This is the first game in a long time that i think Adelaide are favourites! I dont care what the betting agencies say, Adelaide canot lose this game, purely due to how much better there offense is, based on last game. Smothering in spurts, all they can assume, is that the Tigers will mentally fold sooner than the Hawks. Go 6ers!

To be top 4 a team needs away wins. For the Sixers to be considered as a finals option this is the type of game they need to win.

Melbourne have the height advantage and the inclusion of Homocide has strengthened their back court and made their 7 footers more effective. The question is can we contain Homocide? I think the answer is yes.
The back court pressure we are applying this year should be the difference.

I'm expecting Trigger to go trigger happy and score at least 20, he's well overdue. Devendorf will be good and a double double for Nevill.

Nevill's the big worry for me, if they actually use him offensively.

I'll take Sixers by 9. With Homicide to have a 'dirty' triple-double.

Should be a good game to watch to see how Marty takes on such a tall team, whether we change tactics or not.

To me DJ has to have a big impact and really stand up in this game. He needs to go out there with something to prove, and then do it. No more nervousness or Balls is going to have his hands full in D.
I expect another big rebounding and defensive performance for Holmes, the Tigers team suit everything for a player like him in my opinion, give him a 7ft guy and 8/10 times he will keep them out of the key. Will have to watch out for fouls though.
Will be interesting to see if Hill can backup from last game, different team and he's never been successful against taller players.
Ng should be able to go crazy in this game again with speed over the bigs
Shannon/Bruce and Homicide will be a good match up, the D that was put on Ervin last week really stopped his game, if they do that again then I'd almost guarentee a win.
I would give a fair bit of court time to Creek this game, his ability to drive and constantly draw fouls from bigs, or just step around them will really put the Tigers under alot of pressure later in the game Foul wise.

I seem to recall Cameron Tragardh scoring a lot here against us easily with his ole team, but now has to play a shuffle.
Will be interesting to see where both teams are at
NYE's performance surprised many. Hope we don't throw away a performance like that.
We gotta get this one. I expect to. Gonna be a bit hard to take if we don't.
Might try Ng to top score, maybe.. sixers by 6.

I just cant see Davendorf being able to keep up with Ng through our offence.

This will test our zone offence as well tonight. Expect a 1-3-1 IMO.

Great. Lets see how Ray *unt goes. $5 bet Balls for a travel within the first 5 minutes that is simple not there.

I think this is going to be a great game. Looking foward to watching it. Sixers by 2.

I think the umpires have already decided which team is going to win!!!

I think this game has the makings to be a real cracker.

Two really different teams.

Could go either way, but I think Adelaide has momentum and can win by 1.

Sixers don't even look like scoring so far. Pretty lame effort that quarter, at both ends.

Nevill.

lives

lives

Not going well so far. Though we are playing 5 on 8.

No answer for Nevill.

I think I understand how Nevill gets so many turnovers now. The Melbourne stats people don't know the difference between a blocked FG and a turnover. Dowdell's blocked him twice and yet Nevill's still 100%FG with 2TOs.

Not lookin good...

How was that no-call on Howard! They could've at least called holding-the-ball. FFS!

Go away anon194. 4/2/1/1 in 11 minutes. Shooting 2/5 despite being hammered on his last attempt.

Good call on Nevill X. He's killing us so far.
Sixers don't appear to be mentally up for this game IMO

Not looking great at the half. Back to earth a bit for Ng and Hill, and the 3 fouls on Ballinger have hurt badly. Not sure how we are going to pull this one out. Tigers out shooting us 55% to 29% from the floor.

That non-call on Howard was a f*cking disgrace.

Johnson has statted well but I think he's given up quite a few more than the 8 points he's scored.

Oh, I will throw in too that Melbourne has actually played really well so far.

Wow, didn't expect the Sixers to be playing this badly. Defense has been horrible, no help d

Nevill has been the difference at both ends of the court.

Big tactical mistake putting Ballinger on Neville.

Against that line up, Johnson/Dowdell on their centre with Ballinger could have been a match winner as a forward/4 man.

He is now virtually out of the game with 3 fouls just after 1/4 time. Has not scored. Marty was expecting too much of him after Neville's last strong game against Sydney.

Pretty bad shooting and defensive effort so far, the zone has not worked.

What's with Hill hitting the top of the backboard and airballs from the corner?

