Anyone know the playoff math?

Would love to know too Kobe, this round is going to be epic!

The only one I have looked into was Perth, who can still make it if they beat Bendigo (then giving them the H2H) and Townsville beat Sydney.
Both parts of that equation are looking a lot less likely now than they were earlier in the season.



I was hoping the WNBL website might do a breakdown for each team, but nope, just generic info on how the seeding works unfortunately.

One crazy set of results actually has Bendigo (currently 3rd) winning and dropping back to fifth!! Fire beat Flyers, Boomers beat Caps, Lightning upset Flyers, Spirit beat Lynx and Flames beat Fire and that results in Flyers, Flames, Boomers and Spirit all on 12 wins with Spirit losing out on the head to head. Just have to take it one game at a time and see what remains possible I guess.

Well that can't happen now. Fight between Flyers and Fire for top spot and edge would be with Flyers with a home game over Lightning compared to a home game for Fire against Flames. Now onto Saturday's triple header with the remaining two finals berths up for grabs.

Caps have announced the re-signing of Veal as Head Coach.

Glad they stuck with Veal. Hopefully she gets a better & healthier squad to work with next season.

Looking forward to today's action. Spirit-Lynx has potential to be a good one.

The Caps weren't in the penalty, were they? Looked to me like they only had three team fouls.

While not the result they wanted, it wasn't a bad game from the caps. One of the few times this season where J. Melbourne did not play well but the rest of the team did not capitulate. Lots of positives in a losing season.

Will be exciting to see the continue rise of Gemma Potter who grew so much through having a healthy season.

Missed the first quarter of Southside-Adelaide because the WNBL fixture calendar download had it tipping off at half past.

I didn't think the Caps were in the penalty. I wasn’t counting though, was the broadcast interface wrong or did the refs fumble?

Rooting for the Lightning to close out this upset!

Gosh the ladder this season is so congested. Exciting

The scoreboard in the venue appeared to show them on three team fouls as well. Ref indicated two shots immediately, so presumably rules it a shooting foul.

Townsville having something to play for tomorrow will help the Lynx.

Such a bummer that the Caps couldn't hang on and end their season with a W after playing so well.

No such issues for the Lightning. Turner & the team finished the season very strongly.

Townsville having something to play for tomorrow will help the Lynx.

Can you imagine if the AFL went into the last round with sort of ladder permutation scenario going on? All the talking heads would have spent the week blowing wads over each other.

Indeed. Hopefully we can keep up our end of the bargain now.

Lynx have this, can they still get in the 4? Is it if Sydney lose? And, if so, who misses out? Spirit & Sydney?

If Perth didn't lose Mcdonald for large part of season, they would have been top two on the ladder. McDonald and Atwell are so good to watch, combined with Maley who is just elite on both ends on the floor and very good game sense.

If Lynx win and Flames win, Flames get in. If Flames lose, Lynx and Boomers make it.

Agree JD, McDonald was looking like the MVP. Thanks for clearing up the final positions. I hope Petrik doesn't sit Aari for too long

Credit to Bendigo though, they've helped keep the run home interesting

Dunno why Alabakov keeps talking about bringing back Potter, they've looked better with her on the bench.

Agree Footloose re credit to Bendigo. When they play uptempo rather than slow how they did at the start of year, they are good to watch. Fell at the final hurdle. Love KG23 - she is tough.

koberulz - weird commentator. clearly know his stuff, but general followers would find it hard to follow.

Quality stuff Perth. A stack of contributors making up for Potter reverting to early season brainfart mode.

Well it was fun while it lasted.

Perth so good and enjoyable to watch - hope Ari comes back next year and the rest of the team can also stay together.

Great Perth won, Boomers made finals but can't see them going far. Lucas never plays his bench, been a disappointing season.

Hopefully they can go one up and make the grand final. Could be Flyers we verse both ways even if Townsville win or Sydney win. Perth will be gunning hard for Sydney to lose.

I agree boomers will probably fall out of the race early, but have to acknowledge they really without Reed, Davidson and Wally is only just back on court.

The interesting one for me is Blicavs. 2 shot attempts for no points, 4rebounds in yesterday's game. They will need more production there in the finals series.

Blicavs form all season has been awful & in many games Lucas is finishing games with Blicavs sitting on the bench. Strong rumour out of the Boomers is that there is a significant disconnect between the players & Coach...

SamCro - didn't Boomers just re-sign Chris Lucas for another 2 years during the week? That was my understanding.

Isn't there a disconnect every year with Lucas & the players, yet somehow he keeps getting hired? Why is that??

Is it any surprise that coaches with disconnect to the players keep being hired?
You've just had a coach who's won 6 games in two full seasons, and openly admitted a third of the way through this season that it might be a good idea to bring in some sort of offensive structure, got a one year extension.
If the above applied to any coach in the NBL they wouldn't even still be in the job...

Point is, if that's the bar set. I guess Lucas looks pretty good as he keeps making finals.

