If Legan or Lycett get hot then flames would be tough, especially if Legan has a few games like he had during year. If that happens then they can beat anyone e.g. Mt Gambier when he went nuts in last quarter. But recent form would be concerning, but can never count a shooter out of it, just as easily they can shoot you out of it. So god knows. Would say Brine and Turnage would matchup at some stage, as ex teammates they should know the others game as the main event.
Can Webbers and Rojo keep their shit together against experienced team and I put it kindly, boisterous crowd. Suddenly Deano has to coach and not just rely on talent, not sure if he can react well if Norwood do something different to last matchup.
Forestville and North will need huge game from McVeigh and BJ being consistent. Starling and Dowdell best matchup in league to go against Deng and Mays, foul trouble from North would sway it heavily to Eagles. Not huge depth on either side, think Teys will be most consistent out there and lead the way.
So southern and forestville as my picks, but think North and Forestville will have a rematch in a couple of weeks.

Southern and North to win.

No CJ no Southern. Flames then if thats the case.

What's up with CJ, injured?

The mind games from Southern. Every year the rumours hit about who won't be playing. Its BS so don’t believe it. They use any trick and money available to get the win because it determines in their eyes how good a club is. Forget junior results and financial ruin, win a Premier League, buys some rings and all is sweet for the few that matter.

I think west will knock off mt gambier.

Social media is the clue to Southern

North go much deeper than Forestville. Marshell, Harding and Schild bring more than just Rios.

Apologies I didn't get time for a write up this week, here it is albeit late.

Southern vs Norwood
Rumours circulating about Southern lineup tonight but at full strength would be too much for Norwood. Turnage has proven impossible to stop for almost all sides this year. Flames have limped into the finals series with large losses to other finals contending sides. Hard one to predict without knowing who is suiting up.

With Turnage: Tigers by 11
Without Turnage: Flames by 7

Forestville vs North
Rockets took out the previous meeting between these two sides easily and have looked exceptional since a shaky 4-4 start. Forestville form has been building as they get their main guys more time together. Eagles know how to get it done in finals, Norths record has been suspect.

Eagles by 6.

have southern paid their fees to basketball SA or has nyberg had to take out a loan again so that they can play tonight

Well thats odd both of them out. Anyone know the deal.

Yeah southern is toast without those two

Stream on pioneers Facebook page. Very high quality. Looks like a damn good crowd for stand alone women's game.

Is that Bali ? not Ball

So whats the verdict on the great one now ?

Wow, from best and fairest regular season winner to playoffs worst and most selfish in space of a week! Surely he can't be on holiday, that really is unbelievable if so. Deano would have been praying for rain to get it delayed. Flames catching a huge break if so.

Great start from North but looks like BJ is determined to shoot eagles back into it.

never liked dishing out medals before the finals are done

Southern probably haven't paid him so he left

Not sure which is more selfish that or Jones leaving mid season

I think not playing in elimination final unless injured is unforgivable.

not as unforgivable as much money they have spent on PL last few years. Its insane for a club that needed a hefty loan from a parent to stop BSA shutting them down

Anyone know if de wit got injured in the first half?

hope not. liking his game alot. selfless and does all the little things for his team

He did have 3 fouls in his five minutes in first half and seems to be back out there now.

Mays with dumbest foul of year.

Fat cat is right, Dean can only coach with talent.
Meanwhile at wayville North forgot how to basketball in overtime. Can Hawkes get a win next week?

mcveigh too busy running his mouth to realise overtime had started. And finished.

Lol @ anyone saying Deano doesn't make in game adjustments.

Don't bring Sturt in to your beef FatCat. He only coached teams with talent there too and had some failures and I don’t think they would have him back. Nothing to do with them. He is his own man clearly. They don’t seem to have Jury with them anymore which would be a huge loss and completely undervalued. He is one of the few coaches there that gets results year in and out and a Tiger faithful. See his name is not on the Junior list as well so a huge loss there too. This is a Tiger issue and how they choose to run these days. Leave other clubs out of it.

Yep for Deano, hot chips or some dim Sims in 2nd quarter. Can never predict what he's going with, then it's either coke or fanta, totally unpredictable!