Why did'nt Holmes (who was doing well on D - hardly play in the 2nd?

Darren etc need to hit some 3's and defense has to tighten dramatically for us to win.

I wouldn't be using the shithouse refereeing as an excuse (just yet), but there have been at least 3 blatant out-of-bounds calls that they have got wrong already. How hard can it be?

It did appear that way but the camera angle made it difficult to be certain.

Brad Hill ain't alone either. This is pathetic stuff.

Most frustrating game to watch. Pathetic D.

Let's all start bashing Hill again now hey?! He actually looks like the drop in confidence would do him some good. Too many poor shot attempts that quarter.

YES BALLS!!!! That's what I like to see. Show some f%#%ing heart. Can't believe he didn't get ejected actually...

I don't say positive things about refs often, and even less so about Ray Hunt, but it was impressive how he put himself in the middle of that altercation that Ballinger started and difused the situation. Well done.

Scoreboard not working. Restart game at 0 each?

6ers woeful in offence shooting at a very poor clip, and yet even wose on defence. Where was the full court pressure in the first half?

Heart? Aggression? Frustration? Shit at least it's something.

Horrhendous game so far tonight.
Absolutely no answer for Nevill early.
Disgraceful shooting from everyone. Hill and Ng especially.
Ballinger completely taken out of the game by trying to contend with Nevill.
Seems like we have saved up all our misses from the last few weeks to use tonight.
Funnily enough if Ng and Hill have shot like the last few weeks we would be right in this. How many wide open 3s have we not even looked like making?
Then there's the defence...

Ive said it since last season, sadly under a different coach we need a REAL centre.
Ballingers standing in the key with 4 fouls not able to do sh$t but we still dont have Johnson on court.
Ng and Hill, well everytime I have ever said anything good about Hill, hes backed it up with absolute shocker. Ng's had his worst shooting night of the season.

Bad shooting only comes down to the players, but having the wrong team on the Court comes down to Marty. Ironic that the team looks so tired and lacking after Marty told everyone he hasnt worked them to hard lol.

I think we can write this game off hopefully as just a once off bad bad bad bad shooting night.

How, just HOW can Burston push Bruce to the ground, throw a ball at him, and NOT get an unsportsman like????

No tech on Burston -___-

Mutley I 100% agree with you on how the Ref's handle the altercation. The Ref grabbing Balls and pulling him out saved alot more fouls and problems. Alot better than the ref's who stand back blowing a whistle.

Horrible to watch. Awful defense, can't hit a shot, refs hardly helping them. Should've flown home at three quarter time. No one even in double figures yet.

I generally leave the refs alone, but they have been mostly rubbish tonight. That said, they have nothing to do with Adelaide's fumbled passes, bricks or terrible D. Subs at odd times, losing Balls to foul problems playing him on Nevill, etc.

Why wouldnt we have put Harris in the team tonight, DJ honestly just cant handle the ball or fight the big men for rebounds anywhere near the level he needs to be doing so.

Three point shots 5/28, seriously DRIVE the ball.

Salt into the wounds...Boden Westover subbed into the game...

Isaac you took the words out of my mouth, not many other team fans have to deal with such pitiful efforts on the road. The 6ers are like a BiPolar GF, you love her, but every now and then she comes at your heart with a kitchen knife!!!!

Isaac they wouldn't have helped.

There is one NBL referee on the court at that's Ray Hunt. The other two are not up to this level. One never was but is still around and the other is young and up and coming but his arrogant walking and strutting as well as not even bothering to point on decisions shows his complete lack of respect for the teams, players and the league. As a result of being out of their depth they're clearly favoring the home side because of the pressure of the crowd etc that goes with the home team. Plus the mindset on the East coast that Adelaide is somehow less than the East coast teams.

The horribly biased decision making early would have convinced the team as it did me, that they had no hope of winning this game.

Missed fouls, made up fouls down the other end, guessing out of bounds decisions etc all in the first 2-3 mins of the game.

That would have got in the players head and the coaching staff as was shown by the fact Radford was warned by Clarke for comments made regarding the rookie young referee.

They're frustrated and playing like that.

But of course the Ref Coach will say nothing, the League will say nothing and the NBL will continue to rotate 50+ referees through the NBL despite the fact Australia barely has 20 referees up to NBL level basketball.

