenny."

http://www.wildcats.com.au/perth-wildcats/corbin-wroe-excited-new-responsibility/

Don't get why they'd wanna start Wroe?

Has he even played minutes this yr

He's the only true point guard on the team aside from Hussey. He may not play many minutes but hes more likely to start than another player who is not a true PG.

@ Luucc, yeah Martin & Kenny are MASSIVE outs for the Cats, no question. People forget that in addition to defence, both are good at the point. That's a big responsibility to transfer to Wroe and Prather.
Every Cats win this season has been achieved by grinding the opposition down over 4 quarters. Going to be hard to do that without them.

Cats are out to $3.34 now. Hawks $1.33
Margin 6.5 points

I'm with you, Train. I want actual point guards playing as many of the 40 minutes as we can get away with. It's tough enough competing with 2 guys out. Throwing the balance out by shifting people out of position will only make it harder.

Prather has to do so much for the team as it is, so I'd rather not see ball handling duties added to his workload.
Anyway I've already killed any expectation of winning this game. We could, but I feel like not only would a lot need to go right for us, but a heap would need to go wrong for the Hawks too. All I ask is no further injuries.

It has to be as a starter. Get him confidently in the throes of things.

JJ will come in later and blow his horns.....He is feeling the energy I am sure after being sidelined. Expect no less than his best effort to date today.

Looks to be Wroe and Hire starting as the guards. They ran with Hire at the 2 spot during the preseason IIRC. That kinda makes sense as both Kenny and Martin were high intensity guards not too reliant on scoring.

Massive opportunity for Wroe, he's been in the squad for a couple of years now. This will be a test too see if he has a future in the NBL.

I've doubled up on my bet. Have confidence people. I'm obviously blind but I really do believe we have a good enough outfit to match the hawks, maybe not good enough for an adelaide, kings, bris or united but certainly the hawks!

SC6017 is about to get the shock of his life.

Being a Perth fan it's surprising you disrespect a Bevo coached team

James Harvey picks the Hawks 'easily' tonight.

Bloody hell... black on red vs red on black.. SMH

Brave effort by the undermanned cats

poor coaching by Gleeson for not bringing in Johnson and let him have the ball instead of young Hussey

This red and black vs black and red is confusing and ridiculous. These are the type of things that make the nbl look unpolished.

Who's the leader commentator in this match? (Not carf or harvey)

Also noticed they ditched the LED clock for the scoreboard graphic

Perth doing OK considering

Commentator is Adam Papalia (usually does Perth home games)

Boy oh boy Perth's point play right now is terrible. Wroe just makes bad decisions

I expected this game to be a blowout with the Hawks dominating. It's hard to distinguish if it is Perth playing really good or Hawks playing really bad.

Wroe can hold his head up high so far.

Harris and Holyfield have been fun to watch so far.

I dont often say much on here but damn who picks the jerseys in the NBL? first they look awful and secondly make sure there is a clash jumper so they dont look the same! sheesh.

p.s DD the seat on the plane is warming up

When we're not throwing the damn ball away we hang in there ok. Credit to the D, but we need to be smarter against it.

Can't fault the fight though.

Cats away jerseys might clash with Hawks .....but Damn how awesome do they look. Perth should wear them at home. I want one!!!

Johnson only 6 minutes so far...wtf. Is this evident taht Perth have NO intent of keeping him around. He is still shooting over 60% from downtown !!

Is it my imagination or does Harris get a lot of leeway with travels? Feels like at least a couple of moves have been questionable.

Prather PF #4 is a killer :(

Perth has no reall ball handler at al out there

wroe gets lost off the ball all the time on defence

Surprised to be down only 5 after all our sloppiness. We're still a rough chance if Casey can stay in the game.

Why aren't Perth starting DKD at the 2. He looks good.

4 mins left and Hawks still only leads by 3. Just my feeling but Illawara's backcourt seem to sorely lack playmaking ability. Good at one on one slashing when offense break down, particularly Harris but this game exposed the Hawks' weakness. My guess is they'll probably win the game anyways, Perth will eventually succumb to not having Damo.

Also noticed that Harris' lack of height/length seems to negatively impact his style of play in NBL. He'd be a monster if he's at least 2 inches taller or longer wingspan.

Dumb turnovers by perth are killing them

JJ fouls out in < 14 minutes :/

Gleeson's gonna flog

Stuff Johnson, give DKD his minutes. I can totally see why Perth ditched Johnson.

How's that for an inbound pass!

LOL..
Hawks are making hard work of this easy win

There goes my bet, however I from what I saw I still don't understand how cats were paying over $3.

