Wollongong have been over there for almost a week preparing for this series. If they're to win any games in Perth, it's game 1.

its a real credit to the Hawks that there is even some doubt over who will win this game.

Personally, Wollongong are my least favourite team bar New Zealand. One of the teams I cant stand is the Hawks and their rag tag battler underdog mantra they constantly go by. Cant stand it! You can only be a "cinderella" type team for so long before it wears a bit thin.

Hawks are a cunning, veteran team that is always well coached. Its time people gave them the respect of actually being one of the better teams going around. They play on their underdog status too much and Im sick of it!

This should be a good series. Looking forward to it.

Perth by 20

Wollongong in OT, u just wait fellas

Well, Jack, say what you will about the Nazis, but they were snappy dressers. We'll only have tees, but they're pretty snazzy tees!

I get the feeling this season of the NBL is in its The Empire Strikes Back phase and all shall bow before Darth Redhage and Darth Martin!

They were pretty fashion savvy.

Darth Redhage

Got a ring to it!

"Wollongong have been over there for almost a week preparing for this series. If they're to win any games in Perth, it's game 1."

I don't know if staying in Perth is the best strategy. I understand the need to avoid travel disruption but spending a week on the road and out of your comfort zone has to take its toll too.

Anything less than a double digit win will surprise. Hawks don't win in Perth I don't see that trend changing tonight

All droughts get broken.

Wildcat fan, you either wear the tag, or find funds to bring in big names like Ennis. They still have no funds, they still keep their tag.

Except Sydney's drought vs Wildcats.

Wonder if Bill Woods will be brought over for special comments. Is it just me or since he started re-calling the games, Illawarra are on a roll...

As long as Carfino and Rosen aren't doing the commentary im happy

It will probably be Lachie Reid and Tony Ronaldson. Can't see Carfino doing back to back games (nor do I want to!)

I also agree that Wollongong's strategy of staying in Perth the whole week wold have taken its toll. Thats a long time in a hotel out of your comfort zone and training in places they are not familiar with.

Kobe24 - When the Hawks make the playoffs year in year out, with the odd miss along the way, and the occasional grand final appearance, they are not considered an underdog team in my book.

Plus they keep churning out quality MVP type imports, but that is probably more a credit to their recruiting ability and coaching...

Wildcats are 10+ point favourites, paying $1.15. Obviously would like to see the Hawks get up, but even if their cunning strategies disrupt Perth, I think the Wildcats are too good to lose this one. Would take Beal being stone cold and more hot shooting from Wollongong to get it.

Glad that the Hawks had that meaningless loss in Perth after the Kings win as I think many teams, whether they can help it or not, tend to come out flat after winning a critical game.

Obviously Jack was talking about non Wildcat fans but her's my list anyway:

Perth
Townsville
Cairns
Sydney
Wollongong
New Zealand
Melbourne
Adelaide

*here is

Spend 1 day in hell (metaphorically speaking) and you leave thinking "well that could have been worse", spend 7 days in hell and you wanna get out as quickly as possible and never go back.

We'll know by the end of tonight whether the Hawks are sinners or angels.

I dont like battler teams with a perceived 'chip' on their shoulder

I also don't like the Western Bulldogs for the same reasons.

That's how we like it!!

Anon, I'm an Adelaide fan but I can tell that you probably can't stand the wildcats because they're well coached and have enough money to sign good imports, and they're always the favourites!

Hang on.. Does that sound like jealousy to you? Because it does to me!

I'm a proud wildcats fan but I don't like being stereotyped as arrogant , that is an individual trait which I'm sure applies to some supporters of all teams. May the best team win hope that's Perth but if not well shit happens.

We're the best club ever, going from strength to strength. We're entitled to be arrogant.

Exactly. There's a lot of stereotyping for each fan base. I don't like it when Carfino constantly goes on about how knowledgeable the Adelaide crowd is all the time. Sure, many of them know what's going on, but there would be plenty of fans there attending their first ever game. And there would be plenty of moron's there too no doubt.