Drose, may aswell start another thread with this ref bashing thing. Because, rigth now, lets not confuse poor reffing with the 6ers complete inability to play basketball at either end. Im pretty sure the Tigers arent exactly feared by teams, yet the 6ers played to timid and within themselves. Who is our star player? Do we have one?

"But of course the Ref Coach will say nothing, the League will say nothing and the NBL will continue to rotate 50+ referees through the NBL despite the fact Australia barely has 20 referees up to NBL level basketball."

...and there is no way in hell Ray Hunt is one of them. Seriously, are you shittin me? 95% of my experience with Ray Hunt's officiating comes from games in Adelaide, but from that alone, the Monopoly man is the most pathetic, egotistical, incompetent referee I've ever seen in the NBL.

(Disclaimer: I'm not whinging about the game. They did not cost us the loss. It was actually a good one by Monopoly man's extremely low standards, but I couldn't let anyone get away with calling that clown a mildly acceptable referee.)

Can I have the last two hours of my life back, please?

I am not quite sure why Clarke would leave Ng on at the end instead of Howard, who can obviously use the game time.

Agreed Isaac regarding the refs, but as stated they aren't the reason we lost. We just flat out didn't turn up to play tonight. Basically no one could make a shot except Eddie Shannon. Johnson really does need to harden the f*ck up, and he isn't going to learn that playing with Ballinger. I again float my Schenscher for Ballinger idea.

As I said earlier, I thought it was a good performance from the Tigers though. Devendorf actually looked really good, and Nevill was excellent. We were never going to have an answer for him though.

Unfortunately, losing tonight to Melbourne erases the good work done on New Year's eve v Wollongong.

It is also a real shame that Squid didn't coach an NBL team, as I could have played in the NBL too if Boden Westover can be on an NBL roster (even if they do have five development players).

Can't even hit free throws...damn ugly effort tonight.

Fizzle it wasn't a ref bash. The 3 referees on the floor refereed the game as I expected them to as soon as I saw them walk out. It's not their fault they were on the game.

Obviously you missed it but it was a League bash not a ref one.

On the other side of that a professional team needs to handle mental adversary better than we just witnessed by the 36ers.

We shot poorly, didn't adjust to the zone defence the Tigers played at all, had issues with size across all positions on the floor. They aren't issues relating to the refereeing.

I was just replying to a comment made by Isaac, not at all suggesting the referees are 100% responsible for that performance.

Stating the obvious alert.

The whole team played poorly. This is by far and away the worst effort of the season.

Boy I hate losing to the Tigers. They've well and truly ruined what could have been an awesome weekend. Sixers gave it to them on the platter too I guess. I guess these things happen when players/coaches/owners make pointed statements in the press.

Do you reckon Gaze enjoyed reminding everyone just how bad the effort was "their lowest score, their second lowest score etc etc". It was almost Gaze at his condescending best but I think he saved that for his response to Carfino when he questioned an out of court call on a Tigers player who was out of court when he caught the ball.

Carfino- "I didn't think that was out of court"

Gaze -"one of the first things we are taught as basketball players is that if you are out of court and you catch the ball then it is out of court".

Carfino, a great reason why players don't always make good referees.

I should have stayed on Yorke Penisula where I couldn't get OneHD.

Totally agree with everything Isaac said. Ugly, ugly game to watch if a 36ers fan. It's not worth even bagging anyone in particular - it was a team effort to be that bad, particularly after such a great NY Eve game. Wonder which team will turn up to the next match?

First 36ers game that I have actually got to see for quite a while and the most fustrating thing was that the game was lost when the 1st 5 was announced. Ballinger 2 fouls, one soft, should never have been required to guard Neville. Take something from left field and start Johnson and even if he does pick up a couple of early fouls, at least Ballinger is playing in his correct position. Smart coaching move by Westover, feed the ball into Neville, score or pick up early fouls on Ballinger. Result Ballinger plays only about 18 minutes for the game and Neville scores huge.

Switched over at half time to the Darts on Foxtel - the favourite Phil Taylor was losing and eventually lost, but at least he was hitting tripples!!!

Did anyone else wish at any point during that game that they were watching the Kings play instead?

