The roster isn't good enough, simple. How many wildcats players, besides Prather would make the kings team? 00

How many simultaneous "Perth are struggling" threads do we need?

Yesterday there was 'Perth will miss the playoffs' and 'Wildcats are in trouble', today there's this thread

Get over it, if they won Thursday they would have been on top. My only problem is the way they are playing.

Player's get paid to shoot the ball, perth player's look like they don't even want to do that.

Streak has to end sometime, one year closer to that happening.

I'm not saying Perth fans aren't allowed to over-react.

I'm just saying why can't it be done in the same relevant active thread? 3 active threads on the same topic is excessive.

Just a little bit of common sense should be exercised that's all.

"I'm just saying why can't it be done in the same relevant active thread?"

I agree. It's essentially the same discussion happening in multiple places. Which seems to be a regular thing for Wildcats threads lately. Not sure why people think every new thought needs its own thread.

And yes, it's pretty obvious that the coaches need to take some responsibility. And they clearly are. Gleeson is currently coaching like a guy desperately looking for answers.

Ive never been a fan of gleesons coaching. Their offense has always looked stagnant and rarely have good enough ball movement to create open looks.

Over the years its been their experienced on court leaders that has been the reason to their success. Usually big defensive plays by martin/knight/wagstaff and co.

This season having inexperienced imports is showing up gleesons poor ability to get the best out of the players. And not having a knock down three point threat is really affecting their scoring options in offense.

I am puzzled as to why they dont just make a change with the import situation now before its too late.

"Ive never been a fan of gleesons coaching. Their offense has always looked stagnant and rarely have good enough ball movement to create open looks."


In defence of Gleeson (something that's rare for me, because I have never rated him either) this issue is not unique to him. It was really no different under Bevo. Redhage & Lisch did great work when we were able to keep the tempo high, but we rightfully copped plenty of flack for struggling in the half court and being painful to watch. Much like we were on Thursday night. For most of the Cats-Breakers dominance era, the Cats' success was built on defence. Without Damo we're starting to struggle in that area too. But it's been a looooong time since we had an above-average system in offence.

I might be in the minority but i actually really liked bevos system. The ball movement was superior to glessons but the problem was bevo didn't have the cattle besides lisch to knock down the open shots. Bartletts 0-9 was the result of bevos unwavering confidence in his players to shoot the ball. If he had the ennis/beal teams (with more than one scorer) that gleeson had it would have been higher scoring and more attractive to watch than it was.

This season's hawks are a showcase of bevos system. Great ball movement finding the open man, multiple scoring threats and every player having the confidence to shoot the ball. The thing that sets them apart from last season is they have fixed up their rebounding creating extra shots.

I'm definitely not disagreeing with you about Bevo. Bottom line - it won games - and a title. As a fan who appreciates both ends of the floor I thought it was a beautiful thing, but a lot of people were critical of Wildcats basketball during that era. (Mostly people who think good basketball = dunking, I'm guessing)

But let's be fair here too. Any system is going to be tested once it starts to cop personnel issues as well.
I was optimistic before this season that the Cats could find their way into the playoffs yet again, but that was largely based on faith that our new imports would work out. McKay has pretty much been what I expected, but JJ certainly hasn't.
At prediction time here when a lot of people were talking up the Cats I recall having specific concerns about our reliance on Martin & Knight given their injury history.

When you consider how important Martin, Knight & Beal were for us last season, and then consider that two of them have dealt with significant injury setbacks and the other has been replaced by a dud, you have to factor that into the expectations.
Also last season I assume Prather was a bargain considering what he ended up delivering. This season he would be eating up a sizeable chunk of our budget, thus limiting what we can spend elsewhere.
(Having said all that, I'm pretty sure that our coach has significant input over our personnel transactions, so criticism is warranted when those decisions turn out to be poor)

Confidence is a key piece on any team. How many good looks did the Cats turn down on Thursday? Shooting less than 40% and moving responsibility to the next guy is not great. Credit to Redhage, he will take a shot even though he must be aware he is not in great shooting form.

Did we turn down that many *good* looks though?
We've got some guys who can hit shots with their feet set (Wagstaff, Prather, JJ, Hire, Kenny, and Redhage in theory but no longer in practise) but Dexter is about the only one I want to see taking perimeter shots in any kind of motion. Maybe JJ in rhythm coming off a screen. But we're a pretty easy team to defend atm. I think there's a good reason we're turning down most of those looks.
JJ's head is all messed up atm. Trev rips him for not being aggressive enough, so next "chance" he gets, he forces up something he really shouldn't.

