Wow.

Complete shock.

That's home court advantage for you, the Czechs were lifted so high by that crowd.

In case you are confused - the Opals were defeated by the Czech Republic.

Maybe BA should have listened when i posed the question "Does anyone else have concerns for our World Champ campaign?" after losing thrice to China.

Would have been too late to get rid of Graffy I know but now it's time to go before more damage is done.

She should step down immediately.

Nothing wrong with the coaching. Our big guns were obviously heavily fatigued after back to back seasons and didn't come up for this tournament. Making sure they get a decent rest prior to the London Olympics should be the priority.

wow!! something we haven't seen in a LONG time from an Opals team

Big upset and very disappointing outcome for the Opals in losing to the host nation 68-79.

Cambage led Australia with 22, Jackson had 13, and next best was Harrower with 8. Taylor went 2/15 from the field, Jackson 3/15, Grima2/7 and O'Hea 2/7. Our field goal shooting percentage was just 28.6% compared to the Czech's 37.5%. We hit just 4/21 from long range compared to 10/21. We won the rebounds 49-42, but everything else was pretty even.

In other games, Belarus upset Russia, so the Czech's play them in a relatively easy semi-final. Spain beat France and now play USA who thrashed South Korea in the other semi.

A missed opportunity, not al that dissimilar to the Boomers with the exception the Opals had higher expectations.

please tell me are we reffing the wrong way in australia - because the rest of the world seem to be calling it differently.

if cambage at 200+cm attempts to catch the ball above her head when being guarded by a 180cm player - who swings her arms everywhere , does not hit the ball and cambage has a grip on the ball and her arms are hacked and spills it - is it not a foul ?

if penny taylor completes her drive and her steps and is putting the ball up and is fouled. is it not shots ?

if penny taylor dribbles around her player and steps through for her shot and gets bumped off her line from the side by players stepping in - is it not a foul?


apparently no


however the home team were fired up and played well - they were a lot more hungrier.

Q? - summerton - could she have been a better fit when we were under pressure?

This shows just how good we had to be when we won last time.

Could we have run LJ in the middle a bit more ?

let's hope melbourne is successful in their bid for an upcoming worlds.

and by the way - whilst on upsets - belarus defeated russia.

i called this earlier this week - belarus really pushed us - they played hard focused basketball.

that hard hit on tolo with 30 secs left showed they meant business - even though the game was lost.

We got very little out of Penny & LJ in this game (and the tournament generally for that matter). We need to keep things in perspective a little bit. Winning the WNBA championship was a huge thing for Lauren & then two days later she flies half-way around the world to compete in another tournament. You're hardly going to get the best out of her under those circumstances. As for Penny, she was injured in the WNBA finals, again in the lead-up matches and was on the receiving end of some questionable refereeing this morning. I'm disappointed but have faith in the side doing well in London. Ftr, I think they picked the right team going in. It just wasn't our tournament. Good chance for some of our younger players to get valuable experience in the remaining games.

When you try and run your whole offence through a 19 year old rookie with little international experience thats what happens.

haha - 'Nothing wrong with the coaching'. The reason Carrie was sacked from the Phoenix Mercury is the same reason she should be sacked from the Opals: she doesnt have the right mind set for the current international game, same deal with Phil Smyth only 1 year into his contract. Anyone could win the number of WNBL championshps with LJ and the like at the helm.

If only BA had some balls we might still have a chance in London.

She must go.

Well done to Jan Stirling for giving us a resplendent 8 years of service to the once salient Opals team.

'Whatsgoingon' is only interested in mindless personal attacks. For my part, I'm looking forward to the game against the Russians tomorrow morning. Wouldn't mind seeing the likes of Tolo, O'Hea & Richards given some decent minutes.

Well, I hate to say I told you so, but...
You pick rookies and this is the result you'll get. No bench or experinec to make big plays when the stars couldn't. A sad day for Opals basketball. Jan's certianly missed as coach. Graf, move on.