Called it 20 minutes into the game!
The 50/50 decisions all went to Melbourne!
Allot of non call' were for Melbourne.
Out of bounds calls were rediculous.
Those same calls the other way Melbourne received,.
Makes it difficult to play 'D" when you think the umpires are going to call you for the slightest foul which is not called the other way!!!
When this happens early in the game it sets the tone for the remainder of it!!!
Still some poor plays by the 36ers did not help.
And C'mon HILL and NG be consistent!!! it is OK to be good at home but you need to do it away from home as well!!!!!

hmmm, I rushed home from a BBQ for that.
Correct me if Im wrong, but is that now our worst ever losing streak on the road?

We had no one tonight, not one player to say "well at least he had a good game" a very disappointing loss...

Yeah that's 11 in a row I heard

Gnome, one ref from Victoria, one from nsw and the other from far north qld I think but definitely not from melb so perhaps you are a little one-eyed?

Fizzle

rigth now, lets not confuse poor reffing with the 6ers complete inability to play basketball at either end

yeah lots of problems there.

no real centre,

dj is good young mobile player but needs to strengthen his core and get 800% more aggressive. athletically he makes every other 6'10+ player in the nbl look like my grandpa, but that doesnt matter cause he just needs that to get up and down the court, then use his hips and height around the ring. why is he taking the ball outside the key and then penetrating should be in the key already? ( everytime he did that the opposition reached in and didnt get called!!!)

balls is 6'8!

refs

sometimes people are quite harsh but has to be the absolute #1 profession at not expecting much from their workers. what was the level of mistakes in this game? compare it to any profession and you are expected to be up to speed almost immediately, and will get sacked shortly after if you continue to make mistakes. along time ago they should've had the playbacks and stats counting and have an average calls per game, mistakes per a game and can moniter this and have an acceptable range of mistakes. if we cant get good enough candidates make sure you pay them good f/t wage, pay them well and work them hard if they dont do well their out!


also consider having a sub ref... if a ref hasnt lived up to the expectations get him off. this might sound expensive or hard to do but how can we expect any professionalism from these guys if its not shown from the top?

im on 43-47 grand a year, i know literally hundreds of people that would jump at the chance be a ref if they got paid decently. must let people know this is an option from early on and recruit.

so...all the Tigers bashing, now they thrash us.... (d)evendorf killed us, anybody else want to complain he can't play? homicide got nothing left but a triple double?! Neville's useless?!! maybe we don't even come to par with the dreadful Tigers afterall...

http://www.nbl.com.au/news/article/2011/january/tigers-start-roaring/

oh and Balls is now next to classless to me

EC I was there NYE, and that performance then, only makes tonight hurt that bit more. We will have to agree to disagree, because the refs were not the reason the 36ers lost this game. To say it was is naive and quite frankly a cop out.

on d.

we shut down kazzo by playing infront of him to shut up passing lanes and putting pressure on the ball so only way to kazoo was over and they turn the ball over. started behind nevill too many times. should have been better on d, much more pressure on the ball. without turnovers or defensive rebounds cant have transition off which is what we needed to kill them.

All teams have them but that was terrible and I think we need to put it behind and move on to the next round... The one concern is that is 11? losses in a row away from home? Needs to be address. I know some of those would be from last year but playing away is a concern.

The sign of a good player / good team is consistancy. 6ers have been all over the shop for far too long, now were chopping/ changing players and even recruiting a guy who hasnt played competitive bball for 18 months.
Good teams play solid and consistant help defense yet no one tonight bothered to help their team mate when they were beat off the dribble. Tigers had lay up after lay up.

Our worse game to date noone to control Nevill!!!
Refs wanted tigers to win,older and younger ref was biased all night ray hunt wasnt switched on,refs did nothing with players brawl,no techs and few mins later Burston pushed a player to ground,then threw ball at him,referee just gave him a pat on back.Sixers shooting was nothing compare to Fridays game,tigers zone game didnt help sixers,Howard recommemned by Bogut but i have my doubts he will survive with sub standard shooting,he hardly drives,most shooting from outside.Home game next sat against NZ need to play like we did against Gong.

I'm sad to say I was at the game tonight... made me ashamed to be a Sixers supporter - I won't go into all the negatives 'cuz most of you have covered em already, let's just look at this stat:

Points in the paint: 46-14!!!

ENOUGH SAID!

What was really disappointing is that the team had no spark, the Tigers bench were jumping out of their seat on almost every play to support their guys, even when teams come to our gym their bench will get up and applaud the team.... honestly, I don't recall once where anyone on our bench stood up and encouraged each other! I think that says a lot.

