Yes Withers is a more than capable secret weapon great move to get him on the books. UTDD have pants us too many times at home ffs we need to hand it to them this time.

Yeah credit to the Wildcats front office, Withers an excellent NRP signing

UTD have pants us too many times at home ffs we need to hand it to them this time.

United's season truly is teetering on the brink.

Hopefully history repeats and a steadying win in the familiar surrounds of RAC Arena.

Hopefully history repeats and a steadying win in the familiar surrounds of RAC Arena.

Wlndler is a loss no doubt, still just can't see how united win this unless Goulding goes for forty and Illi gets hold of Cotton to a lowish score. Rillie got cats purring, so should win this by twelve imo.

Here we go kiss of death from me. I got Perth winning this, they on a roll. Get the feels that United age is starting to catch up
Refs are not going to let Illie tie Cotton down. If Golding gets going could be one hell of a shoot out.
Dolittle should have the edge on White.
And Pinder may have his best game of the year, if he attacks teh United bigs early and regularly

I think people are dismissing United too easily.

They have 2 Elite Cotton defenders in Delly and Ili.

Goulding and Clark seem to always feast against Perth and in Perth.

Vickerman is a much better coach than Rollie.

United by 3.

In any sport, when a team hasn't played their best for a long while, you just feel it's around the corner.

It feels like that with United. It won't necessarily be tonight but surely they play a good gane- an entire good 4 quarters or vast majority- sometime soon.

game*

Because the Cairns win was putrid. The Sydney one they almost choked a huge lead. NZ relied on CG's great shooting and some insipid NZ D.

And about 6 losses? So thats about 9 ish games in a row without a strong 4 quarter performance with a range of contributors. Arguably you could throw the Sydney win in that category, but even so thats 1 game in the last month or more

Agreed, at minimum the Cats need to dish out Ili/Delly level intense unrelenting defence on Goulding and Clark or it will be groundhog day at RAC.

Clark has been putting the O in "OOOOOOut of form" lately. Either he's badly injured or he's just going through an absolutely terrible stretch. He's always been a confidence player but this is next level.

You get the feeling he'll go off for 25 soon. Things will revert to their average.

Hoping thats tonight.

I just looked this up-

Clark has shot 25 twice in his NBL career. It's his career high.

Both against Perth!

I did not know that when writing the above post- pure coincidence but it feels ominous! ha.

LV - groundhog day!

Bring it on! Love this rivalry. Hopefully another classic.

Feels weird to be up after that quarter.
MU defended well for most of it but eased off late.

Yep united looking better but trailing. Doolittle does so much at both ends. Refs seem to be reffing to different rule than the previous game.

How's that Pinder foul not called when he blocked Delly!

Half the time in NBL you have to watch the replay 3 times to find the shooting foul.

Then you have somebody sent into the corporate boxes. No call! By somebody jumping sideways (not straight up, not remaining in their initial cylinder, nowhere near it)

How's that Pinder foul not called when he blocked Delly!

Half the time in NBL you have to watch the replay 3 times to find the shooting foul.

Then you have somebody sent into the corporate boxes. No call! By somebody jumping sideways (not straight up, not remaining in their initial cylinder, nowhere near it)

Refs usually wait til 3rd quarter to start obviously favouring Perth

They went pretty early tonight....

Where is Anon?
This feels like the perfect thread for a one-eyed-ref-sook duel

This is genuinely outrageous

A few games ago Shea Ili fouled out after barely touching his opponent

Tonight he's getting mugged every time he drives to the hoop. No calls.

No wonder Vickerman raised it in a presser. Seems to have fallen on deaf ears....

Might as well continue this theme

How does United lose that Bowen challenge?

Also, you should be able to challenge a no-call in the instance where the ball immediately goes out of bounds.

That could prevent a game losing turnover. Or a missed opportunity for game winning free throws.

MU showing some resilience at the end of third, compared to their recent trash.

A better watch than the first game.

Cracking game, better watch because so far the refs have let them play, unlike the first game where they called everything.

MU's recent form is irrelevant when they enter RAC. This feels like most other recent clashes between these 2.

White v Doolittle going down here big time.

Clark and White finding touch has been timely, and might be the catalyst for United resurrecting their season.

I have one question LV, is BC also getting held and beaten up, you know the 4 time MVp, legend that is the ONLY player MU is trying to stop?

