As a general rule, whenever starts their complaints with "its not netball" they've automatically lost the argument.

Also, keep in my mind the author of the article is an extremely biased Breakers supporter.

Im very happy with the clean up, the past season and a half (and to a lesser extent some seasons before that dating back to the late 90s) have just been over the top. If we want to show off the skills of the players the game cant be reffed in the favour of the defence, which it has been.

That said, they cant call body contact as tight as they did at the Blitz or we will get free throw competitions, defenders cant just disappear when an offensive players jumps into them.

As for the netball comment, I doubt Daryl is the toughest person in his household and he could live to regret that comment!

I think it's shortsighted to complain about games taking longer because of foul shots as they're clearly happening in the period before players adjust. It will be frustrating at the Blitz and noticeably so in the first few rounds but teams will have to clean up if they don't want their best sitting on the bench.

Final game of the Blitz was Hawks-Tigers in OT. 38 FTA total. An NBA game might have one team shooting 40-50 without OT. That said, FTs come under scrutiny in the NBA. as boringly halting the game.

Hinton in the article:

But the new interpretations have met near total disapproval around the league, with a predictable adjustment period playing out where games are becoming dominated by fouls and free-throws.

"I've got a lot of friends who are basketball fans, and they're telling me it's not exciting."

Overall it's a better result. Sure, the foul calls have been frustrating but players will learn and fans will accept it. I love seeing scores over 100, and individuals scoring over 20. Even if they are getting there via free-throws, being able to make a free throw is a skill all basketball players need to be able to do.

Maybe Corletto needs to unfollow Mr Johnny White on Twitter.

#commonsense

Im not sure if we'll quite see as high scores regularly in the real season as teams will change the way they defend. But I just love seeing guys able to cut at pace and the ball flying around in the half court, and teams able to be more aggressive in transition, it just makes for clean attractive basketball.

True, but their was quite a few physical seasons when Mal was reffing too!

As a Breakers fan id admit it and so should the club: the team didn't adjust to the different officiating.

The Breakers games were long and had a lot of FTs because they simply couldnt adjust.

Other teams adjusted better than them so it pains me to hear Corletto say its a league wide problem.


At the end of the day...Corletto should understand its a situation he and his teammates can control : Just play less physical defence.
He makes it sound like its out of his control when actually the team can control the foul situation just as much as the refs can.

Gotta love DC really sooking about this......He won't get away with his sniping of the ball anymore....so he might have to actually play some form of defence!

These changes were well overdo!

As long as it is being called the same way both ends of the floor there is no problem

De -Gorjifying the league is a must

As a Breakers fan id admit it and so should the club: the team didn't adjust to the different officiating.

The rules, as written, are about ensuring a fair competition [balance?] between attacker and defender. The holding and other physical junk distorts that.

And while the focus in this and other discussions has been on how the return to the rules will 'free up' players to display their offensive skills, calling the game by the rules will also mean a return to genuine defensive skills, which are also a great part of the game but have been pretty much ignored in recent seasons because there isn't much use for footwork, for example, when you can just grab, hold, chop, push ...

Calling by the rules as written,with minimal focus on the 'interpretation' clause oft cited by refs,can only be good for attack and defence.

Yeah Isaac.
I meant the club should take responsibilty collectively.

I would have thought clubs would say to their players something along the lines of 'Dont criticise the refereeing to the media in regards to the new interpretations".

Does this happen? It needs to.

Stephen Dennis ‏@SDennis14
Defense is a part of the game! Removing hand checking is fine but all CONTACT! Thats not basketball! #NBLBlitz

Stephen Dennis ‏@SDennis14
Damn near more free throws then field goals #noflow #weAreNotentertained

Auryn Macmillan ‏@auryn_macmillan
61 free throws in 40 minutes = boring basketball @NBL #NBLBlitz

Scott Morrison ‏@TheRealScoMo
Not tweeting about the way the game was called tonight #NBLBlitz

So it's not just Corletto and the Breakers sooking?

Players and teams and umpires Will take time to adjust to the new interpretations....

even Mal said the umpires did as was instructed but needed to refine the way they were interpreting what is a foul and what isnt...

the game freed up during the tournament...

how about people stop whinging and just play to the whistle, thats what i was taught.

the NBA went through a simliar teething problem a few years ago too... look at it now...

bring on the season tip off!

going to be a very tight season! all teams will have to play well every game, wont be any EASY games this season.

Go the 36ers!

Is there a direct correlation between number of complaints from a club, and whether or not that club lost the game in which they felt the reffing was bad?

As has been said above, the NBL needs to put a stop to this pathetic tweeting and whining about the new interpretations. Give ALL players a first and final warning as of now and the next guy that does it cops a $500 fine.

After watching a pre-season game with the new officiating, I found it a tad boring watching consecutive free-throws at both ends of the floor... yes the reffing was equal, yes the score board looked good, but other then that it really wasn't that entertaining to watch...

I think the physical-ness of the game brings excitement in its self, obviously not to the extent of grabbing and dropping a should etc, but after watching this game it was like you couldn't even get into the flow of the game as the second you even bumped someone (no hand checks) you were called for a foul.

I think we have to be clear about what the problem was.

It wasn't the Adelaide 36ers or Townsville Crocodiles or Cairns Taipans holding and grappling in the backcourt every game...it was the Perth Wildcats.... especially at HOME, and to a lesser extent the NZ Breakers.

Under the old interpretations, if an also ran team like Adelaide or Townsville tried to play the same sort of defense as the "contenders" it would be whistled every time.

