Get your tickets people. 36ers are now the undie-dogs and will kneed a bit of extra support from the crowd.

6ers still win this one, that team is deeeeeeep, Gary got what he deserved on that one. Goulding is no angel, nor has beens such as Worthington, but if Maher had been kneed in the balls we would have stampeded the NBL headquarters if no one had been suspended. Still believe Tigers played their GF yesterday.

Hope Gibbo is closer to 100%.

Roy Ward has the official details:

OFFICIAL:Ervin out for game 3, cops $7500 fine, two-game suspended sentence and suspended $10k fine. #NBLFinals

Cant believe Im saying this but more I think about it, im impressed with the usually pathetic impotent NBL hierarchy for this call. Just dont know if James Ennis would get the same. Cadee will step up very nicely and Tigers will find issues either way.

Clearly, in a manly sport, one's testicles must be held sacred.

Fair is fair.... Not surprising at all really.

Nice one Isaac - "kneed" our support!!

The price of a brain fade

Correct decision, and glad the league has gone this way.

Now if they couldn't go back and hand out appropriate penalties for the Perth v Adelaide situation, they might start to look like having a back bone.

*could go back

The issue of suspended penalties in an interesting one. What if Ervin leaves the NBL and comes back two years later? Would be interesting if they say two seasons of play as opposed to two calendar years.

yeah, saw it just then on tennews..joey; 'shouldda called a lotta contact earlier..'

Unless the NBL goes to great lengths to hide that fact, I would think auditors would pick up on that.

Who cares about the fine and if its paid or not.... Game 3 of a semi final is a massive hit, considering several 36ers have said Goulding got up grinning. Goulding's a gamer, knows how to suck players in, just as well as Ervin has done over his time.

Man tomorrow will be huge!!!

Ervin got what he deserved for his idiocy but it is a pretty harsh blow for the 6ers,, charge him 15 G and let him play I say.

In the end the league is the true loser out of this. Great setting for the great players to clash, now you take one out of it. Goulding is one smug bugger, would love for him to struggle tomorrow, his teammates must love how much he shoots. He makes Andrew Gaze look like John Stockton! Another thing in the 6ers favour is that Chris Anstey is the Melbourne Tigers coach...

Fair punishment IMO - missing the one game.

I think Anstey should also be punished for walking onto the court and confronting the umpires as well as McMillan for posting the incident on social media before a punishment had been set. Fair is fair

I wonder if he would have gotten more, the same, or less if he just went the right hook instead of the knee?

Wonder if wouldve got the same punishment if he was James Ennis.

Not exactly a useful hypothetical? I can't imagine anyone else in the league throwing the knee in. Hell, I didn't even think Ervin was capable of it, despite his instigator role in Perth.

Also just look back at some history if 6ers fans are concerned. Mark davis goes down in Game 1 of the semis in '94, dominate the Tigers in Melbourne in Game 2. Great teams find a way, Cadee has his time to shine now. The guys are very comfortable with him running the show, crowd and the Tigers ability to tighten up offensively will get us to the GF. Cant wait!

Just received word from my counsel that the NBL wouldn't necessarily have a legal obligation to get audited, depends on the structure of the business.

Also, fines and penalties handed down to player from the league are only internal so the NBL isn't legally obligated to receive funds from the player if they chose not to.

Sixers still favourites for me.

Tigers have no gameplan on either end of the floor. Everything just relies on two enormously scorers in Wortho and Goulding.

Goulding could never truly be efficient. He is a video game style in the zone type. When he is hot he's hot when he's not he's horrible. But as a coach, especially with such poor depth around him, you cant convince him to take perceived better shots. He took some woeful shots in game 2, early in the shot clock etc BUT when they go in, he's a star. Point is his style of play is never going to be cohesive with because guys with the ever green light take bad shots, they just go in more than you expect.

The point of my hypothetical just for the sake is Ennis would never be suspended, he and the perth faithful mean too much to the league. And for the record Ervin got what he deserved on this one, just picked the right team to go against to miss a game imo.

Really, this coach has taken a piss poor team for season and season to within one home win of a GF, and still he cops it for one of his players brain fades! C'mon now...

You're hoping for a miracle if you think Cadee is going to step up.