Sure there are plenty of arrogant Cats fans, but there's probably plenty of arrogant Hawks fans as well.

I still stand by my comment that I don't like the Hawks at all!

Everyone has a team they can't stand. I can't stand Sydney kings or Shane 'tosser' Heal.

Don't forget the game is LIVE on ONE HD nationwide! Spread the word!

28yrs in a row! And proud ove it!! Even if the cats don't make it to the gf, we will still get 11 thousand to a game. Our city our team!! Hope we lift that trophy in adelaide!!

"We're entitled to be arrogant."

GOLD !

RETS RO RILDCATS RETS RO

Who's that guy in the #10 singlet for the Hawks? Looks like Larry but there's no bandana, braids or 'Mandarin' like pony tail. Jesse Wagstaff looks more like Davidson that Larry does.

Another good start to the game.

Terrible refereeing in this game so far going both ways...

Some of the worst calls I have seen all year going both ways. Trying to call the game tight but multiple phantom calls and the softest of unsportsmanlike fouls on Redhage.

Apart from the call on Redhage the rest were there though and it's creating a high scoring game that is enjoyable to watch.

Whats happened to Knight?

Jervis playing well. Hire and Jervis have sparked the Cats run.

God i hate Perth.

I can see one major defensive problem with the NBL across the board..

Challenging outside shots from the bigs.

Redhage, Wilkinson, Johnson, Loughton, Petrie..

Why/how do these players get so open on the perimeter. So many times you see them basically shooting wide open threes without a man even near them.

And its not like theyre bad shooters. Some of those guys can stroke it

An unsportsmanlike foul on Redhage? Gee never seen one of those before.

Shooting bigs all around the world get better looks than guards. You can't cover the rim and cover bigs on the perimeter.

Wagstaff another big who can shoot the three.
Jervis great in second quarter. Hawks getting killed on the boards

All red t-shirts.........10,000 x $5 = $50,000. Based on just $5 per t- shirt., imagine more! It does look good, but who pays for it?

I hear the Gold price was $100 ea

Ennis with first field goal in third quarter! Gotta be a first this season.

Yeah i know paul, but do you see how open some of the bigs are.

When they are at the 3 shooting, the defensive player is at the foul line!

Plus since when should it matter whether a player is a guard or big.

You do the scouts and a shooter is still a shooter regardless of whether its a guard or a big.

If I were a Perth fan, I'd be really quite worried about Adelaide in the grand final.

Credit where it's due Clarke keeping Hawks in the game.

Reece Martin has been fantastic and Rotnei has taken over the game for the hawks! Cats need to stop him now

Terrible refereeing maybe, but loved the charge call on James Ennis. Correct too as Conrad had been in place since Moses parted the Red Sea.

Not expecting the Hawks to win tonight, but they aren't letting Perth run away with it.

Perth home court advantage there is huge. Umpiring is terrible and hugely favoring Perth who can push there defensive fouling to the limit.

If I were a Cairns fan I would be having a beer in Bali by now :)-

Unbelievable and disgraceful umpiring obviously favouring the Cats... All of Australia bar the Wildcats fans will be in agreeance so lets ignore the garage of comments back at us Australia and join in and support the Hawks to take out this series. GO HAWKS, playing clean and still taking it too them taking the bumps and watching the travels, elbows, push offs, shoulders and the list goes on………..

GO HAWKS GO>>>>>>>

Forman deserves a Boomers look in..

Dead serious.

Lights out shooter. Spaces the floor.

Imagine him sitting in the corner and spacing tbe floor for Mills/Delly.
If the defender goes to the ball youve got the best shooter in Australia ready to launch

Its not a new trend for the NBL MACDUB, high percentage shooting big men have been prowling the league since the 90's. Probably the most difficult players to defend if they are active off the ball and not afraid of backing down on the low block once in a while. You still need some key ingredients however like having sound offensive structures and players being patient and smart enough to execute.

Best shooter and quickest release.

Wollongong proved tonight that this series won't be the 2-0 whitewash some (especially those in Perth) were expecting. I think the Hawks have a damn good shot at winning on Sunday and sending it to game 3.