Pardon my ignorance but where has Richards come from? Not meaning to be nasty but i havent seen her to my knowledge. How did Erin go today- i didnt realise it was on.

It wasn't the rookies who let us down. It was the big guns. Try watching the game before commenting.

Erin had no impact.

You are kidding Vic, Erin was only on for 5 mins did great defence with Tully got a couple of rebounds and did a great layup. Wasn't given any oportunity after that what do you expect her to do in 5 mins?

Erin had no impact. That's a statement of fact. The reasons why (i.e. lack of game time) are a separate issue.

Obviously you didn't watch the game Vic and are just looking at stats. I also watched the game and if you did you would have seen her great drive to the basket, her come from over the pack offensive rebound to re-set the play and defensive rebound and also her great feed into Cambage to draw the foul.
Now if you don't call that having an impact with the limited minutes she got i didn't know what you expect. Now if you still don't agree, go back to the commentary of the game and listen to what the commentators have to say they were all raving how well she was doing.
Plus you know what i am a South Australian and are very proud of Erin and i am sick of people like you bagging out South Australian Girl.

Guys, I watched the game & thought she had no impact.

Apart from Lizzie, I didn't think any of them did.

I've been awake all night and all today & plan on watching the game against Russia before I pack it in so maybe my memory at this point isn't the best.

I'll keep an eye out for her tonight.

Carrie Graf must go!... Great game for Cambage and a shame for Penny Taylor and LJ who were absolutely smashed on and off the ball. Cant blame the referring I guess, its an international stage and I was waiting for the guns to really fire up and take it to the Czech' but we couldnt muster up any momentum. The Opals 3points shots were terrible!

Opals down at the half

Again O/5 from the 3 pt line.

Getting heavily fouled again, but have been to the line plenty of times.

Sorry, remind me again why we changed from the Beijing team that brought home the Silver in convincing fashion?

Despite all the hype, Bishop has done nothing. At all. I just feel for Summerton and Screen that would have brought some great international experience to help out Jackson, Taylor, Harrower, Snell and Cambage. Grima doing a great job on the boards.

Surely the person to blame is the Coach who obviously had a big say in team selections, not the players picked. I would assume it was the coach who determined what plays were run and which players were on the court. It was the "guns" who didn't fire, not the youngsters average performance, that cost the Opals the game.

Blind Freddie could have seen that the Opals were slow to cover the open 3 point shooters in previous games. That is what blew the Opals away in the last quarter to win the game. Summerton and Screen were not there so it is only a theoretical debate as to whether or not they would have performed any better than those who were there.

Hopefully Basketball Australia will take stock of the Opals performances and actually do something about it. Both the male and female teams suffer from being a strong team in a very week pool. The European Teams had a lot harder and longer qualification path as well as regular team play in the Europa Cups, etc.

The Socceroos are only now just starting to benefit with the regular competition in Asia, but they also suffer from not having all their players available all the time. At least all the guns play in Europe so they can play friendlies there on a regular basis. It is not practical for this to occur in basketball and I would assume the $$ would not be available to pay the players for an extended training time.

yes bishop for summerton was a dud move.

i like abby and support her wnba move etc - but she was clearly not ready for worlds yet

Summerton and Screen in is not debatable, it's turned out to be a dumb selection move from a biased coach. Summerton has been a part of the senior Nataional team for just under 10 years and when the "big guns" weren't firing in both the Olympics and World Champs, she stepped up. If you pick a team of individuals, that's what you'll get. Basketball in this country is so political and time and time again we see biased selections bite teams in the ass.