Channel 9 news just showed another clip of Goulding giving Ervin a deliberate headbutt before the incident. Thought there had to be something else to it

Kobe, that's why he will be hard pressed finding a tip line Euro gig. As Paul pointed out in another thread, it's all about micromanaging and efficiency in the cutthroat leagues.

Same goes for DJ to some extent. Especially seeing he's weaker on the glass than he should be.

more on ninenews just then.. goulding giving ervin a headbutt

Statestuffer, I totally agree on both. Big fish in small pond in NBL.

I would love to see the reaction if Nathan Buckley just walked into the middle of the ground after the umpires stopped play while Swanny copped one off the ball in his groin.

Surely Anstey has to be sighted?

If Ennis kneed someone in the groin, I think you'd see repercussions. He's the darling for now and you can't imagine him being punished because he hasn't done that. The knee was just so blatant and unnecessary.

Kobe24, I'm getting the impression that you're excited about this game...

Ervin acted foolishly, the punishment was deserved. Pain for us 36ers fans, i'm pretty pissed off and will be more so if we lose game 3. Ervin needs to start acting like a professional.

more blatant on tv news services tonite...closer up or so than ten at the game yesterday..

Makes for an awesome game 3. Picking a winner made more difficult with Ervin's omission but I suspect the sixers will make it...just.

I believe that Cadee will step up but not fully to Ervin's level. Carter is the one who will find those missing 3 pointers for the 36'ers.
Regarding paying NBL fines, Didn't Jason Smith have a $10,000 one that was slipped under the carpet when lawyers got involved on his behalf? Grossly over fined anyway.
The last fines I heard of actually being paid were Rillie and Harvey re umpiring inconsistencies. Must have been a dozen years ago.

The term is "cited" not sighted.

And, Kobe, there is no way on earth Ennis wouldn't have copped a week. We're talking about a knee to the groin with the ball out of play, comparing this to the rumble in the jungle is like comparing the Russian take-over of the Crimea to going back to the '80s and ramming the Red Army into West Germany through the Fulda Gap.

He should of got a 2 game suspension and $5k fine.Suspended sentences are a joke.

Centrebet just pushed NBL title odds for 36ers out from $3 to $4.25 and Tigers in from $10 to $9.

So not swinging the pendulum hugely.

Jake pls.

Honestly expected to see this happen but hoped the NBL would see the sense that punishment happened in game... a fine on top of that yep agree no problem... but Goulding, as much as he milked it for as much as he could while on the floor, was not injured or forced to leave the court. Ervin was provoked and that seems to have been ignored. as stupid as it was... ive seen worse not even called on the court let alone sent to a tribunal. The severity of the punishment, is far excessive for what the incident caused. To even suggest this was worth "3 games" suspended or otherwise, is ludicrous.

Ervin was not provoked, plain and simple. He is a loose cannon who thinks he is entitled to react however he wants to whatever ludicrous indiscretion he feels he shouldn't be subject to. While it's his first punishment, it's not the first time he has overreacted to something minor.

The fine is extremely harsh though and I think a suspension would have been adequate.

It's not Joey's fault. If there's a player who just knees a dude in the junk, there's a problem with the player. I don't think Joey or the club give off the vibe that it's an okay thing to do.

@thesituation........I thought I have summed it up pretty well. What is the difference?

@thesituation... "not provoked?"... Goulding in his face... and a head butt... just look at the footage. That to me is a faily conclusive bit of provocation. Loose cannon or not, he doesn't knee people in the ballsack just for giggles.

Because you want everyone else in the world cited, claiming "fair is fair" as if it's going to make a difference to what Ervin did.

So can anyone say 100% that Goulding headbutted Ervin?

If so, that's definite provocation. Whether it's punishable in itself or means enough to reduce the Ervin penalty, I don't know.

CJB77, it doesn't matter what Goulding may or may not have done on the play prior, after the play stopped and the ball was being inbounded, Ervin decided to act out of revenge, completely unreasonably.

@thesituation - "the whole world" - just Anstey for walking the length of the court. No other sport I can think of would this would happen without being sited.

I said above I agree with Ervin missing the one game.

Is there footage of any of it on youtube?
I can't find it.

