agreed...i look forward to boti's article tomorrow!! interesting!~

If I was Phil, I wouldn't have played those 3 at all to not risk any injury. Today's game was of little importance, however the game(s) to follow are vital. Because of Willie's situation, I would have given in and gave him full time on court only because he was chasing the scoring title. Its called strategy. You've got to plan your forward moves to maximise your chances of success. I think Phil did more than enough by giving these players some time on court. That shows strength in leadership.

Maybe it was more about resting players and giving everyone a decent run rather than going 100% for the win when the result and resulting finals paths are not particularly crucial?

Anonymous, what makes you say that there is no confidence in the team to win? They lost by 2 points after barely playing their key three in the final quarter. In those last 12 minutes, Maher, Rychart and Farley scored 6 points altogether and I don't think that that would ever happen if they were really going for the win.

Anonymous no. 2, that is a matter of opinion and not a fact that they showed no confidence for the team by choosing which teams they play. I call what Phil did commonsense. Brett has been plagued with injury all this season. I wouldn't have risked him today but saved him for games from here on. If the end result is the ultimate prize, who cares which teams they choose to play or not choose to play if that is indeed the reasoning behind this.

Yeah nothing wrong with the strategy if we end up winning the knock-out final. However, it was a little too blatant for my liking.

The foul count was 26 to 11 in Cairns favour, Smyth was running the bench for most of the game and somehow we were still up by about 10 with six minutes to go.

It then seems from the live scores (which have been wrong before) that Smyth went with Ng, Hill, Holmes, Gower and Cooper for the final six minutes resulting in the Cairns win.

It is pretty clear what result the 36ers wanted today. I must say I'm not disappointed that we have avoided the Tigers. I'd probably rather the 36ers play the Kings or Wollongong in a 1 game final at the Dome rather than Melbourne who on their day can beat any team in the league by 20.

Anonymous, I see your point, but every team's aim is to get that championship. Phil has been a great coach over the years and his choice of actions need to be respected. Even if they did throw this game, how does it make them undeserving of the championship. They worked their butts off all season to get this far. They stayed in 3rd spot for many weeks showing great consistency on their part. Earlier in the season they held 1st & 2nd spot also. Even their 4th position now is only by percentage points. They have the same number of wins as Townsville who have taken over 3rd spot. Thoughout most of the time they held 3rd position, Brett was out with injury and still managed to win 2 tough games, Wollongong and Melbourne. I wouldn't be taking anything away from their right to claim the championship.

I agree, which is why I, in another thread, said there was something sour about the tactic.

Perhaps fans should expect that a team is not always going to head into a game with the goal being to post the biggest winning score. They will do things like clear the bench if they're far enough ahead or behind, as a means of rewarding all players and giving experience to future talent.

I think the Tigers will beat Perth, but the other first final could go either way -- maybe Brisbane.

It's an even competition and the top five are very strong. Even if Townsville knock out Melbourne and then Wollongong, we still have to face them and they have a lot of scoring power.

I don't think they necessarily fear Melbourne or Wollongong.

The absolute joke of a final system together with the way this season panned out meant that on the final day of the season if we won we would play Melbourne or Perth and if we lost we would play Brisbane or Hunter.

A decision was obviously made that they would rather play Brisbane or Hunter. Not surprising with Melbourne's million games of finals experience or Perth's lets win it for Ricky form they are carrying into the finals.

If today's loss was based merely on the distribution of minutes I would say that the coaching staff didn't care about the result but the subbing of our best 3 players with 6 minutes to go showed that it was a bit more than indifference.

I don't think the decision has anything to do with a preference of Sydney or Wollongong.

I think they only care about 1 game at this stage and that is the knock-out. You are spot on that if 2nd place was for the taking that Maher, Farley and Rychart wouldn't have sat out the final 6 minutes.

If they were looking further ahead than the knock-out they probably would have wanted to seize 3rd as if by chance we end up facing the Crocs in the Grand Final they will have home court advantage.

Lets hope the guys light it up on Friday. Smyth always seems to have the team ready to play when it counts.

I dont believe that the game was deliberately tanked or thrown - rather that the result was pretty much academic and we played accordingly.
Phil was resting players to make sure they were fresh for next week and whether we won or lost and therefore took 3rd or 4th place really wasnt all that important. To say that we went out to deliberately lose the game I think is reading a bit too much into it.

