Oh No Lori Chizik commentating her favourite player ever in Alex Sharp! I'm watching with the TV on MUTE...

That's the Jaz Shelley I was expecting to see this season!

Down 20, no Conti, no Froling, no wuckas.
And yeah, way to grab the opportunity, Jaz. Nice to see.

Southside's fizzer of a season continues. Maybe stop whining about every whistle and carrying on like pork chops on the sideline and redirect that energy to playing like a team.

Lori Chizik just loves all Victorians .. Teams, players , Coaches etc etc

Be kind to Lori: She's a national treasure, and great on the commentary. Just checked the scores, how on EARTH do the Flyers keep losing with that roster. The staff from last season must be rolling on the floor laughing.

Townsville will smack them

Yes they will. At what point does Rocci's spot in the Opals become in jeopardy? She’s not even the best guard in her team (who are equal bottom of the ladder). 6 turnovers in 23 minutes tonight, erratic both ends, poor shot selection, poor leadership. Loughridge by contrast was very good, kept them in it in the last, always poised under pressure.
Enjoyable game to watch & was great to see both Shelley & Potter step up to lead United to victory.

Loughridge is proving she is legit most weeks. I'm not sure Cole would have been a problem solver for them as it would have just meant Dallas played less.

Jaz shelley highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thIRDcoWepA

This is the play we have been waiting for all season! What a way to grasp the opportunity.

On the Flyers, no Ersnt (is she going to play again soon??) and Cole hurt them, but... when you do not run any plays for your best scoring weapon on the court in Alice Kunek, you are always going to struggle.

Now that she has overcome injuries, Loughridge starting to realise her potential.

Hey @footloose totally agree with Rocci, she's a battler at best. But what spot in the Opals are you talkiing about? In past she has been in an extended squad and gifted a couple of games for FIBA Qualifying rounds. I think most would agree that right now Jade Melbourne, Steph Reid and Shyla Heal are ahead of her. If Jaz Shelley can reproduce last night's form on a consistent basis then add her. Loughridge is having a break-out season. I agree with you, she's currently Flyers best guard. Her D is average though and should be an area of focus over next couple of years but has strong offensive tools

Rocci was starting in the pre Olympic series in Aus prior to the group heading to Europe wasn't she? So yeah, her fringe spot should be reconsidered. Shelley would want to do a lot more before being elevated, first good game of the season & the first half of said game wasn’t great.

If tensions weren’t already high in the flyers camp, I hope the players don’t watch Harrowrers press conference, brutal.

Depends on the HC I reckon...

Seebohm = 1-Reid / 2-Heal / 3-Rocci
Chambers = 1-Rocci / 2-Heal / 3-Reid
Goriss = 1-Rocci / 2-Reid / 3-Heal

More hype > Shelley + Amoore = probably sit on the fringe atm
Loughridge + Ellis etc another step down.

Next tournament is Asia Cup so no wnba players. = No Melbourne, No Whitcomb and probably No Swain.


Reid, Rocci and Heal should all make the team. Who gets bulk minutes... not sure.

You don't think Harrower will replace Goriss as an AC Weedy?

Just listened to the press conference - yep 100% it was brutal. Is is the players who aren't playing for the coach or does the coach need more time?

2024
HC Brondello
AC Chambers
AC Goriss
AC Seebohm


Goriss and Chambers are both waiting around for the hc role.
No room for harrower atm.

Imo Seebohm should leapfrog them all.

Brondello has been re-signed for next 4 years I think. Waiting for BA announcement soon.

Yep think so, the next Olympics.

Who are they replacing Goorj with?

I read somewhere that they're talking to Will Weaver.
With Harrowers presser, the amount that she put on the players makes you wonder why you need a coach.

Georgia Amoore just named SEC and National player of the week after Kentucky start SEC 2-0. Averaged 25.5 ppg and 9 apg in the two games.

Amoore is LEGIT. I reckon Rocci's time in that space is almost at an end. The youth coming up are better.
@footloose I just watched the press conference because of your note. How can the coach take no responsibility at all?

I'm thinking the opposite, a career like heal. Gets drafted, doesn’t work out, comes home for a bit, does ok, heads to Europe. In and out of opals squads(mainly asia and Olympic qualifiers) but never locks down a spot like a Melbourne.

Amoore is very good at what she does at the college level, but yeah it remains to be seen how that translates against bigger and more athletic opponents. History is not on her side.
I enjoy the way she plays though so fingers crossed.

Amoore seems a capital H Hooper the way she sees the court and attacks the game.

Floor = Shyla Heal/Steph Reid, ceiling = Aussie Becky Hammon ?

Heal is not a PG, agree that Rocci will be leapfrogged by the younger ones. Melbourne with Reid as her back up rn imo

At the risk of discussing the WNBL in the WNBL thread, it seems when they moved some games around due to the cancelled FIBA break they moved a Lynx home game to the same night as a Wildcats home game? Surely not.

I got Melbourne + Reid currently, Whitcomb + Swain to run the point if required.

The University of Canberra Capitals are signing Abby Bishop for the next few games, as the team looks to bolster its frontcourt depth after losing Ella Tofaeono and Meg Jefferson to injury.

Coach Paul Goriss said that Bishop will be a welcome and needed addition to the team in the short term, as she would provide depth and valuable veteran leadership for the team over the next few weeks.

At the risk of discussing the WNBL in the WNBL thread, it seems when they moved some games around due to the cancelled FIBA break they moved a Lynx home game to the same night as a Wildcats home game? Surely not.

