It all depends who are the refs for this game and who they have there money on cause that's how it looks when i watch the two playoff games so far and i'm thinking the nbl would want three games in the Adelaide /Illawarra series and Perth to win it two so there got a chance to host two maybe three g/f games.It's all about money.

I'm a bit sick of hearing people have a sook about the refs. It's funny that everyone wants to talk about the foul count in Adelaide, but not that Adelaide won the rebounds by some ungodly amount. Adelaide won fair and square. And as for the refs, they may be wrong, and wrong often, but they aren't maliciously wrong. Just get the fuck over it and play ball.

If you're a Hawks fan, you're not going to be blaming the refs in such a large victory where Illawarra couldn't shoot or rebound.

As per the other thread, I want the NBL to appeal to the mainstream and not be an overly physical grind so i'm content with the 'soft calls' as long as they are *consistent* - if you're a Hawks or Perth fan you'll hate the refs and maybe see it as some sort of home cooking/bias.

I'm hoping the young 36ers - particularly Hodgson and Ferguson, don't get themselves sucked in to doing silly fouls against the Hawks. You can't do that away in a finals match - it can kill. This is one of the bigger threats for an inexperienced (particularly finals inexperienced) side.

I also think LK does see the fact we need our refs to get their act together though judging by his comments to ESPN. More fulltime refs and greater training along with transparent and clarity in direction by the league will hopefully diminish the reasonably valid criticisms on here about refs making doozies/silly makeup calls/general inconsistency. There is no doubt refs are an important aspect to get right.

I think Hawks fans need to understand Sixers have the players edge.

Have the last enjoyment and recruit a Cotton or a Randle if you really want to win.

Oscar Foreman is not up to scratch......

He'll probably drop 5 threes on Adelaide now

If Foreman can drop five threes, Randle can drop ten.

Just be realistic, this is a Cats vs Sixers GF. It will be less painful if one accepts.

Johnson, if it were about the money, why did the NBL and their refs allow Illawarra and Cairns into the finals?

If I was LK and I decided to rig it, I would:

1 Melbourne
2 Sydney
3 Brisbane
4 Perth

Melbs beat Perth 2-1; Sydney beat Brisbane 2-1; Melbourne beats Sydney 3-2

I'd be happy if Foreman could just drop his e

I'd rig it similar but Perth 1 & Melb 4. Melb still wins the semi final series but Perth get 2 home game$$. Then Sydney has home court over Melb for their packed giant $$$tadium in the grand finals.

I don't think the league of the refs have rigged anything. They are calling the game a certain way, Adelaide are ahead of the curve, and the other teams are struggling to catch up.

Plus (not specific to this thread) there are a lot of players who do silly things. Prather annoys me because he'll back off, but just leave his arm hanging out there, and turn what would probably be a non-call into a "reaching in" foul. So stop giving away silly fouls and you won't have a problem.

Little guys like Randle and Cotton et al get a bit more protection, and teams have to take the good with the bad. Can't complain about giving fouls up when you're benefiting at the other end.

Maybe that's a case of the League saying yeah, we want guys like Randle, Cotton, Ware, etc to stay, they are good for the league, and fun to watch. Martin is probably the most respected player in the league, but nobody wants to watch 10 Damos on the court.

Thanks for that Captain Obvious
Next you will probably give us the big scoop that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow and then set in the west.
And then overnight revolve all the way back around to the eastern edge again to rise the next morning.

No they couldn't. Although they could probably find a few soft ones to blow since that's what they're into lately.

Thank god Illawarra get Mayberry and Aylen.I have no problem with these two as they call the game as they see it and are the best by far but the booby prize is either Townsend or Beattie as the 3rd ref.I just hope either one swollows their whistle and chokes on it.Ant man(Randle) is coming to town to play those dirty Hawks.

Anything can happen in this one.
I want a close one....and a game 3.....so here's to the Hawks getting the W.

Whilst I can appreciate Creek's competitive spirit, I think his latest comments (if true) are perhaps a tad overboard. Looking forward to game 2 - should be a cracker.