It crept in and then we all got normalised to it, to the point where refs and fans would just accept it and say "oh that's just how the wildcats play" when in fact it was illegal defensive contact a lot of the time.

I do hope however that the refs get it right and keep the whistles more or less outside of the three point line. If we start whistling every bit of contact in the paint it's going to turn off lots of fans and turn it into netball.

As I mentioned in another thread: all you need to do is call the game correctly outside of the perimeter and in the backcourt and you will see it open right up.

Dont Worry dids,

Teams will adjust

And when they do, there will be less free throws and more layups/ lanes opening.

The reason why I trust that teams will adjust is that if they don't, they won't win games.

Because let's face it, if you send teams to the FT line you will lose games.

I don't know exactly the strength of the leagues FT shooting compared to overseas leagues, but I would say it actually wouldn't be too bad.

Anyone confirm?

dids, which game did you watch?

If Penney returns to nz will anyone be able to stop him scoring under the new interpretations?

dids, the game was designed with only two basic rules - no running with the ball, and no deliberate personal contact.

Sure, there have been lots of rules added to speed things up and give everyone a fair go, but basically it's still just the original two rules.

If Wildcats and Breakers find a game with only two basic rules difficult to play then they can't be very smart (or they're playing the wrong game).

"I think we have to be clear about what the problem was."

Actually, there is absolutely no point trying to lay blame for this problem at all. If it makes you feel better, go for it, but whoever was or wasn't playing physical is totally irrelevant.

And he was totally wrong. Pretending NZ and Perth started some sort of physical trend!!

Blaming Perth and NZ for physical/disciplined play is just a way of disguising that the other six teams were disorganised rabble for large parts of last season.

Good article on NBL site summarising the situation with the reffing changes. Nice to see that level of openness.

http://www.nbl.com.au/article/id/an585i3ixw0q1wmzj9fpwsmcy

Well I'll be damned , I'm not the only one that finds FTs boringly halting the game, even though hoolahoops are big fans.
NBLers love having huddles prior to FTs. I just bored
For some reason, when I played the refs had to hold the ball in the front court, but in the back court we just threw it in, a bit qicker game back then and you had a sideball option rather than than watch a player miss FTs. I think there may even be a threepoint play now also for more FTs.
Nevertheless lesser players shouldn't hold Imprts like Jonni Flynn. J.Hodge used to belt the guards arms when they did. D.Ng used to run outta court and back in to avoid getting hels onto.

that is a good article on nbl website.

all the old,slow & lazy guards will be exposed.....back to work boys the party is over!!

Ha! The guards are anything but lazy, I havent watched a league where the players bust their arse more than the NBL the past few years.

Just because a bit of extra holding was allowed doesnt mean they werent sliding feet and working hard. The difference now is they wont be able to get up and in like they have, and that makes for better offence (and finally pull us in line with the international game).

No no I am not blaming perth or nz at all. Just saying they used the old "interpretations" to their advantage the most. Also being the top two teams in the league for the past x amount of seasons they were allowed to get away with more than the other teams, the same way you see superstar calls go to big name players.

The only person to blame for it is the refs boss. Teams are going to do whatever they can get away with to win and all power to them for that.

What I meant was if you watched townsville play sydney last year you probably wouldnt see much holding. Some offensive ineptitude keeping the scores down sure but not much holding.

FWIW I am all for the new direction, but we just have to make sure its consistent across the board. Are perth and nz going to be beneficiaries of the new calls as well? Will their star guards now be feasting at the free throw line all night just as they got to defensively wrestle in the backcourt unpunished last year?

How many new imports in previous years used to comment about having to adjust to the physical nature of the nbl and how it was reffed. Many were sent packing because they struggled to adjust. Hopefully more of the exciting athletic imports will flourish under the new interpretations, rather than struggling under the previous slug fest. This years crop of imports who look particularly exciting, plus the likes of Abercrombie, blanchfield, Goulding etc should all benefit greatly from the changes.

On the flipside, up until recent years how often did new imports just spend time on the bench in foul trouble because we called the game too soft! That was just as bad.

Many Aussie refs have long struggled to understand the different levels of contact permitted under the rules by hands (out of the defenders' cylinder) and body (in the cylinder). It seems to go tight on both or they let contact go on both.

Hopefully this time around we finally get it right and call it similarly to other major competitions around the world who understand the difference as set out in the rules.

Certainly the comments from Cooper are promising, let's see how many of the refs can follow it through.

On the money paul.

Even two seasons ago I remember elvin mims, one of the better defensive import wings this league has seen in the last three seasons, stuck in foul trouble the whole time. And it wasn't because he was doing anything illegal, while other guys were free to grapple and hold all game long. This was during the height of the nbls grappling days.

I also worry whether they can get it right, and get it right consistently and fairly. Because the grappling wasnt allowed across the board. It was allowed for certain players.

Yep, if there's consistency that leaves few excuses for the players, unless they are calling some areas consistently wrong like the start of the Blitz!

By Sunday though they had it pretty right (albeit with mostly experienced refs) and if that is how the season is called Ill definitely be happy and the games will be great to watch.

I got the impression of certain players holding Flynn and not getting called, then flynn getting called for a soft touch. It just struck me kinda funny.
(Musta been like Mimms that Mick just mentioned.)

I'm a fan of Corletto. I'm a fan of the Breakers.

But I got so sick of how rough the league has been. It started to look bad in my opinion. Netball isn't physical? He must not watch any trans-tasman games then...