And while it wasn't the smartest move by Ballinger starting that melee, it was good to see at least someone in our team show some fire for once!! Kinda wonder what set it off though, does anyone know if Burston left on bad terms or had issues with any of the guys?

Can anybody explain to me the Ballinger altercation?
Hard to imagine balls doing something to serious but people saying stuff like "Balls is now next to classless to me' makes it sound like it was pretty bad?

He got fouled under the ring and basically just turned around and shoved the closest person to him and then got pushed back and they all joined in. It was not that bad and was just a frustration thing I think.

the current 36ers are a 3 years project they say ....with only 3 players signed on 2 year contracts and none of them in the class of Brett will that be enough time ?

Ads, I don't think Gaze was rubbing it in. He's been pretty reasonable with his neutrality this year IMO. He was just telling it how it was in that game - our defense was really bad and we were near-luckless from the field.

But Carfino's comments after that out-of-bounds were bizarre. Surely must not have seen exactly what had happened and was confusedly thinking about something else?!

I think that's why I am starting to think him without class. yes, you are frustrated but shoving is unnecessary. such move is often by the young players not from a vet.

reminds me of the young Melo

Fizzle, my point was not so much that the refs lost the game for them, the team did it themselves, however the refs affect the mentallity and ability to play at your best when they are making wrong or soft calls and are not consistent with the calls on both sides. If a player gets several early calls for something minor or incorrect, then that player is playing the rest of the game in shackles. You can argue that a professional player should not be affected in that way, and its a valid argument, however they are human as well and its normal human behaviour to be affected like that when you want to go out there and give it your best shot only to be held back with nonsense calls. Its bad enough losing a game when players know they have not given it their best shot, but please, no additional hurdles from the refs are necessary. Its not the refs' jobs to make it difficult for a team, they are there to make sure the game is played according to the rules and this is what is questionable on many occasions.

Actually after he was fouled and after the whistle, Greer came in and tried to hit the ball out of Ballinger's hands. Balls reacted to that by pushing Greer away and the Tigers over reacted by 3 of them attacking Balls.

And to winitinaminute they replayed the situation plenty of times. Ray Hunt (referee) got in between Burston and Ballinger. Ahrens (referee) held Ballinger back from the Tigers players.

Two USF were called. What more did you want the referees to do?

I do agree that the situation shortly after where Burston (again) pushed Bruce to the floor and then threw the ball down on his head right in front of Ray Hunt should have been a USF then Technical.

Carf should get Carey on Overtime to discuss THAT if he wants to talk about errors regarding Unsportsmanlike Fouls!!

Considering the push and shove before hand Burston needed to be penalised and that is something the club and/or League should follow up on.

That was woeful

The Sixers played like a team that played in 40 degree heat on Friday, airballing open threes, bricking free throaw after free throw, slow to react defensively.

I think they need to just write this one off and concentrate on getting NZ on Saturday.

Hey Rose not for once did I know or care wear the ref's came from! I hardly ever post on this forum but tonight I just had too! I have been playing and following basketball for 35 years! It is totally frustrating watching refs influence a game by not making calls at one end and then making calls at the other end that are no different. It does influence a game and when they are made early in the game it does make a difference!

What did Marty Clarke say in the post game?? Anyone hear it?

There also isn't 20 at NBL level, more like 10.

But there are too many referees getting NBL games.

Are you going to dispute that?

Spot on drose.

i was sitting 5 rows behind where the incident happened and certainly didnt' see Greer do anything?!

Well good on you MT, then you are either blind or in dire need of a replay screen at the Cage.
What drose said. Balls wasn't fouled by Greer (I'm pretty sure it was Burston), Greer came up way after the whistle and hacked at his arms unnecessarily. Classless my ass.

If that's classless then what do you call a 7-footer in Burston throwing little Aaron Bruce to the deck and then ditching the ball at him while he's on the ground. GTFOutta here mate.

"Annoyed with his own uncharacteristic lack of output and hampered by foul problems, Ballinger was fouled under Adelaide's basket with 7:24 left in regulation and in frustration, shoved Tommy Greer square in the chest, which instigated a scuffle."

ahhh, I never said Burston has class. in fact I didn't like what he did either. what I'm saying is Balls started it and it was unecessary.

also the Cage didn't have replay. I wish I can see it again. will have to check it out on TV tomorrow and we'll see.

