Although I don't doubt the Wildcats should be favourites at home, those odds are a little harsh considering the result from 12 days ago.

Agreed alexkrad, Townsville are capable of bouncing back from their defeat against NZ and stealing the win although I do believe they'll (Perth) have enough in the tank to win at home

Let's not forget Crocs savaged the Wildcats in R4

Tasty odds worth jumping on then?

The way they are playing t the moment they are lucky they are 4-2 and not the other way round! Any one can beat any one but for me i still reckon adelaide are the best hm team and i cant realy see any 1 gettin the w over there. Here the crowd makes a huge differnce for perth, they have expectations from top to bottom to make sure no one leaves dissapointed. Still perth by plenty. Cant wait for sun game realy! Hope gleeson starts waggs in stead of dd

carfino told us that teams have gotta bring baseball bats to play over there

Anonymous. Are you a hooker?

A bunch of foulers and floppers and continually get away with it.

A much better effort from Perth tonight.
Beal carrying them but Daniels also impressive with 16pts,10rebs and 4 blocks.

Jeez that was a poor effort from Townsville. They lacked intelligence and intensity in the second half. You can't go to Perth and miss layups and tip ins and not expect to be laughed out of the Western state.

Markovic is a dud player. Doesn't know what's going on, that bloke.

Beal is an elite NBL player and simply made the Crocs players look like concrete footed dopes at times. He's just too athletic and will eat timid defenders for breakfast. If you're not aggressive against him, forget it.

The Conk and Gladness are quality players but Townsville need at least one more top bloke to compete, someone who can bang down low and really smash a rebound.

Yes Perth won, Townsville have some issues, but you know what though... So sick of the crap that Perth get away with on the travels, moving screens, fouls and it goes on. Completely different set of rules in more ways than one. Favouritism on the TV deal. So hope they don't make the Grand this year.

No moving screens in Perth. Ask Mal and Childress.

502699 you are a fucking idiot

I agree with 502698 and 502699. Damo and Redhage foul pretty much every set, yet rarely get called. Gladness was unfairly treated tonight. I don't think Beal played that great but he made his shots so good luck to him.

I'm not a Perth hater, I just don't like to see them (or any team) getting special favours from the refs.

Perth to play NZ or Melb in final

Knight did a lot of good. Redhage's last two games have been *shudder*.

Harry, that is exactly why after reviewing the entire game they only gave Childress 1 Week... Refs were pulling a few up in first half in Perth but then as always fell back on to old habits and well, you know...

Isaac please remove the situations F Bomb. Does not warrant that response and offensive.

712 while you are at it..

Solid win by Wildcats, Crocs ran them down to the wire and made them earn it in this game. Always a physical match it seems, just how Perth like it, they are just not going to be easy for any team to get over, but I agree that the Crocs gave others a good look at how to play them...

Wildcat simply too good, too talented and too motivated.

Red-hot Beal leads Wildcats past Crocs

So what happened to the refs from the Childress incident. Still reffing there? Lets hope they are reffing in outback WA.

bit of a joke when you have Gladness in foul trouble and he didnt commit a single real foul. That stuff changes winning margins by way more than people realise. Then on the other end, a Townsville guy catches the ball, and you can count to 3 most possessions:

"one foul. two fouls. three fouls." whistle.

It's like theyve somehow confused the three seconds in the key with how to call defensive fouls.

And this isnt even counting the illegal screens, which are ridiculous.

Also why do we have the no charge circle if the refs don't factor it in to anything?

This isnt a knock on Perth. This is a knock on the NBL.

If a casual fan were to watch that game theyd have no idea how basketball rules worked

Gladness didn't commit a single foul?

Mick - are you releasing a CD of your comedy musings anytime soon?

None of the fouls called on Gladness last night were correct, and neither was the goaltend.

I wish my team had the Wildcats win record at home.

11/12 78.5%
12/13 93.3%
13/14 85.7%

Mick...you are right.....it isn't a knock on Perth.

It isn't a knock on the NBL either.

Its an indictment on you and your lack of vision.

Please see an Optometrist, I pay Medicare Levy so people like you can benefit.

Perth's effort last night was an improvement but not convincing for genuine contender. Beal cannot be relied upon to shoot like that every night.

The production from Knight, Damo, Redhage are down overall, although Damo did hit 2/2 from deep.

I agree, once again in Perth we see a huge call advantage.

There was at least 5 incorrect calls favouring Perth in that first quarter which resulted in Townsville being down by 9 and playing catch up the rest of the game.

To Townsville's credit they played well to get back into it however when you are disadvantaged the whole game it is always going to be a struggle.

Some of the great calls were

The fouls on Gladness.

The Goal tending by Gladness.

A massive travel by either Beal or Daniels in the first quarter.

The push in the back by Beal on Markovic when he was shooting to end the 3rd quarter.

Conklin shooting a jump shot at 6:44 in the 4th and somehow getting knocked backwards by Jervis to a non call. Then some how Jervis gets a foul on Gladness 10 seconds later for even less contact.

The continuous illegal screens.


