Call on lisch was shocking

AJ just gotta keep his arms up on that one. Came down into Goulding's arms/shoulders.

Good to see Melbourne supports on here talking about the game. What a joke of supporters.

Pretty soft foul on Penney there on that replay, but hey, who doubted Goulding was going to get the call there.

...I'd say there's a decent chance that some of the Melb fans are actually at the game.

All 3,500 of them are at the game Perth Wilburs

Corey Williams is bias as anything I've seen before for Melbourne.

Foul on Ellis non call.

Not the most dazzling of inbound plays... Would've been better off trying to force that pass to Kirk.

United win!!

Ellis wasn't fouled, but really shouldn't have even been on the court in that situation, much less have the ball.

Oh dear, check andthefoul.net on Twitter... You can clearly hear on the broadcast that Melbourne had someone listening to the Fox broadcast of the Hawks' final timeout, and says to Coach D 'Penney in the post'.

Ellis got pushed by the body of the Melbourne player.

Can Melbourne listen in like that? It's cheating. Very unethical.

Why wouldn't you? Ethics I guess would be one reason. Either way, doesn't look good for Melbourne and their coaching staff.

Well, he clearly said 'Penney in the post', which is what the Hawks tried to do. Could've been a guess, sure. Timing seems more than a little suspicious.

Oh dear, check andthefoul.net on Twitter... You can clearly hear on the broadcast that Melbourne had someone listening to the Fox broadcast of the Hawks' final timeout, and says to Coach D 'Penney in the post'.

Let's see if the "new NBL" investigate this

Cracking game, so much offensive talent on the floor, Goulding, Penney, Holt, Kickert, Warrick, Forman and Lisch, and a bloke named Kevin White who was pretty damn good too!

Amazing how that game swung on the Ogilvy unsportsmanlike foul, Melbourne went 24-9 the rest of the quarter, Warrick throwing down everything.

Melbourne's effort on Ogilvy was superb, and it's hard to see them missing the playoffs now. Hawks need to open a can of whoop arse on Sydney on Saturday or their spot starts to look shaky.

Wouldn't most teams have 2-3 alternative shot options on an inbounds play? Having one of then nullified kind of moot?

Not melbourne's fault if they got a heads up from the telecast anyhoo. Don't know why fox persists with meddling in coaching huddles, I can't recall another sport that does the same thing. I'd rather listen to commentators gloss over game points of emphasis or see a cut to a pre-recorded pre-match player interview.

Hoopster from the video, and in this link I wouldnt say you can clearly hear someone from Melbourne is listening into Fox.

At the start of the clip you can see a persons clip board/paperwork which is what the guy who tells Dean about Penney in the post has - how would he have been able to hear the Fox broadcast?

Allegedly he is the AC who scouts the opposition team, so you would expect him to know the plays Illawarra are going to draw up. The question I have is why did he wait till the huddle had broken to tell Dean, I have no idea.

I wouldnt put it past Melbourne or the other big clubs to do it, but I just don't think in this case they did

Frustrating result for the Hawks who were looking the stronger team for much of the game. United just got to the line more.

When you give up a 24-9 run on the road it's hard to win. The Hawks capitulated after the Ogilvy USF and it cost them the game.

I mostly agree with Mr Ben, most time-outs should be used to show highlights from the game or around the league, or interviews etc, but I'm a big fan of being inside late-game time-outs.

Of course the fans want to see the time outs but if it comes at the integrity of the games being played, its not ideal. Only one team's time out is broadcast so that gives the other team a potential advantage.

Its was also made worse by an educated commentator in Shane Heal inadvertently summarising Bevo's final play. So just in case the United "scout" didn't quite get all the info, Heal was able to verbalise it in a matter of seconds.

Whether it impacted the game last night or not, it amounts to cheating. Why can't United stick to cheating in their normal fashion by letting the refs decide the close games for them?

You have to evolve as the season goes on SC, everyone knows that.

great game. i thought most 50/50 calls went uniteds way.

I didnt get a good look at AJ's 5th foul The unsports foul decided the game?

" i thought most 50/50 calls went uniteds way."

You can post that in every United home game thread for this season, particularly in the final minutes.

LOL, the butthurt is strong with this bunch of sooks.

United got a few, Hawks got a few.

Simple as this. If the Hawks had of ran some decent offensive in the last 3 minutes, they had the win. They didn't and CG43 attacked the rim twice and got fouled. Game over.

"You can post that in every United home game thread for this season, particularly in the final minutes."

I don't think home cooking is a new thing to the NBL, Perth and NZ have played in a way that has got them a refereeing advantage at home for many years now, and no less this season.

According to this article (by Liam Santamaria?) it's one of the strongest years ever for homecourt advantage.

http://www.nbl.com.au/featured-news/the-nbl-home-court-advantage/

No doubt they have but Perth and NZ have been dominant teams in the past five or so years, regularly giving their opponents a hiding at home. But for some reason, a series of magical refereeing events have occurred in close United home games this year, all in the final minute, all against the top teams, all of them resulting in a home win. Its a little more than an advantage that every team has.

This season's home and away foul counts are consistent with paul's view above.

Perth, NZ, Adelaide and Cairns all are called for 2-3 less fouls per game at home than away. They're all venues traditionally seen as having vocal home crowds.

Interestingly, Melbourne are one of the few teams with almost the same foul counts per game at home and away (i.e., less than 0.5 foul per game difference).

A few more stats on what home court advantage is worth this season, compared to past seasons, are in a recent thread on the subject. The NBL article (link in paul's post) provides a couple of interesting player viewpoints that help to explain why it's a bigger advantage this year.

Thing is, the NBL is not a two horse race, just enjoying this season and the upsets, another one in NZ today!!

Thought the Hawks might have got this one, but United are not certain to win anything this season, loving it...