So, another year, another finals series.

Will it be Bendigo/Townsville 3?
Will Dandenong make a charge?
Will Sydney surprise everyone?

Bendigo - Two time reigning defending champions, while they have lost Kristi Harrower, they have made work of Townsville in the regular season split. Finals is another story, Kelsey Griffin expected to have a blinder.

Townsville - No excuses, they have all the pieces to the puzzle along with a homecourt semi-final, this is their chance to seize it.

Dandenong - Have been in in-form team until the loss to Townsville, but they face Sydney who will look to expose their posts, expect them to take care of Sydney with Taylor/Pondexter to shoulder the load, Kunek and Pickrel need to contribute to help ease the load.

Sydney - A bit of luck with results, but they have made the finals, should look to control the paint and go to work inside if they have a chance to defeat the Rangers, along with slowing down their transition game.

What's everyone's thoughts?

Bendigo beating Townsville
Dandenong beating Sydney
Townsville beating Dandenong
Bendigo beating Townsville

3 on the trot!

@Greg, I think you should put a $ or two on that bet mate!

Too close to call between top 3

I struggle to pick Bendigo this season. At their best they are title material, but they're not nearly as consistent as they have been in previous years.
Dandenong are similar. World beaters on their day, but without much of a bench. If MacLeod is healthy that could make a world of difference to their fortunes.
Townsville have been strong all the way but I still don't trust Suzy in big games.

I'd say
Fire > Spirit
Rangers > Flames
Then Spirit-Rangers is anyone's guess?? Nothing would surprise me between those 2 teams, and whoever emerges will give the Fire a serious shake.

Greg's prediction could well come true.

I'm looking for Pondexter to take it up a notch. She's a proven playoff performer, and damn hard to stop if she gets going, especially if Kath is there to take some off her.

We're finally here! 19 weeks, a Christmas break in the middle and a whole lot of ball games have led to four teams playing in a total of four more games leading to a WNBL champion!

Semi Final week brings us a first vs. second Qualifying Final, plus a third vs. fourth Elimination Final. Let’s not dwell on it any longer and get stuck into the two cracking games we have this weekend....with ALL being shown on ABC TV!

Finals Week 1 Preview

LC great write up there, really looking forward to these games this year :D

Winning 3 road games in a row against the 3 best teams in the league is a tough ask. I just don't see it happening.

Townsville to win it all ! have all positions covered. have good structure, depth ,mainly all been together for a while , which is so important at this time of the year.
they have a few x- factors in their side that can change the game if things become stagnate,stale or dry up. in particular in francis!! and watch for alex Wilson to become a factor if injected at the right time..

if sydney get beyond the first round they have achieved big time.

Ruef is back for Sydney...

Is the game televised today nothing is showing that it is on the ABC.

Yep, both games this weekend are being shown "LIVE!!" (to selected states :-/ ) on ABC2.

Thank you.

At what point do the Rangers recognize that they need a new coach?

3 years in a row of having arguably top 2 talent and haven't won a playoff game.

Sydney have over achieved big time! Seebohm must be a chance for coach of the year. Beating Townsville to make the play offs and then Dandenong. They are a chance of winning against anyone...

Such a shame Taylor got injured, the Rangers were going to give the whole thing a big shake and do it playing really fun basketball.

sydney big time winners - when penny went off that seemed enough to swing the pendulum.

It's a shame Taylor got hurt, yes.

But 'playing a fun brand of basketball', Paul? Come on, old mate!

Pondexter forcing bad shots and stepping back threes? Kunik falling over every time a opposition player breathes next to her, then screaming for a foul call?

Give me a break...

Hopefully this is the last year we see Wright at the helm! But its Dandening and Wright gets what Wright wants. Sick of watching a team play with no offence, no game plan other to 'run and scrap' please, spare me. He got out coached by a kid, with no head coaching finals experience. He kept his poise, made sure his team moved the ball, set screens and ran plays. As opposed to making one pass as the over played MacLeod had dribbled for 15 seconds and Pondexter jacking an ill advised shot.... I'm sorry, that rubbish don't win you finals. Another let down and another disappointing end for Rangers. Let's see if they can keep more than 15% of their players and keep a core to finally build something! Not holding my breath though. Plllleeeeeassse get rid of Wright!

