There are always going to be decent players that ride the pine at this level. A lot of competition at various positions.

Interesting post on Fcebook by hubby re no court time. Been taken down now but pretty blunt message to Graf.

I agree in why Laura has not played as many times could have as lets face it most players are struggling .
Their game against Brazil after some early good D and actually passing to Liz
properly early was terrible especially from team rated top 2 .
And until they can find someone that actually nail a jump shot or pp[en 3 then we will be lucky to make semis .
Backovic and Liz c in last game and lesser extent Richards could be happy with their game.
Yes Jackson is a star and got points when team going down sewer in last game .
But not dominating or really putting it to opposition and not too sure why but could have something to court systems that are ordinary at best from my view and agree Graf struggling and Maher killed her against G B .
Who watching Harrower hatch the ball reminds you of Clarke Sixer point guards. Boy it is frustrating .

If not playing Laura should have taken another guard - Laura not alone mcleod not seeing court as well.

How on earth do you get 12 players mins in a 40 min game???? People are already complaining the rotations are too quick, so going deeper down the bench just makes the problem worse.
Realistically you only go 8 deep in a 40 min game if you're sticking with a lineup to get consistency... I think peoples expectations of court time are unrealistic.

Opal Fan did Mcleod win MVP at the Gf this year and can not be roated for brief minutes for Harrower.

I dont know much about womens basketball but I have been watching the Opals this last week and IMO Harrower looks very old on the court.

No offence to her she obviously has the experience and talent it takes to play at this level but her style looks like under 14s? Dribble up the court at an average pase, maybe fake, turn around - back down a player, pick up the dribble pass to someone at the top of the key, repeat.

The team looks alot fresher when someone else is running the point.

Also with my limited knowledge on womens basketball I find the coaching abit underwhelming. In the France game I am sure she took off whoever got a couple shots in a row in every single time. Have you heard of momentum?!

I think she looks really good!

All other teams seem to be much more aggressive in attack on ball and drive to basket and rebounding.
Playing safe getting us nowhere .
Learn from what seen Harrower ball handling handcuffing us .
Screen not up to it .
Apart from that half court shot how many has she missed and was set up as 3 point closing shot in 1st game.

I think simply, if you're going to take a player to 'ride to pine' at this event, probably more beneficial to take a player that can use the experience and will be better for it in 4 years time. Laura certainly doesn't need the experience so it seems a wasted selection. With that in mind, there's no logical reason to pick her (although we did see the same thing happen to Brett Maher!).

And following on from that, there's not a lot of logic to Graf's coaching so understandable. I did read a previous post from someone saying it's because there's 'no Penny Taylor' but from memory, they finsihed 5th at the last World Champs with Taylor / Jackson so I'm sure we can keep finding excuses for Graf, but if she fails at these Olympics, BA can't possibly continue with her.

Kath has years ahead of her, Harrower and Richards are done after this Olympics and frankly are better options at this level at the moment.
Kath is 3rd in line in that "3 way" so yes, i can see why she isn't getting on, if there's an injury or blow out she will probably see mins then.

Harrower plays good D and controls the floor. She may not be a scorer but is a starter for obvious reasons. I agree that Graf will need to be replaced after this year if we don' medal.
Opals have looked flat every game thus far. We can't expect 1 player to bail us out every game. Thought Batkovic played great against Brazil.
We definitely are missing a pure outside shooter and someone who can penetrate and score or dish off. Would be nice to have a female version of Patty Mills on the Opals!!

Haven't seen all of their games but would make the following comments anyway:
- against France we seemed to come up against a team which was more athletic than us at EVERY position.
- Screen, for all the crticism she cops on here, is one of the few who can hold her head high. Sheis playing her role (defensive stopper) to perfection and regularly comes up with essential effort plays.
- Maybe it's the uniforms (which are awful) but hardly any of the players look fit - (GB looked MUCH fitter than us)
- They can't shoot unless they are wide open which tends not to happen a whole lot at this level (or Snelly is guarded by two players and in her own half!)

All of that leads me to believe we have been left behind because of our current generation of 'superstars'. The women's game has moved on enormously in the past five years and the singular abilities of Loz and Penny (not to ignore their supporting cast) have masked the degree to which we have been left behind. We are only now going to start to see by just how much.

I am not a hockey fan by any stretch but it is genuinely exciting watching the men's team - now there's a coach (Charlesworth) who is rotuinely ahead of where the world game is heading.

Then what has Jarry done to take some minutes away from Hodge

And what has Bishop done? Certainly doesn't look like she's up to international standard!