Regardless of Damo and Kenny being out, Cats still should have won this one.

Silly turnovers,few questionable calls, Prather in foul trouble and Wroe playing 30 mins was questionable. I would much prefer having no true. He was a clearly a liability today, lost on defence, no playmaking at all and disappointed in his lack of hustle.

On the bright side we just discovered what DKD can do.

Not too upset with that loss. Played poorly and no real ball carriers, margin hasn't been as bad as i thought it would be. Always tough to win in Wollongong.

Prather went MIA in the 2nd half,and Wagstaff missing this season all together.

But a positive is they found out Kirnich Drew can play.

Harris legit sounds like Kermit the Frog

at conclusion of this game;

- DKD is a worthy investment - why were we looking for a knock down shooter overseas when we had one all along.

- Johnson's "deactivation" is totally justified - just doesn't fit this team!

- Wroe - a good backup but nowhere near ready to be a starter.

-Harris & Prather - Major contenders for MVP !!

Gleeson is a flog.
DD is a shit coach.

Train: "- Wroe - a good backup but nowhere near ready to be a starter"

What did you see that would suggest he would even be a good back up. From what I saw he's justifiably a development player and no where near ready at all to play real minutes.

Kenny is a good back-up guard, Wroe is not.

Train: "- Wroe - a good backup but nowhere near ready to be a starter"

What did you see that would suggest he would even be a good back up. From what I saw he's justifiably a development player and no where near ready at all to play real minutes.

Kenny is a good back-up guard, Wroe is not.

@SC6017 - I think he was ok in the opening quarter....after that he went missing. But yeah I can't see him warranting minutes behind Martin and Kenny all bar blow out games. It wasn't just his offence, he just didn't stuff the stat sheet like Kenny/Martin. Matin can have a impact on the game without scoring a single point....Wroe just didn't get too that stage so totally see why you say what you do about Wroe.

Marvellous Harris was superb.

Closer than expected. Might have to downgrade my expectations for Illawarra.

Bit concerned about the Hawks. Their team game isn't clicking. They relied on Marvellous' individual brilliance to get the job done. The stats show this too- only 9 assists for the team.

Wroe is at Kyle Adnums level.

Neither should see minutes until the blowout troll gets his wish.

@Train agreed. Perhaps a few years down the track.

On the flipside, if we can come off with a 5 point loss away from home taking into account poor performance, a limited Casey and missing 2 key players. I'll take that.

I worry about Johnson and what we do with him now. I know it's only one game, but surely Gleeson must be thinking about now potentially utilising DKD more at the expense of Johnsons mins

Harris is fun to watch. Great finisher and I get double points as captain in my nbl dream team :P

Perth won't make top 4.. Call it now . They are shit, have zero offense, and are breaking down

Weird game, but I suppose the overall result went to script. Cats sloppy & weak with Martin or Kenny.

Hard not to feel a little aggrieved at the foul count, but perhaps that's just a symptom of the other guys trying a bit to hard to counter Damo's absence.

I said it before the game, and I'll say it again. Why would you start Wroe, and give him so many minutes, putting so much pressure on a DP to carry the can? I appreciate we had few recognised options, and he will benefit from the experience, but a more experienced head might have been better.

Gotta be happy with the way DKD stepped up.

Jury's still out on JJ.
Good to have him back, but he didn't exactly save our bacon tonight. The team is massively unbalanced without Damo & Kenny, so its hard to judge him too harshly, but he needs to step up soon. He may not be the best fit for the 2 spot, but he needs to be able to play it.

Jury's still out on McKay.
His problem is that he needs somebody spoon-feeding him inside, which means we need our point guards back.
Hopefully both these guys will continue to improve throughout the season (as Prather did last year.)

Wagstaff needs to migrate further along the bench.

Can't wait to get Damo back.

Harris again looked the goods. Early tip for MVP.

Prather is the early MVP for sure.

Harris and Randle not too far behind.

Randle should be out in front at this stage, he carries the team on his shoulders and not too many teammates be stealing votes from him either.

Ingram showed potential and I think we were all more than happy to give him more than 2 games (straight off the plane) to show his worth.
Apart from his brief hiatus (when he never actually left or stopped training) JJ has been around for months.
Still giving him time, but he needs to start improving.

On the one hand, he has played 15 average quarters and one great one.

On the other hand, I'm still not sure what his role is meant to be and I'm not sure he is either.

What a shitty low-scoring game.
Still nice to see the NBL credit the Cats with the win.

Dear Damo,

Please wear these from now on.



Actually:



Thanks,
Rickdawg