@thesituation - this all happened in the one incident. would understand if goulding had said/done something 5 minutes earlier then when Ervin found the chance he sought "revenge". It was a reaction to an incident that Goulding started. Not saying Ervin is innocent, obviously, but the punishment is far excessive for the crime committed. U need to look at it as a whole. also, u may need to try and remove ur head from ur ass. :)

Yeah the fine is way harsh but i'm pretty sure everyone was sure that 1 game suspension was coming. We better win or he is not going to have very many friends. It was one of the biggest brain explosions i have seen in a while, the timing and blatant nature was just stupid.

-'Centrebet just pushed NBL title odds for 36ers out from $3 to $4.25 and Tigers in from $10 to $9.

So not swinging the pendulum hugely'

$9, that's the best bet of the year, I'm down for $500.

I'm a 6ers fan but for some reason I'm thinking it will be a thrashing by the tigers.

Goulding has been doing that headbutt move all season. He wants his opponent to make contact with his head so he can milk a foul. I don't like it, I think he should be teched for it, but he wasn't trying to hurt Ervin in any way. The provocation defence is bullshit.

Foul happens Ervin is smiling 3 seconds later he is kneeing Goulding in the jatz crackers. Fair to say something happened in those 3 seconds . I can see 2 attempted head collisions instigated by golding

Is there footage of this alleged headbutt anywhere?

Ask McMillan for the footage - he may even post it back on you tube - that is how professional the guy is.

"Ask McMillan for the footage - he may even post it back on you tube - that is how professional the guy is."

I don't think its about professionalism..I kinda think he is missing a few cells in that important area of the brain

Be interesting to see if Ervin rocks up on the bench tomorrow night. He was selfish and really cost the team with a moronic move and his subsequent suspension. I'd be pissed if I was them

I think a one game suspension is fair punishment. Very surprised though that the NBL enforced an adequate punishment. They appear to have learned from past incidents and acted more decisively this time.
As for game three i think carter and cadee will cover the loss of ervin and comfortably dispose of the tigers.

I'd like to congratulate the NBL on their swift action, putting some faith back in the league after Joey was let off for that punch.

Even with this I think the 6'ers will be favourites to get up.

Would Nate really take advantage of Ervin's absence?

Still will need a good game from Cadee and Carter.

Its going to be a great game tomorrow.

He's acknowledged that he stuffed up so it's time to move on.
Huge game tomorrow win or go home was looking forward to the game but not anymore thanks channel 10.

What about an apology to the person he kneed?

If he is a role model, isn't this part of the taking personal ownership journey?

It will be fascinating to see what effect this has on Adelaide as a team. I think it could turn out to be something that really pulls them together and gets them very focussed. I wouldn't be surprised to see them blow Melbourne away tomorrow. If that happens, the GF is going to be great to watch and be very very close.

Is the GF 3 games or 5?

3

Situation, would that "something minor" that Ervin reacted to happen to be a head butt from Goulding? A knee in the groin is pretty bad, but a head butt is very acceptable (you're joking).

^^^ Dont think he said a head butt is acceptable

It's Gouldings fault he disrespected Ervin by shooting the ball with 4 mins left on the clock.

Anyway Ervin has apologised to everyone (except the guy he kneed) so what more can he do.

What Joey bitching at a decision and claiming mitigating circumstances .......wow I find that hard to believe?

Is this an April Fools Day joke?

These be dark days.

Thumbs up to Ervin for what he said on Twitter and acknowledging that he was wrong.

Everyone makes mistakes.

Not very classy from Joey though.


Ervin is coming out and saying he let the emotion get the best of him/ that he was out of line.

Then Joey is coming out and saying Ervin was provoked and was justified what he did.

Time to move on and coach I say.

Because I've seen Goulding do it all season and I know exactly what he is doing.

Anon 094 - there was no grinning, wincing at best. The whole thing was protracted for a fair while and no one on court looked happy about what was happening at all. This is from my own direct view of the incident.

There was no melee, heck there wasn't even a push between players so Anstey suggesting he was on court to stop something is laughable.
Anstey could go on court tend to Goulding but by even stepping on court rules say Goulding then needed to be substituted out.

I'm guessing Joey's comments are more of a tactical ploy to try and ensure the refs have a close eye on Melbourne's physicality - especially Morrison. Wouldn't be the first time a coach has used comments in the media to try and bring something closer to the refs attention, particularly at this time of year. A smart move in this regard I think.

