he also said something about the fouls and hill getting almost fouled out.

we are sick of hearing excuses this is just another excuse for losing.

Sixers from coach to water boy need to be more accountable.

Spectators/fans/refs/stats/scorers/floor wipers can't shoot the ball for you, they can't play defence for you. They can call the subs or make the changed to get the win. They can't instill enthusiasm into Farley.

Just another trite reason for a sub par performance.

Lose by 10 or less and the game could have gone either way. Lose by 10-20 and it's a dirty night. Lose by 20+ and now you start to question players heart.
Seen too many blow outs in the last couple of years. You can waffle on all you like about adjusting to the refs., travel, advantage/disadvantage but these are all cosmetic. Fact is there are deeper reasons for these performances and it is not going to disappear anytime soon as it is part of the fabric of this team. It is their culture.

"Breheny said the 35-point margin against the Wildcats last round had been deceptive because Perth closed the game with an 11-0 run over the final 68 seconds."

Because giving up 11 points to the Cats bench in about a minute is a muchbetter measure of the game than already losing by 24!

Head in sand?

Trying to take some flak/attention of Phil I'd say.

Well lets see

"It's not a criticism of the referees at all. But it is a criticism of how we're not adjusting to the way the game is being called. Obviously we're either too soft or retaliating."

So let's see...Breheney states it's not a case of criticising the refs. He states the team is either too soft or is retaliating and getting caught. He is blaming the team. HOw is that an excuse? The team isnt playing well, they are suggesting that is ONE of the reasons why, but yet it's an excuse.

I'm over it.

we get that yogee
we get that yogee
we get that yogee

we know what it says
what we are saying it is another trite reason for losing, another excuse, tidy it up, wrap it up in which pretty paper and ribbon you choose it is still an excuse.

I am just getting tired of hearing references to the refs. Other teams seem to be able to cope with whatever interpretation they are confronted with.
Gee the pressure is really on this week to chalk up a victory.

Is it shown on Fuxtel?

I don't think it is on - probably a good thing!
Wonder also how much publicity is going to be around telling people that the game is actually on?!
What about doing a special promo to all the retirement villages, as those people would certainly be able to relate to this team.

You are all spot on - sick of hearing each season 'oh we had 4 games in 10 days or 16 games in 42 days - so what its called the bloody season and everyone does it - He could never coach in the NBA - how would he handle 3 games in one week.

His next thing is to find a player to blame it on - he will bring a top player on from the bench cold for four minutes each quarter so they can achieve nothing and then say how bad they have been playing - he did this with sappa, maley, reesy, stiffy and others.

They cut players early in the season, coaches are not except from this - address the problems now i say.

We have a lot of shooters and unless he tells them who will be the main shooters each game we will have not structure.

I know I for one, cringe when I hear

we haven't trained together much
we still haven't hit our straps
we have had a lot of travel
we can't adapt to the refs
we can't fight the crocodiles

the list is endless as soon as I see a press release that starts with negatives I have the feeling that they are just laying the foundations for why they lost.

I'd love them to cover it positively.

instead of saying we've had ex amount of games in ex amount of days and we're tired and haven't trained much - see - we are looking forward to hitting the pine, were pumped for this outing, we've had a lot of time together on the road lately and this team has really bonded.

any one with foxtel would know that Phil comes across as a negative coach.

Could not agree more Prime Minister Blair!
His time out address when all he did was to get stuck into the refs reminded me of an inexperienced coach of an under 10 side!

I couldn't believe it when I heard him say "the refs are not going to call anything, they havn't all game so why now - Watsie is sooking"

What relevence does this have and how would such comments help the team??

Listen to BG and he crams in as much as he can in to the sixty seconds he is given.

love him or hate him he works his butt off as a coach

Do you somehow think we would have won had BG been coaching us that night?

Tony - do you think that Boti gets enough apaper space to be getting quotes before a game?? Look at the majority of his game previews and they are done from a Boti POV, there normally arent many quotes from them.

Also pumping up tends to attract the "woofing gods"....most recent example is as soon as everyone was calling the Crows the unbackable favourites for the flag, the wheels fell off. The woofing god phenomenon doesnt apply just to basketball, or only to one sport.

I guess we have to agree to not have the same POV at this point in time. You feel justified in your stance, as I do mine, and we aren't really going to convince the other of changing that right now.

rest assured yogee the day i start seeing basketball from your point of view is the day i give up.

tony blair = lucky

even sixers33 post are better

I'm tired and very unwell Thomo, can you explain to me please.

if I'm lucky do i need to run out and buy a raffle ticket

or is it you think that sixer 33's posts are better than mine?

Nah - I'm pretty sure I know who Tony Blair is - and if I'm correct, well I am very disapointed.

The start to this season is just more 'same old, same old' in my opinion.

We lost a game against the Sydney Boomers in overtime in which:

* we played ordinary for about 3 quarters,
* Maher actually made turnovers in a clutch situation for the first time in years,
* Copes and Farley shot poorly,
* Worthington had a career game and the Sydney imports came up big and yet could still only get us in overtime.

Hardly panic stations stuff.

We are 1-2 on the road which for anyone who has followed the 36ers during the past few years would not be shocked with. We struggle to beat any team on the road. It took a Maher game winner to even beat a depleted Razorbacks on the road last season.

The Wildcats game was disappointing but we would still be 1-3 if we lost another overtime game to Perth as opposed to getting thrashed by 35.

Smyth isn't calling time-outs?? He hasn't from the day he started coaching the 36ers. He wasn't calling time outs when we were winning championships and still isn't. His lack of time-outs in an attempt to stop an opposition team's run prior to it reaching something like 20 has infuriated me from day 1 but love him or hate him, Smyth has been consistent in this regard.

I don't recall Smyth calling time-outs last year either when we were 9-1 to start the season and won about 5x 1 point games. Anti-Smyth posters might argue that is why we won so many close games!

Ingles is the second SA phenom we have missed out on due to deficiencies in our talent identification. I cannot remember the last player Smyth has picked up from the AIS or the NCAA not originally from SA.

However, again in fairness to Smyth, love him or hate him but he has always shown a preference to veteran players and achieved results with veteran players.

Neither Newley or Ingles will be playing in the NBL when they are 25 years of age so the jury is still out as to whether they will prove massive losses long term. IE losing Ingles does not equate to losing Andrew Gaze as he won't stick around in the NBL for the next 15 years winning double digit MVP trophies. Don't get me wrong, missing out on them is still disappointing but only time will tell how many championships missing out on either of them has cost us.

The big problem in my opinion is we have become stale much like the old Melbourne Tigers became stale under Lindsay Gaze despite always recording plus 0.500 seasons.

It is obvious from the posts on this forum and the dropping attendances that the fans have become uninspired by this 'same old, same old'.

The current team is not awful by any means. We will win around 12 or so of our 16 home games and about 6 of our 16 road games for another 18 win or so season. We will tank games at the end of the season so we can get our preferred match-up only to get knocked out of the ridiculous finals system in one game.

We will go on to recruit other journey men NBL players to complete our roster for next season rather than building for the future and the cycle will repeat itself.

While I can't help but feel as though I know the ending to the story of this season as at week 3 of the season, come Friday, I am sure I will be over the disappointment of Round 2 and look forward to the Hawks game. I just hope there is a bigger crowd than the Kings game which felt like a pre-season game to me because of the shocking attendance.