The 12 point margin at the end flattered Perth.

Yes i know shooting big men have been around for a while.

My point is that the way players defend or in this case don't defend them nowadays isn't good enough.

Watch Redhage and Wagstaff bomb threes. They arent off complicated sets or offenses..a lot of them is just Redhage popping to the perimeter.

Proud of the hawks to push the best team in the league on their court to the max.

We should never have let Foreman get out of Adelaide.

If Hawks and Perth replay exactly the same game on Sunday away from Perth, Hawks may well win.

Holden V8 you're right about 12 point margin flattering Perth it sure felt closer especially in 4th quarter.
Ennis and Clarke in second half showed why they're MVP calibre players.

I see the Hawks wining a tight one at the gong but wining one over there will be tough.

Great game and high quality shooting performance from both teams. Hawks showed great fight but it felt like rotnei was more than 4/9 from the perimeter.
Cats were under serious pressure in the last quarter and closed out the game well. More than likely be a game three in this one

Hawks to win at the Gong... Money on it…..

Jervis is by far the rookie of the year. He is a stud.

Jervis is a rookie

You gutless prick, first you post post without a name, then backtrack and say now he is not the rokkie of the year after you claimed he was not a rookie at all?

Yep, and I suspect tonight's match up showed why they can be so dangerous. Hawks bigs, especially Gruber, are too slow to defend beyond the key. Wildcats exploited that weakness tonight. Wagstaff and Redhage are virtually interchangable, I can't recall at the moment a time when one team had two players ( who's surnames weren't Smith) that played so alike.

Perth with a massive shock tonight. Hawks will be very hard to beat in the Gong

"Plus since when should it matter whether a player is a guard or big."

The difference is their men are the ones helping on guards coming off ball screens or rotating to protect the rim on penetration.

10907 in attendance.. Small crowd

10907 is a great crowd. All I heard on here was expecting a crowd of 7000. Great fan support. Wow umpiring was bad both ways, stop your whinging cats were just too good

Jack Toft, with all sarcasm detected, when was the last time you saw Redhage give up an USF?

And the showdown this weekend; clash with district basketball; ticket prices increase and poor publicity :-)

SMALL(er) crowd cause members had to fork out full price for their tickets (which aren't cheap at the arena) unless you wanna sit at the very back... But in saying that, for a semi final game 1, going in as mad favourites, and being live on TV, 11000 fans is a great crowd if you ask me.

@The Situation, giving an USF is one thing, there's a difference between a ref calling it and not.

Great crowd Perth, much better than the weak turnout and excuses from Adelaide.

Got pretty hairy in the end, that was some arsey shooting from Clarke and Forman. Just shot after shot, over all sorts of defense.

I think the moment the resistance broke was when Wollongong got a stop and someone screwed up their defensive assignment and left Clarke wide-open, and he airballed the open look. I have no clue where that miss came from but we sure let him no about it from the stands.

Just short of 11k isn't bad for a semi it will be interesting to see the turnout on Tuesday (if required which is a possibility) with a grand final berth on the line hopefully we get a good crowd.

How arrogant are perth, seriously underachieved 28 finals straight and they hand out a finals shirt. Only 5 championships to show for their 28 championships. NZ have 3 in under 10 years, that's a good strike rate.

Gee guys, we only lead the league in titles. That's such a terrible underachieving record.

Do you even think before you post?

Yep Hoops147, it's a record they should be embarrassed about. They shouldn't do any promotion of the game and try to get people along based on that. It is just a terrible record. The arrogance is unbelievable. Imagine being proud of a minor thing like 28 consecutive finals achievements. There are so many clubs that have outperformed them over that time and been far more successful off the court as well as on the court. They should just get back in their box, be quiet, move back to a smaller stadium and try and emulate all the non-arrogant clubs in the competition.

Perhaps somewhere in the minds of those accusing Perth of arrogance is just a hint of wishing their club was as successful.