Except there is no disconnect between coach and players at Canberra- the players love her (which is probably why the club extended her)

100%. The tears and emotion at the end of the caps game yesterday were much more about their shared experience coming to an end, rather than a close loss or a losing season.

I think the connection also speaks to the community too. Could be a mini riot if they didn't extend her and give her an opportunity to grow with what she has developed. The fact that Jade and Jayda were willing to sign multi year deals shows this as well.

There is no doubt that the relationships between coaches and players are much better at Caps and Perth than Boomers and Flames. Both Caps and Flames coaching staff have this year created teams of players many of whom have improved significantly, that is not the same at Boomers nor Flames. Yet not much positive recognition is going to the coaching staff at Caps and Perth.....while legacy coaches with big budgets at Boomers and Flames continue to be seen as the the high performers.....interesting.

I think you can add Lightning in there too Maybe. Finally got their marquee player back in Talbot & with the improvement from their young guns, namely Bourne & Brazel (Borlase goes without saying), looked pretty darn good and are playing with a lot of joy. Clearly the culture is good there & that starts with the coach.

I'd argue that the Caps, the Lynx, the Lightning with Talbot, and the Spirit at times, all play attractive basketball, in ways that some in the finals do not. That might not 'save a coach with a losing record' but it should be factored in. If clubs want to draw eyes then, in the short term, playing with joy and spirit helps.
Also remember that some of these teams are doing the heavy lifting with development of players that will allow the competition to survive in the longer term.

Veal may be well liked by Caps, but winning 4 games isn't good enough - you still are the bottom of the ladder two years in a row. Canberra need to recruit two high-quality imports who will dominate and influence games (e.g: a big like Turner and a scorer/playmaker) who both are in the starting 5 with Melbourne and Sharp and play big minutes with those two.

Talbot is a genuine superstar in the WNBL, so her influence is huge. A major loss for Adelaide - I think with their finish to the season, Hurst may get a 1 or 2 year contract extension.

With the Flames and Boomers, all players on bench are rarely used and rotations are tight, just the way both coaches like to do it. Probably causes issues (maybe) with players who get little to no court time.

Anyways, huge game this afternoon and will influence the ladder. Who wins? Are Townsville stunbling at the wrong time of the year and can George anchor Flames to the W? or will Fire finally click after a few poor games and get the W and top spot on the ladder?

I'm on Flames, I don’t think Fire have anyone who can contain Richards

Flames have good form on their side, while the Fire are 1-4 in their last 5 games, but they're capable of pulling it back together.
Carrying the Lynx into another post-season would be a very trademark Sami thing to do.
Fire up Townsville!

Zahui B back for the Fire is a bonus I wasn't aware of. Very handy boost for them.

These Sydney uniforms need dark numbers.

Agree Kobe, great game so far

Why not replay that? There's no graphic injury.

Didi auditioning for the AFLW with that very effective hip n' shoulder on Aokuso

Stupid play from Richards. Hopefully Aokuso is just winded

Should have been USF.

More than winded I would think unfortunately

Nope

Agree that caps need some players with more than 80 WNBL games experience and it will be interested to see if the club can attract that type of more experienced player and a top tier import that is needed to be impactful in this league.

George been poor at both ends.

Cheering for the Fire but loving seeing Swain back looking like her old self again

I got Fire, Southside final again. WNBL I can't really get into even though it’s been close. Wanna see different teams in the grand final.

Crazy New Zealand or Brisbane don’t have any WNBL sides yet, purely because there’s no money in the competition. If Larry buys the WNBL they need to start over from BA and make a new WNBL comp under the NBL umbrella.

I think Perth have a good chance of knocking out Townsville with a healthy Aari McDonald.

Sydney did not even look like a team that wanted to play finals.

Absolutely can't believe Perth have somehow (I get the tiebreakers) gotten into the finals, they were terrible without Aari. The MVP of our hearts. Kinda feel for Bendigo a bit, they were so dominant and on the upwards trend in Feb before the FIBA break, finishing 6th does not accurately reflect their season, imo.

I can't feel sad for Sydney, a team full of stars made for finals, can't make finals. There's reasons of course, but them and Melbourne have had disappointing seasons from what we expected. Should make it straightforward for a Townsville-Southside finals series but anything can happen!

I reckon Perth are primed to upset Townsville.
The Fire are limping into finals (both form-wise and literally, with key players still working their way back into form after injuries), and Perth's record when Aari plays would have to be one of the best records in the league.

The series result might come down to whether or not Emily Potter can stay out of foul trouble (unfortunately for Perth, she typically can't!).

Townsville are in a nosedive with tensions high between Coach Seebohm & Sami Whitcomb. Sami would like to play more with the ball in her hand from the 1 spot but Coach Seebohm being clear that this is Steph Reid's role on his team. Hopefully the Lynx can pounce on Townsville’s dysfunction & knock them out of the finals & bury that cowbell at the same time.