While I am Hawks fan I also enjoy watching almost every NBL game I can and have particularly enjoyed this season.

For both reasons I am just hoping that the Hawks get this so I have an extra game to watch next week.

To get the win AJ in particular needs to step up. AJ could (never thought I would be saying this) do with watching how DJ has developed a consistency and mental toughness in his game that enhances the natural talent that he always possessed.

I reckon the Sixers might get up in this one by 3 points.

Disclaimer....I only wasted the beer because it's free with my box.

Is that the dude that poured beer on Marcus Thornton? lol

Whats happened to Dwayne Russell? Doing AFL instead? I havent heard him for a while.

Thank goodness John Casey is calling this game which will soften the blow of hearing Rosen and Heal. Was worried it was going to be a Carfino-Rosen pairing.

And wheres the crowd Illawarra? Yes they are loud, but they're small in numbers :(

Randle incredible

Rebounding needs to improve.

Personally think ADL need to stay away from the emotive stuff.

I think the Hawks will benefit from the emotion and tic tac style a lot more - because they have a bit more experience and older heads who can handle it a bit better (Martin especially)

Best thing for ADL and the young group is to simply play basketball and avoid the emotion.

Enjoyed that 1st quarter. Intensity is great. Crowd is in fine form.

Game being called very tightly but consistently so at least. Team who adapts will get the result.

No foul and out on us? Fucking kidding me?

Randle sooking

Randle gets owned twice (2nd one should have been an and-1) and doesn't like hearing about it.
This is great stuff.
Looking forward to his response.

White up to his usual antics

Hahahaha I just became a Kevin White fan.

Randle. He didn't fkn touch you. You pushed him off twice cause you didn't like him in your face.

You are a superstar...just cop what goes with that

Gah, I knew this was going to 3 games.

Daniel Johnson is terrible

Randles beard consists of around 15 hairs, maybe it will fill out when he hits puberty.

Get Ellis off and kay back on Bevo

Best player in the game hasn't hit puberty yet? That's a pretty neat achievement.

if adelaide go back to a zone they will win

There is no real need to play Ellis. Kay was playing well and can score.

Randles lack of d coming very obvious

nice pass Arrogant Ant

PMSL - if Teys is your best player....you're in deep shit.

Why has Clarke been off for so long?

Can't see Adelaide beating Perf in a 5 game series

Classy crowd chanting randles a wanker.....

Great work by the crowd sustaining that chant for so long

Hawks fans, just like their team is full of losers.

lol listen to you lot. Love the Hawks fans sticking it to him. Maybe he should think twice before shooting his mouth off.

Hawks fans giving big business the support they need to say goodbye, good riddance and thanks but no thanks for 2018 and beyond

And the foul!

SOBES MY BOY!!!

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

These refs are a f#*king joke.

What a disgrace what they're doing to these playoffs.

Did Sobey go a full half without flopping?

Hawks would feel like they should be further in front after that half. Still anyone's game.

I thought in Wollongong you're not allowed line ups on free throws at the buzzer?

Was still 0.5s left apparently.

Jacobsen must really hate Illawara - he tends to always get screwed for phantom fouls there. To pick up your third like that hurts.

Still, The Sixers would be happy to be only 5 points down. Hawks will feel the pressure if this is close in the fourth.

5 points down and we were second best all half. I'll take it.

36ers, and Randle in particular, really need to play smarter in transition. Yes, they want to get out and run, but constant one-on-threes isn't going to get us back. Need to pick when to push and when to slow it down and run some sets better in the second half.

Was still 0.5s left apparently.

Superstar
Cocky
Outspoken
Arrogant

Have all those traits...

You are going to get the wanker chant everyday at a Hawks game. Heal would no that. He got it every time.

Nice game going on..


Back to the Randle White incident.

White burns Randle and unlucky not to get the and 1.

White face guards Randle (maybe or maybe not said something).

Randle pushes him off while screaming don't fkn touch me.