BTW, great T shirt promotion by Port Adelaide in the AFL today. But how arrogant!

Jealousy sums it up.

Technically the 36ers have the same titles as perth but lets not go into that, we will just let you think you are right.

5 titles from 27 attempts isnt that good

"Only 5 championships to show for their 28 championships"

That is the best comment I have ever best read ever comment.

Measuring "only" 5 titles against 27 playoff appearances is a terribly moronic way of viewing things. If another club has 5 titles out of 20 playoff appearances in the same time frame, that is much less impressive because that's 7 seasons they didn't treat their fans to post season play. I know which one I'd prefer.

So Murray Magpie,in the case of Adelaide last year, we shouldn't count that as an "attempt" to win the championship? By your logic, if you make the playoffs and don't win the championship, that is a fail, but collecting the wooden spoon doesn't count?

I would much prefer to watch my team bow out in the playoffs rather than finish in the bottom half of the ladder.

But anyway, each to their own. Fans of other teams can enjoy the fact that they all have much better playoff records than Perth

Not making playoffs >>> making playoffs and not winning the title

#knowledgablefans

Going thru the NBL stats, I think the most successful clubs have been:

Launceston (won a championship in 33% of their seasons played)
South Dragons (33%)
SE Melbourne Magic (29%)
NZ Breakers (27%)
West Adelaide Bearcats (20%)


It's good that Perth make the final series consistently, quality teams need quality wingmen by their side when they lift the trophy.

Yep, I reckon most people would agree with your analysis that Launceston and the South Dragons are the equal most successful clubs in NBL History...not

Do you also judge the least successful clubs by the percentage of wooden spoons?

Fish in a barrel

Childish comparisons about strike rates and percentage of titles won is silly.
Fact Perth have 5 titles and Adelaide 4.
Two of the best teams in NBL history.
Perth are good at making playoffs but are crap at winning the wooden spoon.

Perhaps there was a big fish shooting comp on in Adelaide the other night which also kept a few hundred away from the game?

Murray has gone for the "I was just kidding" defence after saying something pretty stupid.

No just highlighting that who cares about 28 finals blah blah blah

You have won one more title than Adelaide and Melbourne despite being in far more positions to win a lot more

Celebrating not winning must be a Petth thing

This is just hilarious.

No one has the RIGHT to be arrogant, that's just an embarrassingly narcissistic thing to say.

Perth has had continued success over their time in the league...well done to them.

Separate argument is their success in the postseason...they have choked when looking at the rate of conversion from playoffs to championships.

You guys are simply combining three different arguments -- Perth's all-time win/loss record, Perth's all-time postseason record, and comparing Perth to other teams in that regard.

You're right, Situation, the trivial needling between you blokes is absolutely hilarious. And the fact that none of you want to give ground just adds to it.

We're comparing some teams success over a 27 year period.

One team has won 5 titles, a couple of others have won 4. Not much in that.

One team has made 27 consecutive playoffs appearances, the other teams have probably played their fair share of playoff games, but there have been seasons where they've missed out, or won a couple of wooden spoons.

There really doesn't need to be a discussion about what is better.

To say Perth choked, while ignoring that some teams have not even put themselves in a position to contend, is the laughable part.

No problem with everything except for the last paragraph. Just like King Podge, you're fanaticism is clouding your judgement.

You know what the word choke means, Sit. Perth have choked plain and simple. By bringing other teams into it, you're just glossing over the fact that they're 5 rings from 27 playoff appearances (18 % strike rate).

Choking isn't dependent on others' success/failure.

Statsheet, what do you think would be an acceptable number of championships for Perth to have won to not be considered chokers?

So every team that has ever made the playoffs but had never won a title is a choker?

No, that isn't what choke means. You're willingness to pick a side in a battle and then work backwards to justify why is clouding your judgement.

Did the Hawks choke last night?

No other team is celebrating just making the finals

Situation, when it was quoted "Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience", this is exactly what was meant. People like you are the inspiration for quotes like this, my friend.