What are there, like two people on here blaming the refs?

They were shit, but I'm pretty sure 95% of the Adelaidians on here are realistic enough to admit that we lost this game ourselves.

Stop trying to hand us a reputation we don't warrant. It is possible to criticise those three clowns without blaming the god damn Kennedy assassination on them.

Adelaide 34 Free Throws, Melbourne 16.
Adelaide 15 Team Fouls, Melbourne 23.

The refs didn't lose Adelaide the game, Adelaide did!

Ballinger & Burston were as classless as eachother.

Brad Hill decided to play defence once and go hard to the basket once, both times in the last 2 minutes, against Bo Westover - soft game by him.

Awful game, and i agree the 6ers have no spark, Ballinger should of pushed a Tigers player in the 2nd qtr to try rev us up.

We got spoilt with Maher for sooo many years being the player to kick us into gear with some 'captain's shots' he could always stedy the team back up, It just makes you appreciate Maher even more (if thats possible).

Thats not a knock on Ballinger but we all want to see him back at PF, but obviously with our situation Balls is are only hope at the C.

Can anyone determine what went wrong tonight after the way the 36ers played on NYE. Does anyone honestly believe that they went into this game tonight without any determination to win it? With each game you might get an off night for any particular player, but do you get an off night for a whole team? The 36ers had every reason to want this win badly to prove to themselves they can win more than one game at a time, to stop the poor away record and also because the time to turn around the season is very quickly running out. Nate said that the Tigers bench were jumping up and down in support of every play yet the 36ers had no spark and looked flat. I thought that's an uusual comment because it reflects the 36ers under Ninnis but I felt that Clarke had changed this as they do look more interested in the game and support each other apart from tonight. I've witnessed much jumping up and down with excitement from the bench in their home games. It just doesn't make sense. Something went terribly wrong tonight and something has triggered a bad chain reaction.

Seems to me we have blow ins from Melbourne or the 'new ditch'. Welcome. :)
I didnt watch the game and nor did I want to after checking the scores through the NBL but what it seemed was Adelaide had a really bad night. Such is life hey. End of the day, yes Melbourne won but above all, neither of these teams that are so used to playing finals will figure in this years.

So those of you who want to dig at us 36ers, consider this, when you have a team thats able to win games and make the finals, then u got a leg to stand on.

And finally, for goodness sake, rehire Judas cos when he was with you guys, you were the greatest team ever to be in the NBL and a definite starter(not!) for the title. What a joke he was and Melbourne are.

I dunno EC, maybe they focused too much on the Hawks game and with Melbourne so far down the ladder maybe were a bit of an afterthought perhaps?

Haven't heard too much said of our new imports, but personally I thought they gave us nothing tonight..

MT watch a replay. Drose is spot on.

Maybe they had a massive NYE after the wollongong win and were all still pissed.

to all the those people who are bagging BALLS were you at the game if not shut the fxxk up the sheer stress and anger that was on at the game was due to the coach not having an ounce of an idea how to coach against a team so tall .in saying that why he sat holmes on the bench when we were being put to the sword was a huge let down by some one who has stated that he knows what he is doing he must be the only one.anyway back to balls he was sticking up for his team.because just like some fans he hates losing .for all you dickheads saying shit about him go get a life because his heart is with the 6ers .you pack of fxxkwits

Less fouls called on Adelaide because they weren't really defending anyone perhaps!

Has MT check the reply yet and issued an apology?

Greer with unnecessary slap after Burston foul on Balls.

Deserved some retaliation but Balls should have been smarter and hit him off the ball when the Refs were not looking ;)

Greer looked to barely touch him (though the camera angle wasn't great) so it's hard to be sure. I assumed there'd been an earlier cheap shot off the ball (hit him in the balls or something) or that Greer had said something unnecessary.