Penny Taylor resurrected their season after a 1-4 start, and her absence cost them the semi-final.

Despite putting together arguably the most talented roster year-in, year-out, they just can't live up to all their promise.

Surely Mark Wright's stint is over. This is getting a bit silly now.

Congrats to Sydney.
What a find Seebohm has been. He's really got the players on the same page, and even in an elimination game maintains that unflappable demeanour.

All the best to Penny for a speedy recovery. Pretty sure she's done that ankle before in a similar way, and will be just fine in a few weeks.

Dan is right about Seebohm. The girls are having a great time playing for him and it shows. He seems able to identify what needs to change during a game, and the girls just implement. They have been great to watch this season.

For the record, they were also down by 19 in the third qtr last week against Townsville, so they clearly have a never die attitude and great self belief. I cannot see them beating either Bendigo or Townsville next week, but after watching the last 2 games i also cannot write them off!

Seebohm is coach of the year IMO.

To be fair to mark wright he lost his best player at a critical point in the game and the Rangers were unfortunately unprepared to account for it.
The 2014 starting 5 was entirely different to 2015 beside Kunek. In addition Cambage was a late withdrawl prior to the season opener. I don't believe they had the team to stop the fire with or without Mark wright.

Mark Wrong does it again, how many to jump/run this time ?. He struggles to make game adjustments and just seems lost. He seems to be anger or nothing.

I go to nearly all home games at dandy. Quite often i notice a former wnbl coach there sitting up behind the visitors bench. If he is going to be there maybe dandy could ask him to coach.

Dandenong have well and truely put themselves in this awful position with Mr Jayco and Wright running the show haven't they.
Agree, Penny's injury did not help their cause at all, but the team left out there were still better (yes in paper only) than Sydney. You have a whole season to prepare yourself for various situations... Close games, go to plays etc, Wright had clearly not done this. When Penny went down they needed to move the ball, set screens and execute, they could not do this. They had nothing to go too. No one knew what to do. You need to knuckle down, pull out your plan B, make the opposition play some D and then run Cappie off a number of picks after ball reversal to get her open instead of standing and watching her create something out of nothing. He made no changes at all. The subbing Pickrel and Kunek out in the last few minutes for Scherf?? That was a panic move. I'm sure there are plenty of people regularly In the stands who could do a better job.
I was very impressed with Sydney and Seebholm though. It was just good basketball.
I'd love to see Dandy getting back to building a solid group of Aussies that will stick around, coupled with a decent import or 2, not 3 superstars, then they might start to build something like Townsville, Sydney and Bendigo. But that would mean a Wright would have to coach and develop... He is not capable of that, he can only roll the balls out and teach people how to play out of control. Sick of the same old stuff. Let's hope he moves on for the sake of that club. He's destroyed a strong club in his time.

I don't see why Sydney couldn't give Bendigo a run for their money. The Flames win obviously came under handy circumstances for them, but I think they'll take some confidence from their second half, and the Spirit have looked shaky to me recently.
Still tipping they'll win, but hoping for a close one.

Very much looking forward to the Griffin-Cox battle.

Major issue for Bendigo is richards can't shoot the 3 so there's help on most penetration when she steps out to the top. Griffin is going to have to have a blinder to beat Sydney and she ran out of legs in the 2nd half vs Townsville so it doesn't bode well for Bendigo.

The Flames can definitely win, but if the Spirit look after the ball and are diligent with their defensive transition I think it will be hard for Sydney to generate the pace they need.

They play a fun style though, a very NBL style, and if they get on a roll anything can happen. Johnson, Ruef and Cox will have to be big on the boards though.

^The WNBL's facebook page has made a few posts since the grand finalists were decided, and BA posted today.