men or women Anon?

Women

Eastern v North - Mt Barker
North have some lethal weapons in their arsenal. Mavs have Cayla but will they be used to having her around. If Cayla plays, she will dominate but Rockets will win.
North by 5

South vs West - Marion
Don't know much about either except for South have lost Kelson and Browne and gained Truslove. West without Woosnam. Will the younger girls step up?
Best guess South by 2

Norwood v Woodville - Mars
Norwood way too good.
Flames by 12

Centrals v Southern - Starplex
Southern will continue on from last year. Long year for the Lady Lions.
Tigers by 30.

Forestville v Sturt - Wayville
Sturt have the return of the lightning girls but the Eagles are always tough.
Eagles by 5


Men

Eastern v North - Mt Barker
The only word here is North.
Rockets by 30+

South v West - Marion
West will be too strong. No replacement for Scanlon.
Bearcats by 20

Norwood v Woodville - Mars
No real big name changes to the Flames and there have been no rumours regarding the Warriors. So, I'll stick my neck out and say Woodville.
Warriors by 10

Centrals v Southern - Starplex
Southern to be smothered to the Bungey Tantrums. Centrals have 'The Reg' back. That's a definite advantage.
Centrals by 2

Forestville v Sturt - Wayville
Forestville are always strong, they have good development programs, good coaches and very good players.
Eagles by 5.

North by 40(Eastern may as well not even turn up!
South by 2 points (good to finally have ahome game round one and not against Centrals at the Starplex!) This rivalry has been a good one for years now and one that tends to lift South's performances!
Norwood by 30+
Centrals by 8, both teams very close but with Centrals having Reggie back and home ground advantage should get them over the line.
Forestville by 15, easily the better team and have had a pretty good pre season. Any sign of Pero yet people? (if he's playing I may change my tip! ;)

#177508, good point, and they do so it is true! They blood all the guys that show promise and work their butts off at training. But for the guys that don't and or have bad attitudes do not get the opportunity!

Panther, spot on in your picks apart from South beating West. The bearcats should get this one. But i think the Rockets,Flames and Eagles will win by less than you beleive. Rockets by 20,Flames by 12 Eagles by 10.

By "blood" I assume you mean "recruit over the top of"?

Have just heard this, that Sapwell will be a Player/ Coach this year. can someone confirm?

Sapwell has been doing well over summer, the Flames are very light on playing stocks and Sapwell wont be doing the 6ers so will have more time on his hands.

Plus Todd Matthews coaches the team anyways so Sapwell is probably best playing, would not surprise me if he does suit up.

the forestville juniors might do very well this season, playing for the Mavs

They arn't juniors...they are players who have finished juniors, who are not good enough to break into the eagles team so they have gone to play for Eastern!

They may be good enough if they weren't continually recruited over the top of...

'where are the juniors?', i look at it the other way. If these juniors, or players who recently finished juniors were good enough then the coaches would not have to recruit. But they are given no choice because the majority of players coming thru just are not up to it and/or don't want to put in the effort required to get to the level they need to be.

Juniors seem to want a free ride into Abl teams these days. It's just crap! Abl is a very high standard of basketball and only the very best juniors get to have a crack at it...in the good clubs anyway.

'where are the juniors', I would like you to name these players who you think are not getting played enough.

Juniors have to earn the right to play Abl. It's not a matter of finishing juniors and then automatically getting a spot on the Abl side. If they are good enough they will play. Or if they show promise and have the right attitude they will be put in the squad and given a couple of years to see if they can improve their game. Now Foretville are a great example. Harry Harvey is good enough so he will be in the team this year. How much he plays is up to him..he is young and needs to earn courtime by working hard and training and playing well. The eagles also have some guys who show promise, and are working hard. These guys are in the squad and hopefully will grow into good enough players in the next couple of years but really are not ABL ready yet. Of course a couple of these players didn't want to wait so they have changed clubs....that happens. Some players like to take the easy road to getting minutes. Either that or they thought that they would never be good enough to break into the Forestviile team, and so might as well get out now and play for a weaker club who is desperate for players. Thats their decision.

Totally agree "Duh", kids these days just expect to rock up and get an ABL game. I would say that generally only two under 20's will be in a teams 10 player roster each year. You would need to be pretty special to log major minutes in your first year. Yet they feel hard done by. There are not that many players that end up moving for more minutes that end up being quality players so I don't think Andy would be too fazed. Looking at those two players that left, they only finished under 20's last season so to leave after only one year is pretty pathetic and to be honest why would you try and keep them if that's their attitude!

If these juniors, or players who recently finished juniors were good enough then the coaches would not have to recruit.

I guess the coaches don't hold their junior program in very high regard then!

'Where are the juniors'....I think that is a very fair statment.

But I think that"s the point...they are not good enough...You can't make a biscuit out of a dog!

Once again, in answer to post #177874, if they are good enough they will play! how hard is that to understand. If they are only getting 5 mins in reserves and/or not even getting picked then there are obviously quite a few people in front of them due to their lack of talent, bad attitude or poor work rate!!!!!!

...because they are not good enough!

duh, panther, you have both given me something to prove this year. but unless you are both experts on my game i doubt you can say im not good enough before the season has started..

DC, i'm pretty sure I have seen you play a few times before, so don't be so quick to judge. But saying that mate, I hope you do strive by getting more court time. There's nothing better than seeing continual improvement from juniors and showing your former club they made a mistake letting you go. Good luck for the up and coming season.

#178350. You say well done to the Panthers for playing the youth...not sure what youth you are talking about.I would think that Forestville would have as many young blokes playing as South.The only young bloke who was playing minutes for them last year is Mckensie, and correct me if I 'm wrong, but he wasn't a junior! Forestville had Fildes, Harvey both getting good minutes last year with Wornham and Grigg in the 12....all juniors! This year they have unfortunatley lost Fildes and Wornham to college, but Harvey is in the 10, with a couple other juniors rounding out the 12.

Also, the eagles played over 20 blokes in the div 1 summer season and have the biggest abl squad going around because they have just about all under 20's out training in order to get them to improve so maybe they might get to the level required to play Abl.

Not too sure wat else people want them to do. They are not exactly gonna say, 'sorry Mr Oakley and Mr Pero, but we don't want you to play for us this year because we want to give all your court time to Matt de Cure because he was a forestville junior who is an okay reserves player!'

Gimme a break people....