I'm reasonably comfortable with the strategy of throwing the game for a preferred opponent in the finals. We basically had the game on ice, then it looks like we claimed victory in our heads but elected to tank it for other reasons. For this reason I don't think we're going into the finals down on confidence after a loss, I think we're taking a 4 game winning streak in.

Obviously Brisbane (or Hunter)are capable of getting the upset win here, and if they do then I'm sure there'll be plenty of "I told you so" happening here, but as others have said I'd rather play one of those than a Melbourne or Perth, especially Melbourne, a team we've historically struggled with.

I wonder if we would have played it the same if a Cairns victory meant they snuck into the 8 at the expense of another team, as the team who missed out as a result would have a legitimate gripe with the Sixers.

My main area of concern is whether that result will cost me a carton of beer in nbltipping.com - it's neck and neck with a mate and I went for the Sixers this match.

Which reminds me -- I tipped Cairns!

Smart move Isaac.

nah i doubt they tanked it, they just looked to the bigger picture and saved the 3(maher, farley, rychart) guns for the next game, like if u r up by 10 in the last quater there is no reason y some of the bench guys cant finish it off, and it wasnt really much of a must win game so why risk one of the big 3 to injury just to bring home the win, as i wouldnt of even played maher the 30 mins he played if i were smyth, due to him just returning, so i doubt we tanked it, and it also gives the bench guys confidence/opportunity to prove themselves which may be vital in the playoffs

Actually no, I just thought that it would be a danger game from the Taipans looking to go out on a high and having a decent record against us in Cairns recently. I didn't get a chance to re-check my tips after the report in the paper that hinted at the Sixers taking the game easy.

Will be funny if this game decides on who wins the Hoops SA tipping competition mystery prize!

And Anonymous, inside information from Oscar last week was about some new shoes that he got, what he and David Cooper thought of the film "Million Dollar Baby", and on the topic of Darren playing for Sturt, instructions to "tell yogee he's wrong". Not the kind of stuff that gives me a tipping advantage unfortunately!

Shit that was a bad weekend of basketball...we went from thinking we could get top 2 and a home semi to fourth spot and a knockout.
If they bomb out i would hate to see the fan reaction, its now time to see just how good this 6ers team is

What a pathetic cop out to tank to try to choose the lesser of two evils. Annoymous is right. It is a sad day when so called competitive professionals dont go all out to win. As for Nagy trying to put a positive spin, no wonder he is Phils mouth piece. Then again he probably sees nothing wrong with tanking!

some good points people.
i would like to add my 2 cents worth...personally i have always thought a team should never play with form, especially on the eve of finals....however, i also take the point about the sixers effectively claiming victory as they rested their true 5 towards the end. my overall reaction is fair enough, if we would rather play brisbane, but personally i would rather play a tired melbourne team....there record at backing up (only 2 days rest) is not great...but never the less, if we are the best team in the comp, then we should not be scared of anyone...eventually you have to beat everyone.
GO THE SIXERS!!

Jay, just would like to add comment to this quote - "It is a sad day when so called competitive professionals dont go all out to win". Win what, 1 single unimportant game or win the championship? Once again people are assuming the game was tanked. Even if it was, choosing your opponent is going all out to win. You choose a path that your good judgement will see you go further. Phil Smyth possesses great judgement.

If you suspecting fans look back to all the finals appearances then the pattern has always been that players are rested in preceding games irrelevant to where we finish if it is assured that are in the finals.

Philosophy has been that if in finals then rest players for next match as it's the one that counts.

Good point billo about whether players rested if Cairns could have made the 8 with a win at the expense of another team.

We should all concentrate on supporting our team to get them past the knockout round - looking forward to Sydney!

Go Sixers well beyond Friday. You've worked hard under Phil's leadership. Take it all the way. Best of luck for this Friday, but luck won't win it. Your good work throughout the season will.

i dont think we threw the game but just chose to rest players with the finals game this this friday and the guys dont get back until tonight so everything helps towards a win on Friday.
However I would have preferred to play tigers or wildcats on the short back up than bullets or pirates who could both surprise. perth have just played 3 games in the final round and tigers dont always back up that well. I think bullets and pirates are both more unpredictable.

I remember the Lakers did the same thing back in the day rested Magic, Kareem etc for the last few reg season games as they were "injured"

NBA fined the Lakers for the tactic.

Perhaps a quick glance at Tennis and their rule of "not best efforts"

to bad if you had a wager on the game!!!