Said this at the time. And it doublely socks as it's both teams last regular season home game.

Abby Bishop back at the Caps as an injury replacement. So much for her retiring two weeks ago!

The weirdest thing re: that Lynx game is that it's a Friday night, and the Lynx never play Friday nights. There are no WNBL games scheduled at all for the Saturday, so that's wide open. And the league shuffled the grand final series around to avoid a Wildcats clash last year.

Just bizarre.

I like Bishop but signing for 3 games is bizarre after all the hoopla around her retirement only a week ago. Why bother?

I could probably understand if it was a rest-of-season arrangement but 3 games with the cellar dwellers and no chance of finals? Huh

I say good on em if it saves having to play others out of position. And while finals are very unlikely, Caps have only 1 less win than the #4 team atm so I can't be mad at them for aiming high.

I'm excited to see bishop play again in the WNBL. But I do wonder how that roster copes with the shuffle. She replaces a player that hardly plays, so Ella? Chantel? Charlie? All sacrifice some minutes. Unpopular opinion maybe but Collier isn’t as good as she should be. Money must have been pretty good for Bishop to jump out of retirement a week later though! Good on her!
Hopefully the coaching staff can juggle the player expectations of roles without causing a massive internal problem.

I think I read that Ella is injured & that's why Bishop is being brought in

Yeah I think I read something along those lines somewhere too.

I thought Bishop was replacing a bench player. Jefferson? Perhaps I have my wires crossed

Got to give the Caps credit, they have been really impressive the last three games.

What a signing Ninnis has been. With his extensive experience coaching women and his deep WNBL knowledge he has really turned things around!

Adelaide literally have no depth outside of their starting 5 and they all just look exhausted during 3rd quater each game.

Luuuc lmao!!

Not a good run home for Adelaide either. Have to face the top 3 in the next 4.

harrower gonna go berserk again?

I'd imagine so. Flyers showing very little in the 2nd half, then finally finding some life once it was too late.
Now slide to the bottom of the standings?
Cole injured just to make matters worse.

Really liked Cox & Shiels for the Fire.

Naz was doing everything she could to drag the group over the line. Harrower's presser was classless and highlighted inexperience, surely she got feedback on that afterwards.
Adelaide. They were quite lacklustre in a lot of ways. A long road ahead and likely a last place finish. Absolutely staggering given their talent. Canberra getting Bishop in will help. And you all were obviously right, Ella is also injured.
Looking forward to the sydney v Bendigo game. Sydney winning would give them some ladder separation so for the sake of the drama of it all, I hope they lose. The ladder is a slippery slope for all outside that too three.

@luuuc that is funny.

Finals

In
Bendigo
Perth
Townsville

I hope Canberra make it from bottom although on a good day, Southside is probably the best competition for the top 3.

Southside should have done a Canberra and signed an injury replacement. The loss of Ernst has hurt them tremendously and she's been out months now.

Flyers played 5 & a half players last night, no wonder they dropped off in the 2nd. Raved about Rock after Wednesday's game then doesn’t give her so much as a minute last night, go figure (I thought Rock played way too much on Wednesday for the record).

Agree Frog on they should’ve got an injury replacement, have been expecting to see Lou Brown pop up somewhere now that the NZ league is done.

Hillman is probably the best player in the league right now but the lack of any other big is going to kill the Southside season. Ernst is not the answer she rarely plays inside the 3 pt line and her defence is soft.

Not having another usable import was always going to make it impossible for them and having a Coach that would slam her team in public like she did is going to make the back end of the Season hard work.

The loss of Cole probably ends any hope of a finals run.

TSV out of sorts last night with the new Import and trying to get the rotations right. They were never going to lose once they settled down. They are going to trouble Perth with their size and may get enough out of Cox and Coffey to have a real run at Bendigo.

Looks like the top 3 are set and the rest are going to fight for the 4th spot to play Bendigo in the Semis.

Was Vaughn not usable? Hard to tell with the limited minutes she got.

Quality first half by Geelong. Playing way harder than Perth so far and probably deserve to be in front at the half.

Pull your fingers out, Lynx.

O boards killing Lynx

Some questionable reffing in this one, but at least it is consistently bad at both ends.

Sharp has been very rusty returning to action this season, but always seems to find an extra gear against Perth. Has come up big today.

Atwell gradually getting her groove back too.

Gotta give a little bit of love for the commentary from both Zoe Carr and Larissa Cavanagh this season. Both have been great!

Agreed, Axel

That was waaaaay too close for comfort. Well played, Geelong.

enjoyed the United/Lynx game today, United played hard and made it a good contest, Lynx will definitely need to be better than that as they head to finals!

Is it fair to say that the Flames are very disappointing (not as disappointing as Flyers, but a close second)? They have talent but they are not good to watch, almost boring, is that down to Molloy?

Ernst may not be "the answer" but they looked a sight better when they had her in the rotation, if not purely for an extra sub and shooting presence. It also meant Kunek wasn't having to play so much inside, both offensively and defensively. Carley may not be a brute in the key but her size alone plus shooting are helpful, not to mention just an extra person in the rotation. Kristy plays her starters way too much, no wonder they often start well and then die off.

The addition of Coffey makes things very interesting, looking forward to see how things pan out.

Bluey - I agree Sydney are boring to watch, but they should actually make the top 4 the way the standings sit at the moment. Less differential and two games in hand to the other teams.

I wonder if Coffey is going to make a real difference for Townsville.

I expect she will for sure. They've got nice depth & versatility with her on the roster. Plenty of time left before playoffs for her to find her rhythm and gel with the team.