Hey.. are you the same Luuuc that posted the awesome Beal 3' point academy video? If so awesome work.

Yes that was me.
Thanks. Glad you liked it.

That graphic is awesome :P

Danger game here for the Cats, I think Cairns are like 8-3 their in recent times.

While Perth being the better team I get a sneaking feeling the Taipans have more riding on this game and will win while Perth dose not have as much on the line and wont be as desperate.

Taipans by 6

In games like this there's also that danger that the Cats will be looking ahead to the Crocs game and trying to keep something in reserve.

I'm also interested to see how the Cats pulled up from last round, health-wise. Something seems to have been odd to me about Kenny's minutes lately, and we know Prather is having trouble with his knee.

Cats by 9. Jawai to destroy Cairns after he beats Godzilla.

I can't see Cairns beating Perth's front court .

Cairns matches up well against Perth

Cairns has legit size and muscle, meaning that Perth can't overpower them on the inside quite like they have against the Hawks, 36ers and UTD.

Cairns is also 5-1 at home this season.

On the other hand, Perth's D and rebounding is at a consistently good level so they will rarely get substantially beaten.

I'm tipping this goes down to the final minute.

FWIW, the only time we've played this season was in Perth, when the Wildcats escaped with a 1 point win.
That was without Damo.

Activate Martin!
Turbines to speed!

Oh my goodness!. Now that I have caught my breath, after seeing that,Perth deserve to win.

Cairns: $2.25
Perth: $1.65
Line: 2.5 pts
O/U: 166.5 pts

Definitely a danger game for Perth. Ostensibly they are the better team, but Cairns are no slouches and have the home advantage. Can easily see this going either way.

Very much the danger game for the Cats who tend to be lazy on the road for "non-important games"

Can see Cairns getting this one on the last play

Will Prather play ??

Close affair, Perth by 4.

An upset is always on the cards, especially this season, what a great NBL we are enjoying, but I think the Wildcats may just hang on here for a close win!

Perth to be friendzoned

Burston is a lot of things, but a sole defender against Jawai in the post should not be one of them.

A guy Jawai's size should never bother trying to drive in the NBL, because you just know it's going to be a charging foul.

Nice block by Wortho, surprised Prather didn't throw that down.

Ugly game which suits the Snakes

home town call

Hire is a scrub who is only good for fouls

And dumb fouls. He's definitely dropped off this year.

When you're blocking a shot that easily, why not just control it to your own advantage rather than batting it 20 metres away.

Someone buy Starks some new skins.

Kenny with the ball is a turnover waiting to happen

these refs are clearly calling anything for the Taipans

Is Knight injured again?

Perth are lazy and playing terrible. Almost like they don't give a shit.

His on top of the ladder, game not over yet, ( we read your post Anonymous so anti Gleeson)

Prather seems to pass out of the shot off the drive a lot for a guy who can basically get to the hoop at will.

He's starting to overuse the euro step. It's too easily predicted now.

Beal having is having a really bad game

AGreed re: the euro step... if you're gaurding Prather on the break you just step in front of the basket.

Taipans cant play any better then this while Perth are paying in second gear. Stay close and catch fire late.

Fucking hell nbl. This league would be so good if it weren't for the refs.

Cringe-worthy from the Cats tonight.

Yep. NBL. 1v 6. 6 winning at 3/4 time.58-49. Taipans great. Cats average. Another upset brewing

14 wildcat turnovers in 3 quarters. I'm a little surprised. Seems like even more.

When the Wildcats don't have one perimeter player playing out of his mind from behind the arc they look a lot like the team I expected them to be before the season began.

Hire is making it a lot easier to tell him and Wagstaff apart on the court this year - Hire is the one that plays like shite.

3 pointers killing Cats tonight.

Beal has had 4 shots so far!!!

perth pentenders

...yeah, probably throw that one down Prather.

Can someone explain Martins role for the Cats to me? Please!!! Why is a guard in a team & this guy has only taken 3 shots all game. Am I missing something here?

Missed open layup, missed dunk... Sometimes it just ain't your night

Martin isn't accumulating stats like he normally does.