Rillie fcks it with no proper big on floor at the end. Terrible closing 5.

White & Doo both huge but kinda cancelled each other out. Delly & Ili the difference in that one.

Let's turn this into a ref whinge battle

I'll raise you the layup they took off Shea Ili, which Damian Martin admitted was incorrect

Anyway, 10 out of 11 at RAC Arena! Pretty incredible. One of the quirks of modern NBL.

Would love watching these teams in a semi final series.

Is that 10/11 for MU @ RAC?

Rillie certainly helped United by starting Doolittle on the bench though. What was he thinking!

Absolute cracking game, Delly, White, Lee, Illi, Goulding fantastic. Perth very good, Doolittle, also fantastic, all else were good but not quite as good as united players. Really like how the refs helped make this game flow.

Interestingly, almost identical foul count to the first game 39 v 38.

Genuinely outrageous

At least it was closer than last time. Goulding could have dropped several triples but through luck they rimmed out, astounding that the action UTD pulled to get him open maybe 5-6 times is just beyond the Cats offensively a lot of half assed screens

Hmm, so as suspected Lv could not even suggest that there may have been some extra curriculum ular directed at Bryce, only the weapon that is Shea Ili...

I have noticed aside from LV 100 times the usual home cooking comments are missing. Is an absence of the accusation as good as an acknowledgement there sure as hell wasn't any? Feels a bit like it.

United will cakewalk to a championship if they can play with that level of physicality and only give up 13 freethrows. Maybe this is how people felt about the old cats teams.

I will say, not sure it's actually impressive from a basketball purist viewpoint if the only way to stop the highest skilled player on the court is holding grabbing, pushing etc seemed to be a heap of it let go, but Cg43 got his freebies for his flails and flops...

Do Perth need to be better, yep, have a plan to really get Cotton open and on the move, yep. Also Windler will help though.

Bryce who?

Ha..

Look, of course the best players cop extra physicality, and especially those who fight over screens and have to do their work over the expanse of the court. whether that's Bryce or CG or Tyler Harvey or DJ...

LV

No players should be a protected or pampered species (like many are in the NBA), but they also shouldn't be penalised just for being good or having an advantage over others (by refs allowing holding and grabbing, etc). It makes a joke out of the rules of the game if you have a two-tier system which rewards some and penalises others unduly.

Agree entirely

I think it goes both ways though- Cotton and Goulding cop so much defensive attention, and their teams are based around them, meaning they're in the centre of whatever is happening on the court at all times.

this has two effects

1. They both cop extra physicality moreso than other players- as I said above.

But also...

2. They both regularly draw soft fouls moreso than other players

It really was finals basketball vibes so exciting in there. Melb can't be stopped in Perth the hoodoo is real, probably need to sub out the welcome to country for a voodoo cleansing ceremony when UTD come next they own our home court it's pretty shameful at this point.

Yeah but Cg43 got open, arguably less holding and he got his foul calls, ref's couldn't even call Dellys obvious hand on hip push on BC baseline pull up. Utd were extremely physical, live in stadium a heap of their and ones loved soft compared to some no calls at the other end. The huge free throw disparity could support this.

I would be interested in stats about the location of the fouls. I lost count but at one stage in the first half united had more fouls committed in there own half than under the Wildcats 3point line.

I continue to hate "playing advantage" excuse the ref's use. One it's not in the rules. Two it's no where near consistent (not just between teams but for the same team in the same game). Just call it straight and make the players adapt.

Was at the game. High quality throughout, both teams looked to attack with aggressive play. The White v Doolittle match up was elite, both players carrying their teams. Not sure how Loe continues to get starter minutes over Lee, has dropped off significantly as the season has progressed.

Found the constant music all game tiresome, just too loud and takes away from the spectacle. Watched the replay just now, the commentary from Anneli Maley was appalling, glorified cheerleader with zero idea. Must be embarrassing for Damien Martin, surely she can't get a gig next season.

Prelude to GF series for sure but cats getting job done. Bit off tonight be high tenancy game. With BC to find a way and Windy back cats have enough positives to be confident. United have shown their hand JR will pick apart. Hard to see them maintaining that style and not getting calls. Ì do fear Sixers as the wildcats to spoil the party. Others too inconsistent to be serious. You don't lose to Cairns if challenging for the champopion ship.

You don't lose to Cairns if challenging for the champopion ship.