What did White do wrong to get the flack from some?

White is just a twat, FSTOS.

Heal would know that.

LK "family orientated sport"
Bogans at Illawarra " Randell is a wanker"

Seriously suits Beveridge's style of basketball. Trashy, offensive and not the kind of basketball you want to bring you kid up with.

As for the Refs, I think it is hard for Mayberry and Aylen being placed with Beattie. That guy has no feel for the game. 5 out of the 8 most controversial/ soft calls have been in Aylens area with an over call by someone else. It's Finals basketball Refs, call your own area, remember the spirit of the game from the pre-game chat and be happy to swallow the whistle a little bit and let the players play.

You know the reffing is terrible if you know the refs names

This voiceover guy is cringe.

What did he do on that play K2N.

Most teams have hard men...even a few cheap shots come from them. Adelaide really haven't got one in this line up although Drmic tries at time but have had players like Paul Rees in the past.

White play uncompromising ball and has made far more a contribution than most though possible.

Not too Dissapointed to be only down by five with randle having a pretty poor half and Sobey not having a great half either and some generally very poor on ball defense. If we can keep it close down the stretch, I feel the Hawks may really start to tighten up. Great game by Teys so far on both ends, along with Drimic he has been one of the main reasons we have stayed in it so far.

Really don't mind the chanting by the Hawks fans, these teams really don't like each other and it sounds like a great atmosphere there. They are paying fans and can try all they want to put Randle off his game. Will make it all the greater if he can rise above it although he hasn't been able to so far. I still have significant disdain for Kevin White though.

Annoyed at the some of the soft fouls called on DJ, Jacobsen and Sobey but I expected something like that would happen after thursdays game with the lopsided foul count. Our bigs need to adjust and not put themselves in situations where they can pick up cheap fouls on the perimeter.

Not really sure where Someone hey got fouled on that last play but was a great finish in an important basket psychologically at the end of th half to bring us within 5.

most thought possible.

I hope he does, ANON.

@FSTOS no idea, I missed it, I was just saying in general.

The faux outrage at the chanting is pretty weak I have to say

But it bothers the Adelaide puritans.

People complaining about a crowd chanting wanker? Welcome to Australia. Toughen up princesses. How many times have us adelaide fans chanted worse for heal or hodge?

Goodbye Coenraad

We're starting to look good

Seems I missed some good banter. did something happen in game or are the boos because of the comments in the news

This game is being called far too tight for mine. I can barely telliot the difference between a charge and block. Trying to play d in the 3rd is neat impossible

Teys haven't a great game!!

‏@illawarrahawks
"Fans please note, Hawks officials have asked the offending fans to discontinue their chant, we apologise for the behaviour"

Brad Rosen is a fkn moron. Bagging Coenraad from going 4/5

Disappointed they told the fans to stop the chant, a bit restrictive if you ask me.

Block of the year by Drmic!

Of course they call a foul

Shooting 59%... "may be the first time this season he's made both free throws". Err...

We're going about it nicely

72-72

Tied game!

Anyone else foresee randle flapping his gums at the crowd and players if 36ers win

Even Joey's laughing at AJ

Hawks tightening up...

Coming home with a wet sail now

Sobey will be fresh for the last quarter but so will Conrad. Shaping up as a great 4th quarter.

Great game. Adelaide have a lot of weapons and it takes so much defensive effort to try to contain Randle.

6ers doing a sensational job restricting open looks for Rotnei and Oscar.

Ogilvy's shot release is sometimes from head height, jump you lazy bugger!

If Oscar or Clarke don't fire in the last Hawks wont win.

I think Rot heard you

AJ soft as hell. No wonder Lemanis didn't want him anywhere near the Boomers.

Drimic gets called for a flop on the same play Drimic gets called for a flop, both should have got flop warnings, that was not a foul and a huge call in the context of this one

Both Drmic and Drmic?

Sorry the second Drimic in my post was meant to be a Clarke

"checking back in, Jerome Randle"

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Oh Heal please take Brendan's .... out of your mouth, you're on national TV

That's a box out not a foul

What the fuck Randle?