My angle of thought is we played poorly but a few other matters out of our hands lent to the disaster
On A.Ballinger ,Greer slapped the ball,still in his strong hands after the whistle and he snapped.Three Tigers were defending his passionate multi attempt at basket.He allowed Ahrens to pull him away and he didnt flinch to even get back in to have another crack.Just cooled his Heels and tucked his Jumper in.Not one verbal spray over the Umps shoulder even.
Is there an opinion on the last time Melbourne played on the 23/12?Against Sydney.We were back to back,same round!!
The 36ers last game ,the night before was in 40deg Heat.
After the Hawks game,Clarke was interviewed by Peter Walsh and mentioned the marathon runner who followed up a race in Africa with one in Melbourne.So he was indicating the Players Pysche in Endurance.

anon l did not say balls played a good game put your glasses on l said he tried .not he was good as far as coach goes he is the one who tells everyone that he knows what he doing he has a lot to show sitting where we could see his face showed that he had no idea how to counter the tigers size .and by the way dont asume some standing in sport maybe l know more than you about the sport.

anon l did not say balls played a good game put your glasses on l said he tried .not he was good as far as coach goes he is the one who tells everyone that he knows what he doing he has a lot to show sitting where we could see his face showed that he had no idea how to counter the tigers size

We need to get a centre and play Balls at 4. We need one of those 7 footers who eats raw meat and whose parents are closely related. The sought of guy with no skin on his knuckles cos they drag on the ground.

On a lighter note, just spotted Erin at West Lakes Billy Baxter

we need a team with balls not just one player called BALLS .

what were you saying isaac were you refering that balls was soft or that maybe he is a great actor that award goes to the hawks player that you know .do not make sly remarks run.

IMO the Balls incident was related to his first shot at the basket in that play phase. He got smashed on his first attempt without a call. Got bashed trying to get the boards and still didn't get a call. Finally gets a call because Burston just wasn't in any position to even attempt to get his hands involved.

When you compare that to the two early fouls Balls got in the game you can understand that here is a captain of a team who is having their worst game of the season, has played all 10 players with no real influence.

Lastly have some little shit come and slap the ball out of your hands 2 seconds after the foul is called is just over the top.

I think you watch Balls after the push, no follow up, he did something he doesn't normally do and knew he had over stepped the mark.

Interesting was the no action in the Burston & Bruce incident. Ray *unt in his full cheat suite which Adelaide Fans have put up with for the past 30 years. Couldn't see a change in his think tank for this game.

Rat got it right when he mentioned the Refs had done the scouting for Melbourne. Balls in foul trouble with Eddie Shannon next. Only person they had no report on was Ron Howard so they let him drive into a subway and get robbed, mugged and pack raped all at the same time.

Every team has a complete shocker. Hawks would say the other night was theirs. Melbourne had theirs against Perth, Sydney had 6 weeks of shockers. Hopefully we don't have to watch ours again until next season.

Lets go Sixers. New Zealand this week in front of your fans. Play for it.

Well said FM. Bloody Spot on.

Well, here's my take on the game after watching it as taped it last night and couldn't get to it until tonight (and after reading the very emotive replies on here!).

1. Can understand why people are so frustrated/emotional as I probably would have been after watching that live and after their good game against the Hawks.

2. Sixers certainly did appear flat and not a lot of spark or hustle.

3. We really struggled against the zone D big time.

4. Had quite a few shots throughout the course of the game rim out, bobble around the ring or not go down down when they might have on softer rings. The Cage does not have a reputation for being shooters' rings. If you don't swish it, then it ain't going to go in. Of course airballing or hitting the top of the back board doesn't help! =)

5. Thought the refs weren't as bad as most are making it out to be. Yes, calls on Balls were soft, but he was in poor positions and we consistently see poor calls like that week in, week out. Yes, they missed a few others, but it certainly didn't look like Melbourne got a better deal. We didn't hustle and move our feet and reached in too much. Before you curse me, I normally criticize the refs as much as most on here do.

6. Didn't think Hill or Ng were nearly as bad as what people are saying (apart from THAT shot buy Hill). They both missed shots - guess what? So did the whole bloody team! Hill would have ended with a stat line of 12/6/3 with 0 TO's and 2 steals IF he had of hit his FT's (not the most of rest of the team did). That's with 2/8 shooting which most of the team also had.

7. Our very poor free throw shooting killed us.

8. Our very poor field goal conversion rate ultimately killed us.

9. Devendorf and Nevill having great nights hurt us.

10. We had way too many defensive lapses which also contributed to us losing the game.

11. Turnovers also killed us - Creek dropped the ball out of bounds like 3 times and had other turnovers and most of the team's came from shite passes or bone head plays.

12. Burston's "push" on Bruce was soft and over exaggerated by Bruce to try and draw a foul. The throwing the ball appeared to be in disgust at maybe his perceived "flop". It maybe warranted a T by a harsh ref, but technically, he correctly returned the ball to the opposition behind the baseline after the score (not supposed to touch the ball really). Warning by the ref seemed appropriate IMO.