Every minute Martin has been on the court this season he has pretty much been recovering from an injury, but he's a reluctant scorer even when healthy. It's just that he usually ends up with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 6 steals to go with his 4 points. Not so much this year.

Martin isn't even getting assists. Mostly Jawai and Beal are.

Martin pretty much sucks. Lucky to be in the NBL.

It's the hair that keeps him in the league, IMO.

Big knight

Perth has played well below what they can play.

Diabolical last possession from Cairns.

Defence has been good

Bruce was unlucky not to have an easy 2, but not sure about that play from Wortho... either take Wagtstaff to the hoop, or give it off to a guard.

Seeing Worthington stuff it is allways great

prather choke

Wortho going the hero play on a step back 3... I'll take those odds

Is starks or injured?

Yes, ice pack on the hammy

Terrible game and how Perth won I'll never know, they were in second gear all game and got the W.

I guess if Starks didn't get injured the result may have been different.

Considering how well Starks started the game, definitely.

Won't win any awards for pretty basketball, but I'll happily take the road win.
Taipans will be kicking themselves for letting that one slip away. Didn't think the cats particularly deserved it.

The idiot who was bashing Trevor is pretty quiet now?

@ Anonymous #571349

Don't confuse confidence that comes from winning 6 titles as arrogance. If you're not sure what arrogance looks like just ask Wortho - he wrote the book on it.

Ugly game for sure and agree that the referring is absolutely destroying the NBL.

I don't know why anyone is surprised with how this game was played. Perth V Cairns games are traditionally a low scoring slug fest. Game could of gone either way tonight but Perh have the benefit of going into that higher gear when it matters.

Huge game coming up for Perth sat night vs Crocs.
Cairns can pretty much say goodbye to their finals hopes unfortunately.

@Anon'349

Can you show us where Perth fans were arrogant about the win?

The known Cats fans' comments above pretty much concede that it was an ugly win, possibly even fortunate with Stark's injury.

If anything they have been humble about the getting out of there with a W.

What the F@$%& do people want?
Cairns is a dammn good defensive team (or at least they are against the Cats). Blowouts where Beal drains 40 and the team 100+ are the exception, not the rule.
This was a typical hard-fought class between these two teams, and I for one am absolutely stoked to get the win. Very handy to bank that road win at the start of their trip.

Winning ugly is still winning, we looked uninterested for the majority of the game. Championship calibre teams find a way to win even when they are playing poorly. Alot of players were well done last night, but happy to take a win anytime.

Tough teams win tough games.

"Cairns is a dammn good defensive team"

Used to be. Not this year. Against anyone.

Only Sydney and Illawarra give up more points per game. Cairns have a positive points split against only one team - Melbourne (+3).

Their defence has been rubbish compared to Cairns teams of the last 4 years.

Cky that Cairns threw away their lead by missing open shots in that last 5 minutes.

They're also lucky that Cairns’ leading scorer and main finisher at the death- Starks- went down with an injury in the first half.

A win’s a win, of course, but Gleeson would be mostly unhappy with the Cats effort last night.

That meant to say....

Perth's lucky* that...

"Used to be. Not this year. Against anyone.

Only Sydney and Illawarra give up more points per game. Cairns have a positive points split against only one team - Melbourne (+3).

Their defence has been rubbish compared to Cairns teams of the last 4 years."


If you look a little deeper you'll get a better picture. The Taipans are conceding 77.7 points/40 minutes at home compared to 92.1 on the road. So in Cairns they are a good defensive team.

Perth's D was pretty solid too in the final few.

Wortho may have been the top scorer but he also cost his team the game. He gets too involved in his personal battles at times and he picked a really bad time to do it.

"When the Wildcats don't have one perimeter player playing out of his mind from behind the arc they look a lot like the team I expected them to be before the season began."

Thats complete crap. They've won games this year by slowing it to a grind, matching it with the high scoring fast break teams, and of course we had Beal and Wagstaff with the hot hands in the previous two games. This "unbalanced" line up has started clicking in the past 8 games and I don't think they've been a one man show in all but two of those games.