Heal's shameless, how that bloke has the gall to even show his face amongst the Aussie basketball community I'll never know.

Sobey the flopping pile of crap!

Where was the T on that Sobey flop

There it is, Sobey the flopper!

That's the biggest flop of the season

CALL A FUCKING TIMEOUT!!!

WHAT A SHOT

Randle's defence is why I fear a Perth matchup.

Cotton will exploit that without a doubt. And when he plays even mildly well, they usually win. I.e. his introduction has legitimately changed them from a bottom 2 or 3 team to a contender.

Man... Randle... one way or the other he's deciding this game and that shot was damn good

I would hate to have to cheer for a flopper like Sobey, don't know how Adelaide fans can do it.

Oh my that dish

Jacobsen christ

Hahahahahahaha Nice flop Kay

Get AJ Off!

FLOP!!!

Ogilvy that was stupid

Nice one AJ YOU FLOG

AJ the dirty cnut

How was that not a tech?!

Joey's pretty snot rag is going to fall out of his pocket.

ogilvy flop and takedown hahahah. MMA NBL

How is that not an unsportsmanlike, one of the worst calls all season, Aylen and co. That is a disgrace

No unsportsmanlike on AJ AHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

That's pathetic.

What the fuck Ogilvie

AJ you fk soft gutless fool. Not a first for him. He is a serial offender and many times at crucial stages of the game.

And Adelaide continue to feed Jacobsen in the post in the clutch... 3 possessions in a row.

The refs certainly want a Game 3

Absolutely ridiculous that's not unsportsmanlike. NBL wants game 3 bad.

yeah sure

AJ plays on my team and I think he's a crybaby. Not a fan.

Is tripping treated similar in NBL as AFL?

Adelaide offense has been pathetic today, really. Jerome forcing it too much, now we're just posting up Jacobsen and hoping something happens? Not sure they deserve to win.

That foul just kept the 36ers alive

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Refs you are an absolute joke

Suck shit sixers.

I think AJ's conduct on that play is worthy of a 1 game suspension.

That is my unbiased view anyway.

Suck it Piss Ant

Yeah, Adelaide have been atrocious on offense this Q.

Oh please

If I were an Adelaide fan, I'd actually want AJ playing game 3...

AJ hasn't got the balls to be dirty. He's just a petulant cry baby.

That is just awful Jerome.

Suck it Sobey, I know you would love it.

Randles ego got in his way in the last 6 minutes. Didn't even pretend to look for a pass with half those bricks

Dirty game by Randle.
I reckon the Hawks are in for a world of hurt in game 3 though.

Our poor offence in the fourth qtr means we didn't deserve to win this game, but if the refs had done a half decent job down the stretch, we could have been in with a shot.

Yeah, I think Sixers by 15+ on Thursday.

Hahahahahah "CHEESEBURGERS"

Maybe give it to anyone except Randle.

Pretty sure Luuc meant he had a crappy game (by his standards).

Umpires aside, Randle lost us that game. No doubt in my mind.

Anon, I think Luc meant was using the term dirty in that Randle had a bad game, not that he had made any untoward play.

That's the randle I want to see next game and finals if they make it.

Luuc taking the piss. Most unbiased poster on here.

Well done Hawks. I get to enjoy another game.

Cant see a win in Adelaide unless AJ grows a pair but we have a sluggers chance just being in the game

No unsportsmanlike was huge in the context of the game, could have turned momentum bug time.

I don't see the Hawks getting game 3, 36ers won't play that bad and won't get such a bad rub of the officials again, first time in a long time they haven't had more ft than the opposition

Good to see Ogilivy stand up again, not. He cannot play in the big games, watch him disappear on Thursday.

Yeah that was not great shot selection down the stretch. But if ever you needed evidence as to how bad the umpires are there it was. I don't think the biggest homer could say that non call was a game altering mistake.

Yeah, sorry ... poor choice of words from me before - especially in the context of this series. I meant he had a "dirty night", not that he did anything dirty.

