It is a shame. The game originally would have been this Wednesday as we were meant to have our first away game last weekend.

It also mean we wont be able to celebrate it until like his 504th game with the tema not back at home for a month.

I think our last two 500 gamers in Copes and Reesy had their games away as well.

skip, i know its not your job any more, but some sort of banner would be ideal for the home game to recognise it, albeit for 504 :)

or a shit load of maher mask like they did for the big fella, i had a complete wall in the store room at work with rees heads on it, i rekon about 200 of them gave my staff the creeps

I'll see what I can do. Might look into getting some competition organised for the best Banner celebrating Mahers 500th at the next home game in October.

sounds good, mate.


exciting times , trying to find a betting agency where i can put some dosh on bruce for ROY

I am not a big basketball fan of the NBL at all, although my son told me about this website as he plays district basketbal. Anyway, in regards to Mahers 500th game and the thought of swapping the venue, to me that just seems totally absurb. Don't get me wrong great player, great person, great ambassedor for the sport. As with Andrew Gaze, an absolute champion and credit to the game.

But to think that they swapped a venue (I'm assuming we are talking interstate as well) to honour this milestone raises many questions IMO. Of course you want to see these players honoured infront of their homecrowd and fans, but the notion of swapping a venue is a little extreme. This would never happen in other elite sports surely, such as the AFL. I believe the opposing side would be at a very unfair advantage. What if it had been a make or break game for the sixers when they swapped venues for Andrew Gaze? Do they really want to fly to Melbourne to play against a pumped up Tigers team and plenty of screaming fans who want to do it for Gaze?

As I said, it is a fair show of respect for such players and maybe there are finacial incentitives for teams to swap venues for such reasons in a competition that does not generate much revenue from my understanding. Maybe I'm being a little harsh or do not fully understand how the competition operates, but I could never imagine the Crows wanting to travel to Skilled Stadium to honour an Ablett milestone game. A player's 500th game or any other milestone game should be honoured as such, or as pot luck whether it be at home or away, I just feel it's manipulating the game by changing the venue. If the sixers want to honour Maher, then they will give it their all be at home or away and fans will get on board in whatever way they can.

The NBL should have seen this coming and scheduled the 6ers' 3rd game at home.

doc, I kinda agree with you. Although a similar thing does happen in the AFL with the Dogs selling several home games and playing in Darwin/Canberra. I guess money's more important than a milestone.

They did as Skip mentioned a last minute change to the schedule is what is now making it an away game.

As for thedoc's post I'm sure alot of 'elite sports' do try and schedule these things at the 'home court' however swapping venue's wouldnt happen.

And it wasn't really a disadvantage as they swapped 2 games home/away so they didnt lose out on a home game by doing it the dates just swapped around as to which clash was home and which was away.

DJ, that's what I was thinking. It wasn't just a case of taking advantage of a home game but also paying it back. To honour a player like Maker is showing the respect he deserves as well as emphasising the eliteness of the game, so the doc, I do not agree with you. How can you respect the eliteness of the game if you don't respect the player that makes it that. 500 games is pretty impressive and changing the venue of the game for it is not a lot to ask. I do think however that the 36ers admin should have planned this well in advance to make it possible. There's a lot of changes to be made like venue bookings, accommodation, flights etc and you can't do it at the last minute.

#204911, his 500th game is the 3rd game in the season. Chances are he won't have played enough to endure an injury so soon. Besides, he plays a different role now that won't put as much pressure on him.

"Besides, he plays a different role now that won't put as much pressure on him."

Thanks to the recruiting by Ninnis hey EC?

skip, I'll pay you that one.