Wortho was also outstanding defensively, and got a bum call from Chris Reid when Martin ran through his screen (Reid then stood a couple of metres away from Jawai's pick which had a little more movement than Wortho's and let it go).

Hedid get caught up for a few possessions, but there's no way Worthington cost them the game, Damo just hit a tough three at the end of that little duel which I'm sure Fearne would have been happy for him to shoot.

Agree re the Wildcats not relying on an individual, they've got incredible depth and they utilise it well.

Bad call on Wortho aside, he set a rough pick on Martin in the backcourt just prior to that which was let go. It fired Martin up an it resulted in him smashing him back (unusual for Martin) which was the offensive foul. Even though Martin went through him, Wortho still went for another moving/late screen and the refs didn't let him get away with it again.

I think he gets distracted when he decides to impose his presence on someone that he has decided to target, and doing that in the final three minutes is dumb.

He got distracted, but all he actually did was get what looked like a bad call and then fire Damo up into shooting a three, which would usually be a good result for Cairns. If you look at how good Wortho was at both ends during the game, you might see he gave them the chance to win.

He normally gets in to one of these battles in the first half. He chose to do it with three minutes to go. Bad timing.

Fair call, he was their best player, not just top scorer.

Agree he let it get to him too much at a really important time. He should know better at his age, but a chance to go off at the refs seems to be too good to refuse.

Martin was quoted in the WEst Australian newspaper today that his team was essentially outplayed for 3 quarters.

He is also occasionally on Sport FM during the week, hopefully possible today or tomorrow.

"Only Sydney and Illawarra give up more points per game. Cairns have a positive points split against only one team - Melbourne (+3).

Their defence has been rubbish compared to Cairns teams of the last 4 years."


What does points differential have to do with defence?

Points per game is also affected by pace. Come back when you have DRtgs.

D-ratings are handy but limited by not measuring ability to slow pace defensively nor generate offence from defence.

If you look a little deeper you'll get a better picture. The Taipans are conceding 77.7 points/40 minutes at home compared to 92.1 on the road. So in Cairns they are a good defensive team.

Both Beal and Knight had quiet games, and that is reflected in the total score, but fortunately we had enough of a spread to still get the job done.
Nobody is pretending it was pretty, but a win is a win.

I think Wagstaff is gonna be a one club player. He would look at Sydney and see the turnover of coaches they have had, and the resources he has at the Wildcats (and now where they (Kings) are going to play).

The money it'd take for Wagstaff to move wouldn't be worth it. Kings would have too over pay him to move from his pretty great gig in WA.

paul - yes, their defence is better at home than away. But this year they give up 10 more PPG at home than last year and 22 PPG more away.

Across the league, teams on average are giving up 1PPG more at home and 4PPG more away.

I stand by my view that "Their defence has been rubbish compared to Cairns teams of the last 4 years."

Have you actually looked at their defensive performance the past four years? Because it wasn't great in 2013/14 and it's usually linked to their offence.

For mine, when Wilson and Wilbekin were controlling the offence the D was good, when they rely too much on motion sets they open up transition for the oppo.

Funny how when the wildcats win, every excuse under the sun comes up, like injuries, or refs, seriously, time to give where credit is due, Perth are a contender and like other teams, have faced some adversity, whilst damp isn't big on scoring he is our leader and general, missed I believe 8 games, Prather has missed 3.

Gleeson bashers, on the telecast they said he has a record of 155-115 which isn't too bad at all.

Lure Wagstaff "home"? I have NEVER met a Canberran would would consider Sydney home.

Besides I don't think he would leave Perth unless pushed. He does very well coming off the bench for Perth, and sometimes he excels and is a game-winner for them. We always hoped he would become a starter, but its looking less likely.
He probably would find a gig starting for a lesser team, and do a passable job, but he's not the game-changer that you'd throw big money at.
Bench or not, he's won two 'ships with the Cats and every year they're in contention. Unless he is pushed out, it would take a big offer to move him, and I just don't see it being worth it.

what was the crowd no. for this game?
on the tv coverage they had a graphic and it said 3700 something