Randle's selfishness and Johnson's lack of defensive effort at times lost Adelaide the game no doubt, but the refs ought to be ashamed of themselves. In saying that, it's not at all a surprise.

That's ok, we'll just beat them by 15 again in game 3. The NBL clearly wanted a game 3 and they got it. Leg tackles are fine these days obviously.

Also we needed to get Drimic and Ferg in or one at least on some of those last plays. At least gives you an option if you cant get the ball to the man you wanted.

Cant understand how they could miss that unsportsmanlike.

I am filthy on AJ for being so undisciplined when he is "supposedly" a leader on this team.

Whoever the ref was who was covering that area should be dropped as a result. That is not a judgement error that is plainly incompetent.

Whatever the results in game 3, the Wildcats chance of winning the championship goes by 50℅, if they are able to beat Cairns by two games.

Hallelujah, the West is the best.

I don't get it either. You could totally see it coming. And then you could totally see it actually occurring.
Bizarre.

Hawks fans can't really whinge bout Hawks being called dirty. That tackle by AJ was as dirty as they come. What was he thinking. Great too see Hawks win :) Let's hope they can muscle out a win in Adelaide.

It didn't cost us the game and AJ shouldn't be suspended for it either just shithouse reffing as usual.

We'll come out breathing fire Thursday night.

Calling AJ dirty actually gives him some credit for having some balls.

Childish and spiteful are better choices of words to describe his behaviour.

Why? Cats fans afraid of Sixers?

I thought Teys was terrific.
Damn surprised to be saying that especially in playoffs.

Surely the 6ers will win Thursday but nothing is certain. Hopefully more than 1/2 the stadium is full this time - lol.

You are right 33.333..℅

Trevor Gleeson is full of glee today looking. No prize if you guessed it.

"Whatever the results in game 3, the Wildcats chance of winning the championship goes by 50℅, if they are able to beat Cairns by two games.

Hallelujah, the West is the best."

Yeh nah, I wish. This isn't footy.

My take on the USF is Ogilvy was given the benefit of the doubt because he was protecting himself from a leg coming towards his head. I probably would have called USF myself but I can see why it wasn't.

Accused by an anon of "tolling", that's made my day.

Im not going to back AJs actions in anyway, but its funny that no one has mentioned Jacobsen's mentality that running straight over the top of AJ on the floor is an ok path. He put the leg straight into AJs chest and AJ took the frustration out. Both got what they deserved.

edit: Paul beat me to it. Agreed.

Paul usually you get your comments right but that is absolute rubbish! If he is trying to protect himself he will use the arm to push the leg away not grab it!

Not sure if you're just trying to protect Aylen or what.

1) the better team "on the day"* - hawks.

2) Team that "failed to play to their full potential" - Adelaide

3) Team that pretty clearly embarrassed themselves - officiating Crew

Coaching - pretty even actually ,

Joey had to deal with Sobey's fouls, continued to keep DJ actually focused ( mostly)- none of the players had ever played in an away finals game - so all good.

Bevo managed to keep the bench producing 50% of the points, and kept Randle to 2 fourth quarter points, and kept Coeanraad hot and lose for this game.

now its down to one game

and as Bevo said in his conference, the pressure is on Adelaide, they are expected to win on Thursday. He and the hawks don't fear Adelaide but they respect them. said Adelaide has every position well covered by good players.

I'm not seeing any reason for it not to be a T, and I agree that if there is a leg coming towards your face your instincts would be to fend it off, not embrace it as it arrives.

Hawks did the right thing by limiting Foreman's spraying all over the next place today. More responsibility.

If they maintain that responsibility, I think they may still rule a chance.

Overall I thought it was reffed pretty well considering how intense a game it was. I really enjoyed it.
But I do think that the result was as much from Adelaide playing below their usual standard as it was from Hawks outplaying them.

Perth may have had a "wanker" chant back in the Challege Stadium days but you wouldnt see that now. If you go to a Perth game now you'd see that they have a zero tolerance policy on that type of stuff.