Alicia Poto should have been there. She can shoot, gets the ball inside and has the smarts.
Why play the whole bench in the early games and then hardly use them in the last 2 games. They were all up to the task. It was the same old plays with the same old players.

the home team have the momentum - usa will blitz them - but they showed desire and confidence to take on anyone - they are to be commended on that. No doubt they will push usa for a while.

we looked very reactive - not proactive and i agree with the comments of running every offence through a 19yo at worlds is a big ask.

i have deleted all my recordings of the games as the calls just frustrate me - particularly the lack of crucial calls made in the first quarter of the czech final when penny taylor and cambage had the ball in offence.

Good effort to close out the tournament with wins against Russia & France.

I'm proud of the girls and have faith in them delivering the goods in London in a big way.

Lets face it. While the opals are good and could beat most teams, they are not up in the top teir. The USA and Czechs have teams full off 6"1 - 6"3 players at least with quick mobility and agility. They hussel through the entire court pressuring teams into turnovers and bad decisions. They don't rely on standard players eg.. point guard (small) to bigs. They have players of good size and speed who can multi task and play avariety of rolls making them hard to shut down. Time and time again you see players like (sorry) harrington getting burnt up the court. O'hea who has her first step stappled to the floor and is regulary turned inside out and chasing from behind. As well as a variety of others who are really moving on in age. Basketball seems to be more like golf where players keep playing until retirement. Might be time to get real and rethink stratergy and leave out the politics or we may have a bleak womens basketball future at international level.

watching the final - the home team really had the desire and work rate.

they ran a lot of clear out pick and roll, drive and weakside kick stuff.

whilst as i predicted - the usa won easily - it was not a walk over particularly in the first half - it showed what some basic desire to play well and win mentality can do.

keeping it real - very good comments - perhaps the game style way we played to win 2006 is out of date.

Sorry harrington - meant harrower

Opals are definitely top tier. Their overall record at the champs was second only to the US at 7 and 2.

The side is capable of producing something special in London.

Justice has been done that is all I can say..

How a player of Summerton's international experience could be left out of this current team is beyond belief. At 26, and having pulled on the green and gold 107 times as a senior representative and a further 80 times as a junior representative it is a disgrace that she was over looked for this championship. The coaching staff being nieve have gone for younger side and got what they deserved in my opinion. How someone goes from being such a valued member of a winning team at National level to just being 'left out' is a joke and someone needs to be held accountable if BA is serious about this latest result.
There is no excuse.. I don't wanna hear all that rubbish about LJ and PT being worn out after long seasons in the WNBA as that is simple not an excuse for the girls that have being playing professional basketball in and around International fixtures for over a decade now and it's never been an excuse before.
I recall reading an article in the advertiser a while ago and Jan Sterling made the point that at international level it was more then just fire power but how important team chemistry was and the need to have role players. By deciding to run with so many new and inexperienced players on the world stage it's no wonder they ended up playing off for 5th place.
At 28 years old in the next Olympic year let's hope the coaches don't make the same silly mistake they made this time around and they give Summerton and the other girls that have served our national womens team so well one last chance at at olympic Gold!

the americans looked a bit suspect when a switch off the screen occurred with a back cut - the czech girls worked that quite well

Justice has been done? Please.

It's sad to think there are supporters of Australian women's basketball in this country who seem to derive pleasure from the side not making the final.

We finished the tournament 7 and 2 which was the second best overall record of any side.

Laura Summerton is a good player & will definitely be in the mix for London as she was for this team. She needs to perform better than she did in the lead-up games though in order to merit selection.

I think giving the younger players a run in this tournament was the right approach to adopt. Hopefully they will benefit from the experience & be all the better for it.

BDH - was it the role players who cost the Opals the Czech game, was it the Coaching strategies that cost them the game or was it just that the Czech Coach and players were the better team on the night?

They did go on to make the Gold medal game.

The problem with any Coach, Boomers or Opals, is that they choose the players they perceive will get the job done. Obviously Summerton and Screen were not perceived by Graf as being the type of players she wanted.

Unfortunately, the games are not won in hindsight. The Opals went on to beat Russia and France again, so perhaps it was just a bad night, coupled with poor tournament long officiating.