If you're still reading - Clarke needs to not play everyone for 15-20 mins and needs to get our best playing 30+ mins and the subs 10-12 as you can't play 10 guys at 20 mins each. +1 that Balls needs to be our 4 man and Johnson/Dowdell/Harris playing at the 5. Balls tears it up when he plays his natural position.

Apologies for the long post, but hopefully that puts some non-emotive opinion to this lengthy and emotive thread! =)

why are people saying adelaide were screwed by the refs? they had 34 free throws to the tigers' 18

While pure foul and FT numbers don't necessarily mean one team had the better of the refs, Adelaide took about three times as many 3-pointers as Melbourne and yet still had significantly more foul shots. Hard to believe they had the worst of the reffing from those numbers.

The reffing was fine in that game, just as it is in most games and the umpiring is in most AFL games. Supporters just need something to whinge about and it is usually their coach and the refs.

paul, would love to watch that game through with you and point out why it wasn't "fine"!

A lot of times, the 36ers faked the three and then drove - likely because the threes weren't dropping. They ran into defenders almost every time (drawing foul, or refs missing something) because the Tigers were clogging the key. My enduring memory of that game was Devendorf and others penetrating to get an open layup at the other end - not a 36er in sight. Remember Walker's dunk, Homicide's easy lay-up, etc.

so it sounds to me, from what people have written back, that the refereeing wasnt bad at all and it was adelaide's defense that was the problem. for the tigers to get 16 less free throws when they went inside to either neville, burston, helliwell or tragardh (even homicide a few times) at least 90% of the time against much smaller defenders who almost have to foul when they've got neville two feet from the basket.
My enduring memories of that game were adam ballinger pushing tommy greer into the basket support and then getting two free throws, brad hill driving on lucas walker and falling under the basket when walker had backed off and getting two free throws when he hadn't even tried to shoot, and ballinger clearly goal tending walker's shot after it hit the backboard.. before getting dunked on

BTW, some interesting stuff in this Sporting Pulse boxscore of the game.

At three quarter time, the FT count was 12-14. Then Adelaide got to the line 20 times in the fourth quarter after abandoning the outside shot.

We had *zero* second chance points all game.

Turnovers pretty even, but they capitalised on our mistakes.

We only had 8 clean shots in the fourth quarter. Rest of the time, we were going to the line instead.

When we penetrated to draw the foul, even though we were a poor 12/20 from the stripe, we were roughly level: 22-23 in the fourth.

Troll john, Ballinger was fouled and was heading to the line for two free throws. He shoved Greer (USF), Burston shoved him (USF). Those fouls cancelled out, hence the free throws for Ballinger.

i understand what happened, just interesting to think you can push an opposing player after the whistle is blown out of sheer frustration, cause a minor all-in altercation and then go to the line for two shots.

called rules of the game John. Might need to take that one up with FIBA if you can't understand it or don't like it...

Isaac, I watched that game as a neutral and had no issue with the reffing. People often remember a few instances where there were mistakes and conclude the refs were terrible.

Yes it could always improve, but it could in every competition in every sport. There are specific things I would like changed about how the refs are instructed to call the game for greater consistency, but in at least 95% of NBL games it is the players who decide the outcome and not the refs, and that's what you ask for.

The thing that makes me laugh is that people complain almost simultaneously about the refs letting too much go and calling too many fouls!

Mr Tigers on the commentary noted a handful of iffy calls and you know what he can be like. Don't forget that you're just a spinner. ;)

Ouch, you just owned me!

The problem with refs is that there are too many of them and they are not all at NBL level. They barely officiate 1 game per fortnight and not keeping up the practice, unlike players who practice almost every day. The players are professionals, the refs are not. I can't see why the NBL can't have 10 refs in total and employ them on a full time basis and travel them around so they are regularly officiating games. The 10 refs would allow for 3 games at the same time to be played anywhere in Australia or NZ with 1 to spare in case of illness or other important reasons why they can't make a game. The benefit in doing this is:

1. You use the best 10
2. Players get used to refs when they are seeing the same ones all the time and learn to adjust to their game calling.
3. Fewer refs = more consistency in the way the game is called.
40 Fewer refs officiate many more games making them more perfect.

It would greatly improve the standard of games at this level.