Illawarra fans really have an "us against them" battler mentality going on. Some people might not have a problem with it, but its not a good look and comes across as petty and unimaginative at best.

the most disturbing thing re the telecast was hearing about that NBL "master coach" from Shane Heal, so shocking.....

Hahaha ... yeah, that was certainly the low point for me!

I think Whitewind summed it up well. Jacobsen's action means it isn't clear cut.

I agree with Notright that to try and fend it off is the normal action, in which case it wouldn't be a foul at all for mine.

He chose to grab it, which in my opinion definitely makes it a foul, and probably USF, but I can see why the ref gave Ogilvy the benefit of the doubt.

How exactly did the regime "ok" it?
I was there for pretty much every game, and yes there were a few such chants over the years, but I don't recall any of them lasting long enough for the "regime" to even form a stance on them let alone do anything about it. It's not like they went for a long time, that I recall anyway.

Yes back then, but not anymore.

Looking at the replay, not only did AJ tackle Jacobsen, he also flopped right before he did it. No way was that contact enough to send him to the floor, yet there he was, flailing underneath Jacobsen. (And yes, I realise Adelaide have some serial floppers on their team. Doesn't change anything.)

I've made my feelings known as to how the Sixers played today, so I'm not of the opinion that this particular call cost them the game or anything, but there's just no defending Ogilvy or the refs here. He tackled an opponents leg and should've copped an USF. Simple.

And agree with Luuuc too in that i dont actually recall it being a regular enough occurance to be a common thing. In fact what I do recall are notices from management asking to refrain from such language.

On a related note, does FIBA/the NBL allow the refs to review unsportsmanlike fouls? In the NBA, flagrant foul are reviewable, which in this case should have seen the right call made; throw an USF at Ogilvy right away, check the replay to make sure, move on.

Very Old, A few of the boys have played semis in NZ, Melbourne and a GF in Perth.

Agree twenty four, certainly looked like Ogilvy flopped on the play starting off the whole chain of events.

Good teams don't let poor refereeing stop them. We had that game and we let it slip. As JoshP and others said, our offence was atrocious the last 5 mins for several reasons:

1) Randle tried to force the issue, but was defended well and didn't have any shooters to kick it out to

2) Jacobsen played well, but then we got suckered into giving him the ball to make post moves instead of finding DJ, Creek, Sobey or Drmic.

3) For some reason Joey failed to call timeout to slow his team down and get them to see where they were going wrong on offence.

4) And after Drmic had made shots earlier, Joey kept him on the bench down the stretch, giving Randle too few options to kick it out to.

Hopefully we learn from that and it doesn't cost us in game 3. All part of the learning curve I guess for a young team with minimal finals experience.

Re: Big Ads

thanks for the correction, i was just (probably) misquoting from joey's press conference. On reflection at least Creek has played in an NBL series with joey for adelaide in joey's first season - my bad.

Very Old, Johnson Teys and Creek have been with this team for Joey'a tenure. Randle has won Championships in Europe. It is easy to overstate their inexperience.

refs - nah, just embarrassing. No more needs to be said.

Randle messed up a lot today. Getting way out of control many times rushing up the court. Could have had 15 assists if he wanted. In the last quarter he was not interested in using his teammates, many times had Creek with open key way to drive into and he never even looked. His lack of vision as the PG was a worry. Was way too focused on himself beating the whole Illawarra team. Needs to take stock and learn from this. Drives into traffic, was too concerned with trying to get the call from the ref to bail him out.

Randle has really struggled in Wollongong. Apart from his incredible burst late first, early second in G1 (in which he and Sobey effectively won them the game) he hasn't played well the rest of the series.

Can't wait to see how he responds on Thursday. Hopefully both teams are on song as it could be an absolute classic.

BTW, loving the way Hodgson and Jacobsen are taking it at Ogilvy, they've owned him defensively.

Agree. AJ hearing footsteps whenever he gets the ball at the rim.

