The conventional logic says Melbourne will rebound, and HCA will win out.

Much will depend on what Perth have left in the tank. Cotton should shoot better, but he also played big minutes.

Can Wagstaff carry his 2nd half confidence over?
Can Stiendl get going offensively?

Be interesting to see how many illegal screens Brandt gets away with ;)

"Be interesting to see how many illegal screens Brandt gets away with ;)"

And how many legal screen Jervis gets called for

Feeling more relaxed about this one as a Cats fan. It always feels like a bit of free swing when you're the away side. Lots of pressure on Melbourne today, lose this and its pretty much series over.

Grand finals feature the best teams and the best refs. Why not the best commentary team?

I wish bryce nailed that first three

United starters vs Cats bench is not going well for Perth much to everyone's surprise

United doing a way better job this game of looking after the ball. To have only 2 TO at this stage is brilliant.

Bloody heal - why every bloody game

"Oh my" and “superstar” is just said to much

He is such a tool.

that's the real reason his nickname is hammer

At least it's not Dwayne Russell commentating

fuck you vague you useless prick

United up despite Ware having a massive donut to half time. There is no way that continues so cats will soon be in a world of hurt.

Melbourne again beating Perth in the possession game with more rebounds, more steals and less turnovers

Why is ware still on court?
Taking stupid shots like that he should be on the bench

According to the box score melbourne have more offensive rebounds than perth.
Perth had 3 possessions that half where they got 3 rebounds in the one play yet stats have them down as 8. They have at least 10.

It's another poor game with guys missing wide open shots, just shows how far behind the top leagues in the world the nbl is

Yes Heal again, annoying, I'm sick of the BS re only one import, Perth Aussie players are better than most imports.
Get the trigger and wortho as commentators.

How was that not called out of bounds by Boone with the ref standing right next to him

So many of Melbourne's points have come off drive and dishes under the ring, ffs start defending it better Cats

Love the Perth time-out "We can't allow lay-ups and dunks in transition"....
Next 3 scores are lay-ups

Down 14, need to go on a little run before 3QT... yeah lets sub in Vague

good sub... offensive foul on transitiom

Vague you spud

"Heal still tipping a Melbourne title.
What a muppet"

I'm still tipping a Melbourne title as well. What's the issue with that?

Oh no. J found this thread. I was hoping he would keep his crying to the other one.

United bench has combined +- of +1. Perth has -10. You can't win a long series with a bench that poor.

I don't want to sound like LV or J, but gees they are using a different set of rules for each tean

Vague redeeming himself a bit this quarter

Refs killed what was shaping into an exciting 4th quarter. Goulding and ware flopped on about 4 straight plays.

NBL has been pumping that 30 of the last 33 won at home or something like that. There's a reason.

Throw in the towel Trev, give the starters a rest

Why is an old damo out there, surely you give him as much rest as possible and don't risk an injury. Throw in a DP.

Refs 2 - 0 spectators

"United getting better of refs

Just like Perth Friday"

So can we expect 700 posts from you complaining about the home cooking that Melbourne got today?

It's funny, Larry taking no chances and the refs have been raping us from the tip-off, but Melbourne did not need any help.

Melbourne are going to take the series, with or without the refs help, simply because Perth's bench is crap.

You can't win a 5 game series relying on only your starters

Much better game than the first, refs didn't decide either game. Melbourne bench better today where as Perth better on Friday. Barlow back to better form.

"Great game United. Hustle was ferocious. Hit the boards with intensity- DJ set the tone on that early.

Casper and United continue to defend Cotton superbly. Perth's role players didn't get going like Friday either.

Possession game is huge in this series. Better decision making with the ball denied Perth the opportunity to score cheap points. "

What about the refs?

Brandt not much time, probably saving his shoulders for next Friday. ::))))

Pledger is close to the Melb MVP imo so far. Not saying he their best player, but close to most valuable. We just don't have much of an answer for him, especially when he is playing on Jervis/Vague or an undersized Kay/Wagstaff. Always gets rebounds and chip in qith some scores. Pretty handy asset for melb in the minutes he gets and can be a difference maker in 2 pretty even teams.

Watch and Learn kids, its all going perfectly to script.

Larry did not want Melbourne to win in 5 or even 3 games, because that would mean presenting in Perth.
So it has to be 4 games, that's the only way.

Don't believe yet? That's ok, just wait til next Friday and watch Perth get mugged by the refs, then all will be clear.