Teams just have to expect they will be severely disadvantaged by the umpiring when they play in Perth.

Non Perth fans just have to expect Perth fans will cry blasphemy every time the disadvantage is spoken of even if the evidence is right in front of them.

I think the game was very poorly reffed and at times it definitely disadvantaged the Crocs unfairly.

So, not all Wildcats fans think the way some non fans have us perceived. Not all of us are feral!

The home ground umpiring in every single game is extremely noticeable.
Perth get an armchair ride in Perth. We get it in Adelaide. NZ get it over there.
The umpires respond to the crowds way too much, but as far as the games I've seen go, it seems to be consistent. The home team always gets help from the refs.

Agree. Blame the refs! The home teams can only play to the whistle, just like the visiting team has to.

No doubt there's home cooking all over the league, and I guess it would be fair to assume that teams with larger and vocal crowds will probably get to the referees a little more than a small quiet crowd would, but thats just the nature of professional sport and goes hand in hand with home court advantage.

Other teams (fans) don't like the so called extra favouritism given to Perth, then well their club needs to do something to get a better home crowd atmosphere to their games to create that advantage.

I live in Perth and I like the wildcats, but as a basketball purist, the referees in the Crocs game were more than terrible.

Fouls 1 and 2 on Gladness (in the first 3:14 btw!) were not fouls by any stretch of the imagination. Knight makes a post move (a crappy post move), jumps into him and creates the contact and then gets the call- Carfino was dead right here, the defender has every right to maintain vertical position. He did nothing wrong and was royally screwed. His 3rd foul was fair enough but his fourth was another joke.. And when did it happen- just seconds into the third..

It's sad cos the wildcats are good enough to win without "the fix" being in so to speak.
It's not a knock on a great wildcats organisation, more a damning indictment on the integrity of the nbl and the competition itself.

Referees must get their act together before we stop seeing talents the like of Childress, etc come here to play

The refs have been pretty bad with verticality all year.

The one that confused me was the Crocs player slipping over in the key (Norton or Djeric, IIRC), and the Cats being awarded the ball for no apparent reason whatsoever. I missed the incident when I watched it back on TV, although I'm not sure whether that was because I wasn't paying attention (I was a bit busy with something else most of the first half) or because it was during the several minutes of play Ten didn't bother to show because they were in a commercial break.

Get over it every one, it aint gona change. That's why it's called home court advantage! Sadly u cant compare the rsl club with a thousand ppl influence a game when u can hear a fart in the crowd compared to 12 000 + going ape shit at every play and call.

It needs to change for the sake of the game.
Problem with one eyed supporters are that all they want to see is a wildcats win, irrespective of whether the Australians keep failing internationally because of this underdeveloped, pigmy thing we have with the referees in australia.

With Norton slipping over the refs called held ball and Perth got it via the possession arrow.

I wasn't saying any of that as a Crocs fan, just as a basketball fan. It wasn't a watchable product. There are two separate sets of rules, so when you play in Perth you have to make sure you absolutely kick their butts if you want to win, because a marginal game will generally tip firmly in their favour in terms of the officiating.

Last week the Crocs get their butts kicked by New Zealand. If I was a one eyed fan misguidedly whinging about referees like some of you suggest, I would have complained about Townsville getting beaten because of the officiating then. I didn't. Because they got their butts kicked in a fair game.

If I was a one-eyed fan without a clue, a chorus of neutral supporters wouldn't be singing along with me.

Perth are the best team in the league. They don't need the help they get. If anything, it just tarnishes their winning legacy, so it's not good for anyone, not even Perth.

Whether Perth won last night or not isn't the issue. And they very well could/would have won if the game was called properly. But that's not the point. The point is that was a garbage display of what is supposed to be a sporting contest. I judge the credibility of a game by whether a reasonable, neutral fan would find it fair, and by that measure, that wasn't a fair game.

"With Norton slipping over the refs called held ball and Perth got it via the possession arrow."
IIRC the arrow should've been Townsville's way? I don't even recall it being looked at (it's tucked away behind the advertising boards, so they actually have to get it out and hold it up in those situations, so it's obvious it's happening).

Not that there even should've been a held ball in the first place, given that the Wildcats barely touched it.

By the sounds of it, you would think there wasn't a single call that went the Crocs way. I saw at least 4 or 5 blatant travels by theCrocs, 2 of which led to free throws for a subsequent foul, as well as many soft fouls which could of been called but weren't. At least put some balance in your argument. These threads read the same after every Perth game. People are seeing what they want to see. Claiming that they are looking at it through the eyes of a neutral observer is nonsense.

It was called a held ball.

Having reviewed the video, it indeed was, and Jervis had far more of the ball than I thought.

It was credited as a steal to Damo, though, despite the fact that he barely touched it, if he touched it at all.

If in doubt, give Damo a steal! Sounds like a good rule to me.

Great points Mick!

@Wildcat Fan I appreciate your honesty.

@Hendo8888 let me know when Adelaide get home calls as currently it is the other way around.

@Vodka63 at what time and period did these travels occur? Even Perth fans are saying that there was an unfair advantage, why can't you accept it?