What you did was show a lack of understanding for the term which you're actually accusing me of not understanding. What you're saying by that is any team in any given playoff series is favourite for the championship and should win. No, choke means to be the favourite and fail. Perth have been the favourite many times and failed. It's very simple.

I'm not picking a side, look at my original comment. I was responding to your follow-up. Again, you just try to stir shit. I came in to clarify it by separating the arguments in order to make it easier for you guys to keep the entertainment going.

Vodka, I can't quantify that, but quite simply Perth have been favourites for the championship multiple times in the past and not got it done. No one can refute that. And again, Situation is probably going to come back with a comparison...that's not relevant.

If you try to keep the argument alive, Situation, it will be in vain. As much as I love seeing how pompus yet stupid you are, I'm done here.

say what? my fanaticism? om my...... thanks for the shout out SS .... i guess.....

i'm off to burn some witches....

Apologies Podge. I was just trying to provide examples to make it easier for Situation to understand.

You provide better arguments than him, I'll give you that.

This isn't an argument it's a contradiction

Statsheet, what you previously stated is still there for everyone to read. It's quite clear that you have used Perth's conversion rate (5 from 27) as a way of proving they choked. You've stated it TWICE. Now you're trying to pretend you meant something else, in that you meant Perth choked because they were favourites?

This gets even funnier when you come in with an air of superiority and make a dick of yourself. I know why you want out of this argument. I'd be embarrassed too.

Murray, I think you will be able to find countless posts from Adelaide supporters on this forum about how pleased they are to be seeing some playoff action again, and rightly so. To say that no one in the competition apart from Perth celebrates making the playoffs is nonsense.

Just when you think he will get it, he doesn't

SS thank you, i'm far from fanatical brother - and i will burn you at the stake if you DO NOT BELIEVE THAT!!!

Crap.... maybe you're right.....

Thanks, Situation. Yeah it is there for everyone to see. Please read it, people.

These are the parts where Statsheet defined choking based on Perth's conversation rate;

"Separate argument is their success in the postseason...they have choked when looking at the rate of conversion from playoffs to championships."

...and...

"You know what the word choke means, Sit. Perth have choked plain and simple. By bringing other teams into it, you're just glossing over the fact that they're 5 rings from 27 playoff appearances (18 % strike rate)."

I even got a nickname in that one! Now here he is trying to re-define it once he realised he'd made a goose of himself.

"No, choke means to be the favourite and fail. Perth have been the favourite many times and failed. It's very simple."

So he is either trying to lie his way out of his original comments, or he has done a quick analysis (in between his social studies homework) and decided that Perth was the favourite in every one of their 27 consecutive playoff appearances.

Hey Podge, you provide better arguments than Statsheet. So does a chair.

Enjoying the discussion but can't believe it's happening. 5 premierships in 27 seasons is not bad, I would take it, and so would Adelaide fans. If Perth were favourite for every one of those 27 seasons I'd say it was a bit ordinary, but they haven't even been favourites the last 3 years. I would much rather see my team in the playoffs every year and losing instead of making the playoffs once in 5 years and winning it all.

I'm with wilson.

.500 GF conversion rate isn't bad either.

Without the full context of those 27 post season appearances i don't think we can judge if anyone choked - I think the term itself is a misnomer anyways.

The Wildcats had two or three finishes at 7th or below in 2004-09. Were incredibly lucky they timed that period the way they did, or the streak would have been over by now.

I'm no fan of the Perth Wildcats, but they have a record every other club strives to emulate and the club and their fans can be rightly proud of that record.

Love them or hate them, the Wildcats are the NBL's most successful team bar none. No other team in league history can boast 28 consecutive playoff appearances (and counting) and they have won the most championships with 5.

There is no denying their record.....sadly.

Great post Holden V8.
Looking at these two teams (per and adel) there's not a great difference. Since 1982 :
Perth 522-370 with 5 titles.
Adelaide 494-396 with 4 titles.
* figures not including 2014 playoffs.
Very similar imo but both teams have a semi series to deal with first. If we meet in grand final let the sledging begin then.