Teys choking late in a big game and Majok playing hero ball when someone gets in his ear, could set your watch to it.

He adjusts his belt during the game that's it

CJ in Bali. Mentioned several times champ.

Not getting paid to miss friends weddings I guess.

North will more than handle Norwood.

I don't think North will be that poor defensively again. Seemed to lack intensity plus taking poor shots. Any even then sent it to overtime

Can North handle the pressure of being bundled out again in straight sets and Norwood dodging a bullet will have nothing to lose. Would be concerning with Bj as your point guard taking 13 3 point attempts, didn't watch the whole game but the ones I saw were mainly bad shots. Webber will get inside his head.
Hopefully for Rockets Starling doesn't miss this week to go to movie world.

Turnage was best man in a wedding. Not like he was just on holiday.

Reckon North will be alright and get the monkey off the back. They have lost once in their last 13 games and that was in OT vs Eagles at Wayville last night.
Cant see them losing two in a row, this is a very different North team compared to past finals teams.
Norwood wouldnt even be there if CJ played.

Once again north had no answer to a zone in overtime , expect norwood to play plenty of it.

If north go out in straights sets there will be questions about the big budget spend this season that's for sure ,

Well that's ok then being best man. Maybe mention to the groom not to have wedding in late July or August.

If Southern had finished in the top three rather than fourth we wouldn't even be talking about this, as they'd be playing again next week with CJ back.

Yes it was a risk but it was only a problem if they finished fourth or fifth. The fact that that's what happened is unfortunate.

Fact is they didn't finish top 3 even with their 2nd import arrival and new local arrivals. They should have got the results through the season with their import to make that top 3 but didn’t, they brought in another and it is pretty arrogant if they did hedge the bets knowing 2 would be missing for this elimination final and thought they would be sweet against trams like Norwood. Thats disrespectful to the abilities of other teams and coaches. Relying on the buy in of a single superstar and then another at the expense of the rest of the talent sometimes bites you on the arse. Other clubs have felt the same wrath making similar choices. Consider the arse bitten.

Who were the new local arrivals?

all the sturt recruits he has bought in, he has never developed a player himself in his life, southern have a few good 23/s not getting an opportunity and being recruited over all the time, they should look elsewhere for a game

On the bright side, Turnage, Drmic, Johns and Gilligan wouldn't have cost much, few others would only have been paid pennies, pretty fiscally responsible even though Southern are in a strong position financially, pretty good effort to come 5th.
.......hang on a second!!!!!

Little cost to club? How about waste of whole season and payroll included. Pretty unprofessional. Poor Deano, relied on having best roster money could buy, next minute Mt Gambier, Forestville and North tell him to hold their beers.

Those that know the truth of a club that had to be bailed out of certain closure for failure to pay will not be feeling sorry for anyone. More to what the eye can see. If you knew all that has gone on and still going on. Keep watching. Risking an entire club and alienating many in it sometimes leads to karma. No one person is above a club but while some enable them and blinded by a few championships and their own being taken care of others know the truth and will not be patronised. Many will complain with their legs because its impossible to be heard.

apparently the southern AGM's are a ticketed event now

I think you are assuming that Nyberg was in total control with anyone overseeing him. No way that would be the case in a club. There is shared responsibility for it all out there. The first part of improvement is taking on shared responsibility and working through how to improve, not looking backwards.

Of course you need to look backwards. It's like why history is studied. If you don’t know your history you are likely to repeat errors. You need to look back to improve

Anyhow, back to the great hoops being played at this time of year.
Who's winning this weekend?
North v Norwood at Hillcrest?
Gambier v Eagles at Ice House?

I think Rockets loosing was a smart idea - if it was intentional - made it an interesting game and then just lose it in OT with no effort. They get to play at home against Flames vs taking the long trip down to the Mount. I feel for Eagles speccy's as they have to pay a whopping $18 for a "Game and Show" which consists of a number of little kids doing somersaults from one end of the court to the other nearly breaking their necks in some cases. I would have thought throwing the game would be smart. This week Rockets to beat Flames (all you have to do is piss of Webber and their game goes to crap) and Pioneers to beat Eagles so Rockets ends up playing Eagles again...no major loss.