Unless he can come out even in that battle it will be a hard slog for the Hawks on Thursday.

Kay was better today after a poor first game.

If Ant man(Randle)wants to spin his shit about Hawks been dirty then he should expect a reaction from Hawks fans with he deserved with the wanker calls and for the Aj tackle he was just about to wear Jacobson knee so maybe that's why he did it.I can name Drmic as a dirty player also who has had scuffles with team mates at training and i'm sure it wasn't for playing clean at training.

I'm not seeing any reason for it not to be a T

While it would have been great to send the Hawks flying today, there's actually a few positives:

* Sixers can get a win on home court and celebrate with their fans
* It's probably Oscar's last game so he can say farewell on the court where it all started.
* Sixers fans squeeze in another game - who doesn't like going to the basketball

"Wanker chants were pretty regular in Perth in the early 2000s"

Thank you.

Does Koberulz have a girl? We should get him one somehow

Bendat buys Cats in 2006.
Yet Homocide begins NBL career in 2007 who was the #1 target of wanker chants. lmao at using Lowery as an example, to try to rewrite the time frame

Does Koberulz have a girl? We should get him one somehow

Current regime were there at Challenge.

Maybe he does, but the girl only gets off when he lies about his precious Wildcats.

"but at least acknowledge it existed unlike Haz and Luuc"

I did acknowledge it


"Wanker chants were pretty regular in Perth in the early 2000s"

Clearly we've got a different idea of "pretty regular"


"It stopped sometime around 2006"

That's definitely not true, considering the infamous Saville one in 2008

I don't know why every season people still act surprised that semi final crowds are poor. That happens in every city and has done for about 20 years.

"It stopped sometime around 2006"

That's definitely not true, considering the infamous Saville one in 2008

I don't know why every season people still act surprised that semi final crowds are poor.

True. Semis are always a hard sell. Every team seems to struggle in the semis. However the LK era has brought more expectation, particularly this season. Plus Cairns were able to sell out game 1 in a similar size venue, so the hope was there that the Hawks could do the same.

Illawara won the only way they could. Keep game close, pinch break at right time then hang on.
Mitch Norton was fantastic. "Player of match"for mine. Made a statement with Randle, took him to the hoop at the right time and defensively really did as well as anyone could expect.
I think he will in a real good place G3.

Hawks will need to get hot to win in Adelaide. The 36ers looked good for the most part and then went flat for the last 5:50, scoring only 3 points. Didn't need too much deviation from that to be in a position to win it. Not crazy to think that the missed call on Ogilvy could have had a serious influence. Being back at home with the crowd behind them, Adelaide could easily blow them out.

Hodgson and Jacobsen have definitely had their moments in this series and at times make Ogilvy look like a prisoner of gravity if they catch him under the bucket.

The Hawks starting backcourt trio of Norton, White and Harris don't give me much confidence. I like the first two, but not a huge fan of Harris and think they could be starting Coenraad instead.

Adelaide will win the next game, Joey will out coach Bevo again. Bevo will again fail to get his team into the Grand final.

Anyone know when tickets go on sale for Thursday?

Today mid day for members, tuesday at 5pm to the public

I'm all for a good "wanker chant", if the crowd wants to rouse that of its own, but it's a bit rich of the court announcer to encourage it. On the broadcast he can clearly be heard saying "I can't hear you, Illawarra" during the chant. Give me a break!
As a 36er Fan, i'm really over the yapping in the media about Illawarra being dirty, I think we need to refocus on the actual game. If the shoe was on the other foot I'd be rolling out the Wanker chant too. The irony isn't lost on me though that people are getting legged, and the cheap shots are still coming.

most Americans need to have what a wanker is explained to them

Bevo will fail again, Adelaide into the grand final.

Tim said. "Adelaide will win the next game, Joey will out coach Bevo again. Bevo will again fail to get his team into the Grand final."

Joey should be ably to get the win without going close to outcoaching Bevo. Why?

According to Creek Adelaide's players man for man are FAR superior to the Hawks.