Lmao at # 583 Pledger please, he's a liability, especially on D

Lmao at # 585 you know we never landed on the moon either, that was all a conspiracy, say hello to the pixies at end garden for me.

Damo. Time to retire. Legend undoubtedly. Time to retire.

What brand neck brace will Goulding wear this week. Gotta rest those muscles

"Damo. Time to retire. Legend undoubtedly. Time to retire."

yeah was good 48 hours ago but is now not nbl standard

Surprised at the naivety of some.

Melbourne is Larry's team, Fact.
Larry controls the League and therefore the refs, Fact.
Refs so flagrantly (and unnecessarily) favoured Melbourne even LV was struck dumb, Fact.

But sure, go on believing its all coincidence.

As I said, wait and see what happens on Friday.
If Perth don't get mugged by the refs, I'll shut up.

Disclosure. I'm a breakers fan.

Perth moan about refs, yet get more ref love than the rest of the league combined.

Get over yourselves.

"If Perth don't get mugged by the refs, I'll shut up."
PLease make that true.

#608 I hope you have a good lawyer because if anyone wanted too you could easily be done with defamation as a start

In fairness, his CEO was silly enough to hire a substandard coach, not all plans are fool proof ;-)

LK is a reptilian and has the refs controlled like string puppets, but with his telepathic powers. He requires a game 4 win as the number 4 has cosmic signify and will open a stargate portal for players like Cadee to exit the league and be dumped in another dimension, alongside giving him cheap shipping for First Ever to be sold intergalactically.

LMAO at those pretending that LK is the first time the League has interfered and pushed for contrived results.

Anybody who has watched this league for a while has witnessed games of unbelievably biased reffing.
So I suppose there are a few possible explanations for this:
A) The refs are shit, make hundreds of bad calls every game, and it is simply happenstance when they all go one way in a critical game.
B) The refs are biased in favour or against certain teams, and allow that to impact their reffing, but those biases may change and even reverse from game to game.
C) The refs are cooperating to bet on the games and then affecting the outcomes and spread.
D) The refs don't like getting yelled at by crowds and so engage in home cooking. But may from time to time stop home cooking and in fact favour the visiting team.
E) The refs are dependent on the league for their livelihood, perks, and prestige and so obey directions given by the league, and the league has a vested interest in outcomes they consider to be in the league's best interest.

^^^^
Give it a rest, what an absolute load of shite.

I do recall a year when a Victorian team looked headed for an unexpected championship. Unfortunately the NBL had recently decided but not yet announced to sanction the club for massive salary cap rorting. Clearly, letting them win, then being forced to strip them of their title, would have been a major embarrassment for the league.

Instead the team got totally screwed over by the refs and lost the last two games. Actually there were even rumours the coach had been told to lose the last game.

In fairness the result was the same either way, it just looked a lot better that way.

It's not rigged, the refs just suck

Moller and Hooley chip in playing very good D for around 10-15 minutes per game, grab a few points and Moller take boards, all very useful while the stars rest, especially with Goulding on the floor at same time as he can get a few points.
In hind sight it looks like the reason Hooley was kept and Adnam was let go. Melbourne are very strong through the two, three spot. Goulding, McCarron, Kennedy, Moller.
Home court still should make Perth favourites though.

Perth did well to get this far, but at the important part of the season they still have the same problems that have plagued them all year.

I still find it utterly incomprehensible that after 6 months of insisting that they did not need to replace Hire with an import, they wait until the day after the deadline, then announce his retirement and sit him on the end of the bench.

The dominance of Kennedy in this series is critical and informative. The Wildcats won championships with Ennis and Prather, and we have seen what other brilliant small forwards can do. Yet for some reason Perth hired another shooting guard supposedly to boost their 3 point %, and he has sucked from that range.

Stiendl is too hit and miss. Bottom line is that guys are valued on what they can do when the season is on the line, and so far he's gone missing when it counts.

Same with Wagstaff. He hasn't necessarily gotten worse with age, just more and more erratic.

Perth seem to have no plan to combat Boone and Pledge. Considering they each have a range of about 2 feet, it shouldn't be this difficult to keep them off the glass and stop them shoving it back in. Jervis just seems to have completely lost his bottle since returning to Perth.

Vague I think has had an ok year but he has no finals experience.

I think this will go to 5 games, but I don't feel comfortable relying on home court to bring that 3rd win