I agree that we're in a bad space mentally. It's almost palpable in the stadium.

Defence has been poor. Poor screening.....how many times did I witness the opposition scoring back immediately after a Wildcats' score.

We need a Martin defence, can't deny that is what is required.

Gleeson is a very average coach.i'l be given more game time to that young guy Bragg.Sure he mite make the odd mistake but he has a red hot go when he comes on.Bragg is much better than Wroe but then again Gleeson has no idea.Prather is the only guy having an impact every game as for the others like JJ,Brandt,Redhage there simply not up to the standard to play in the nbl.If i remember rightly last time Adelaide played Perth a couple of weeks ago Daniel Johnson was out injured and Adelaide only lost by about four points,so all teams have injuries but it's how you adjust and have players stepping up which i don't see Perth doing.At the moment there freefalling at high speed.How is faker Knight i expect him to jump of that stretcher and be right to play Adelaide.

End of the day, it comes down to the player's to put there shit together. Every coach looks good when they win or team, Wagstaff was a key coming off the bench, this season hasn't done shit.

Get over Martin, he ain't there, what happens if he retires? we need a new generation, should've gone after Norton and a few player's from the crocs.

Marvin needs to do something or perth arena will have curtains on the upper level. Perth. members pay a lot of money, that's why expect them to do well. Don't charge a fortune and expect just to get by.

Player's player's half as good as they can them we surely can pay half to watch them player's.

^ That's not what I was trying to say at all though. I agree that he is, and the last couple of seasons have proven it.
My point was that in Perth he couldn't do the same thing (produce an efficient, attractive offence), due to the personnel at his disposal rather than due to any shortcomings of himself as a coach. He had to tailor a system to the players on his roster - and he did an effective job of that.

That's the challenge that Gleeson faces now. Trying to maximise the strengths of the players he has. He doesn't have a team that can get by purely on its own talent.
When you look at what Shawn Dennis did, for example, he pretty much was able to polish a turd. That's the challenge that Trev currently faces.

Not sure we need another thread, as the others are sufficiently broad in scope.

But anyway, if you want to talk specifically about coaching, I mostly disagree.

Its difficult to judge how well NBL teams go about development, because mostly its not a development league, and what does go on (in their development and training programs) is largely not seen by the public. You would need to closely follow the progress of the young guys in those programs, to judge how effective they were.

The fault that lies with Wildcats Coaching & Management, is that for whatever reason, they have recruited poorly for this season.
Sacking Beal for JJ now looks gobsmackingly stupid, and replacing Jawai with McKay looks questionable.
In Hindsight, given the ageing roster and propensity for injury, they probably should have aimed to sign a Marquee Aussie starter, and kept an import slot up their sleeves.

Even as it stands, get Damo back into the rotation and we will be competitive again. Replace JJ with a combo guard who can score, and we could be back on top. Problem is the league is very competitive, and we only need to be a bit off the pace to keep losing.

I said could. I'm not boasting, just making the point that the league is very competitive. One really good player could make the difference between finishing 1st or 6th.

"That's the challenge that Gleeson faces now. Trying to maximise the strengths of the players he has. He doesn't have a team that can get by purely on its own talent.
When you look at what Shawn Dennis did, for example, he pretty much was able to polish a turd. That's the challenge that Trev currently faces."


totally agree, although many parts of this particular turd has sparkled in the past.

Seven out of their next ten games on the road - current form suggests they win three of those if they are lucky, putting them at 9-14 heading into February. Gleeson will be unemployable if the streak is broken under his watch, not to mention probably banished from Perth for life

I don't know about Gleeson as a coach, but my goodness does he like a whinge. I swear last night I saw him begging in front of a Referee. Either that or he'd expelled so much air from whining about the last call that he'd actually started deflating.
Every coach will take issue with the Referees, but most will just aggressively argue the point. What really gets me is Gleeson whiiiiines about it instead, like he's got the tears in his eyes and the bottom lip starts going. It's really annoying and embarrassing to watch.

Gleeson is a whinging, whining flog who would instill confidence in nobody.

I don't know about Gleeson as a coach, but my goodness does he like a whinge.

Anyone heard any rumours from the Cats???
(Got a mate who reckons someone told him a "big announcement" is coming. And as they say, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.)

I'm just literally wondering if anyone has heard anything?
Even if correct, "big announcement" could mean anything from a half-price sale on Championship Memorabilia, A new sponsorship deal with Donut-King, or they have signed Joe Puddly from Rockingham as an injury replacement.

As for what I might hope? Hmm...
I guess a surprising injury replacement would be nice.
What do ya reckon my chances are? :-(