So why did Joey highlight ScoMo running in to Ervin (something which no one else has mentioned) as a catalyst for Ervin's over-reaction, but not the two supposed headbutts? I thought the headbutts were compelling evidence - seems the coach doesn't think so.

Joey is indeed working the refs already. Game 2 was called very differently to the majority of other games in the season. Goulding was allowed continually to push off his defender with two hands to the chest without repercussions. The defence is constantly being told to not touch the offence but now the offence is allowed to push the d about without fear of a foul.

When I watched back to see the plays prior to the infamous knee, I noticed Goulding pushing off quite a lot. What are the rules with regard to pushing off? He was pushing off Ervin's chest consistently with one hand/arm to get open for the ball.

@situation

I'm guessing Joey has highlighted Morrison as he believes the refs clamping down on his physical play is more likely to give to sixers an advantage. Rather than Goulding's headbutts which make him look like a Rooster and maybe annoy the odd overemotional opposition player, but don't achieve much else.

Yep, fair call Phil.

You have to wonder about Wright's comments; what is he teaching his players? It's okay to do anything you like so long as you have received some nebulous level of "provocation"? Guess he would be preaching what he practices.

I would not read much into his comments, they are made strictly to try and gain something with the officials.

Nathan, no doubt his players listen to him at training and during games rather than read his media comments.

Have the Tigers learnt from Chris Anstey elbowing Rhys Carter in the head?

They learned to me more subtle with the elbows :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0oT4Oc6ShU

Unfortunately that was a different NBL era (pre-BA?) where McPeake had a strangehold on the league and did whatever he pleased. He got away with it too!

Isaac, Goulding pushes off all the time on offense. Ennis is another proponent of it. Shouldn't be allowed.

There is a lot at stake tonight and the 36ers go into this grand final position decider undermanned due to an inbalance to the penalties called by the NBL. Ervin being disqualified is not the problem, Goulding being allowed to play is. With all that Joey has said in the media regarding this incident, it can never be enough to emphasize to the refs tonight the importance of taking a close look at all times at the Tigers' physicality. Headbutts and out of control elbows have to be checked and there has to be consequences for those.

EC sulking about Ervin being out while "Goulding gets to play" is ridiculous. If Ervin and the sixers can cop it and move on you should follow their example.
Repeating anons question above do you have an instance of a Goulding headbutt occurring during Sundays game.

^^^ +1

Use both eyes to objectively watch each play.

ash0 posted this on his twitter earlier

http://goo.gl/Dz3ac4

lol, you reckon that's proof of headbutting?

Seriously that is the head butt? You are joking right?

Wow, I expected the full on routine where he ducks his head in then throws it back dramatically. That was barely anything at all.

I agree with the push off comments about Goulding and Ennis. I complain about it every game (re:Ennis) and the same in games we played Melbourne.

I dont think it is proof, I think it probably shows what annoyed Ervin though

The video clearly shows Goulding ramming his head into Ervin's head. Are you guys trying to say that was fine? If you are, then all players are allowed to do that.

Any player that has another person's head rammed into theirs on purpose is going to react to it. Obviously he could have handled it in a better way but the NBL should have taken being provoked like that into consideration. Yet the NBL would rather make Ervin look like the evil one while Goulding is the Innocent princess of the league and will have no mention of such wild allegations.

Ramming.....ok then.

LOL!

agree with 'the situation'

Agree with 'new headbutt rules'

Only an Idiot would agree with 'new headbutt rules' LOL.

Steven, I am well and truly over it. Goulding was as good as disqualified tonight by the Adelaide fans for the quality of his game. 6 points after a huge 37 in game 2. Karma has done its job tonight.

That's good EC. Tonight was a good game we agree it was good to see Goulding get his butt kicked ( instead of balls kneed). One player I can't stand is wortho so didn't mind him having a shocker.

Steven, Channel 9 footage showed the headbutting. As for your comment that Ervin and the sixers can cop it and move on, all I can say is he made the mistake with his knee in game 2 which cost him dearly but luckily the team came fighting back even stronger. His reaction is influenced by the need to protect the grand final not the satisfaction that justice prevailed.