What is up with Teys hitting Starling and Starling reacted by pushing him. Of course none of the refs were going to penalise them during a final...but all season you sneeze the wrong way and your T'd up. Nice consistency with your ref's Gibson.

Cant imagine North deliberately lost.
Reckon they just thought they had won it and forgot they needed to actually win the next 5 minutes.

He should have been!! And what part of Teys hit Marshall's face

Feel sorry for Dean? Great recruiting? For previous 3 years he had the highest payroll and got a couple of titles and mainly won by sheer talent, not great coaching. Only an idiot could have lost with those teams which he did when McLean and Oldham outmatched him in GF and he didn't know what to do. Apparently it was all these great sponsors they had and progressive management. Guess what happened next,big clubs pulled out the chequebook and caught up and surpassed in talent. Suddenly Dean has to coach on a level playing field with 4 others and suddenly isn't a genius. Then it's revealed things aren't quite rosey fiscally down south, now instead of Brine they bring in Calligeros, hardly a even trade. Then the geniuses must have known that Turnage wasn't available on the 27th, could he as best man asked his mate to bring the wedding a week early, maybe yes, maybe no.
Anyway most don't feel sorry for Dean and Southern, they made their bed, now they have to lie in it. My money is on Deano pulling the pin, not doing juniors is a huge hint. Mainly because he won't have the money to compete next year to get Drmic and CJ back, and they will be back to where they were before he got there, with a weakened club. Maybe he can join Jamie at South and rejoin the dream team. Maybe Jayden can step into the head coaching role, probably all they can afford.
Definitely someone else and the whole committee should be liable for the mess, but they'll be running away leaving someone else to pickup pieces and probably junior fees will go up.
Anyway, don't go feeling sorry for people who brought it upon themselves.

"Move your wedding so I can play basketball"

Just a can you do it a week earlier bro, my team needs me! Not hard stupid.

042 Dean hasn't been coaching juniors recently anyway, so why would that give you any hint?

Asking a bloke to move a wedding so you can play a basketball game is fucking stupid you mong

He's a professional basketball player and is employed to play that game, now his team is out of it. Sure his teammates minded a bit. It's not div 2 social at Mars. Surely in wedding planning a quick check of availability isn't hard.
And mong, is that a Christies Beach insult, sorry, I don't go to slums that often.

He's playing Premier League. Barely professional basketball champ.

last time i checked professional level basketball dont have 6'5 bigmen(apart from barkley but you get my point)

Is basketball his sole means of income? Did southern pay a decent wage just for him to play and do some clinics? Yes, he is a professional player in a semi professional league. If that's all you took away from statement you are in fact a moron, thanks champ.

i can't believe CJ would be selfish enough to choose being a friends best man over a basketball game. Absolutely disgusting. Can’t believe his friend would even dare plan a wedding on a weekend a friend could possibly have a basketball game on. Just a shitty bunch of people in general, hey 075. Just as bad as all the Forestville players who chose Sobeys wedding rather over a basketball game.

I doubt Southern thought they were going to finish anywhere near 4th or 5th so when CJ advised them at the start of the year they could absorb his absence because they would have had the double chance. Drmic goes down mid year and that theory went to sh*t real quick. But that is sport, injuries happen.

Let's not forget Dean outcoached Andy in last year’s GF and made most of the basketball supporters in the state very happy!

lets not forget that southern nearly weren't allowed to play in that grand final until deano bailed them out financially

Don't think Dean was responsible for Teys and Johnson forgetting how to play basketball.

You're right, it was all Dean causing them to miss countless open shots.

Gets results sends them bankrupt

Yep, turned them around with mountains of cash, genius coach there. Are people so blind not to see that, compare the players that went there on big money opposed to other teams. Now other teams joined the arms race and he finished 4th after minor round, wake up people! Some people really are in denial, or deanial, boom tish!

I'm guessing Forestville spent nothing last year. Did they run out of brown paper bags in the bar???

Yeah, North started hoarding all of them well in advance for this year's team.