Pretty much must-win for the Hawks. Would be tough to go down 0-2 and have to fight for survival in Perth.

Hoping the hawks win and win well to give them confidence for game 3 away.

Can't wait for tipoff. Pumped!

Why would it back an upset? Hawks by memory was in the top 2 or 3 for most of the season. They got talent as much as Perth does. If the hawks had hca would people still think Perth would be favorite?

Given the two sides are about on par talent wise, and both sides have shown the ability to win on the road, the sheer volume of GF/finals experience that the Wildcats put on the floor may well be a deciding factor, even in Illawarra.

I personally think Hawks should be faves at home, but it will not surprise me at all if the Cats get up.

Do we know if Harris is playing?

This is the Hawks' 3rd game in a week. Combined with the extra travel, I think that will hurt.

I also think this is a "needed" win for Perth. If they can win this, they have a good chance of sweeping the Hawks on Sunday. If this goes to 4 or 5 games, I think the Hawks can come over the top.

Lot of weapons in both teams.. will be tight unless a Wagstaff or Knight go off again, then it's Perth. Will have too many options on the night and have guys left open.

Forman and Coenradd are also the danger men to look out for on the wings.

Will be cracker.

With streaming the game using nbl.tv can you reqind the game to the start if its already half way through? I wont get home from work until 5:30PM so will miss the first half and dont want to wait 2 days for the replay to be uploaded...

* Rewind sorry

yes, provided you get on before it ends.

Yea, I was able to on the PC during Game 1..

Would've been in the middle of the third Q.

Made sure I turned the sound off and covered the score area with some paper, enough to be able to move the point back to the start of the production.

Thought that was the case, as for hiding from the score... I do this all the time for NBA games... just squint the eyes and turn the volume down haha.

My next question was, if I get to the game before it ends and go back to the start, can I then pause it and play it later on? Anyone tried this?

Do we know if Harris is playing?

I'm tipping

- Hawks to win
- Rotnei +17.5 pts
- Cotton +22.5 pts
- Prather -21.5 pts

Well I can pretty much guarantee that 3 of your predictions won't come true :p

So not a single mention of tonight's grand final game on Channel 9's sport segment (Melbourne), yet AFL preseason is a hot topic.

I can't even blame it on media bias anymore, I think the onus is on the league to sell itself as a premier sporting event to the media and get this back on a more accessible free to air channel on a regular and weekly basis.

Hawks hi-low great early

3 steps by Prather.

...although Ogilvy clearly fouled Prather on that block on that replay.

I may be a Hawks supporter but even more so I am an NBL fan but when the Hawks are rolling they are sure fun to watch.

No way this manic tempo keeps up.

I just don't get it.

The Hawks seem to have only one defense, their 2-3 zone.
And what is Gleeson's great strategy to counteract this? ? ?
Apart from running the floor and taking hurried shots before the D is set?

A 5-game series is going to be won by the coach who is best at adapting.

I realise Gleeson is relying on the Wildcats trademark grinding-down of the opposition, but how far can he let the lead blow-out?

Codey Ellis keeping Perth in the game

has Perth already signed Ellis ?

can these two commentators talk about anything other than themselves ?

As a completely impartial Kings fan, I respectively disagree with you both. ;)

Even Prather can only laugh at that joke of a call

Lol.... charge eh?

How were feet set on that charge

They were set on a backward jumping trajectory. Does that count as being set?

Where have these Illawarra fans been all year. Talk about bandwagon fans.

Have there been bad crowds in Illawarra this year? I haven't noticed on their broadcasts.

Ok lets all focus on the one shit call of the half.

Bandwagon or not. Its good to have more people on here

"Where have these Illawarra fans been all year. Talk about bandwagon fans. "

'Anyone but Perth'. Me, I couldn't care, I'm watching a fun series of GF (which unfortunately we're not a part of)

Cats are relying on Prather to score too much. I know Cotton has 3 fouls but Matt Knight isn't even getting involved on offense.

Prather's handle looks real shaky tonight.

Happy to escape that half down just 5.
Cotton's foul trouble hurt. Hawks did a great job of going at him.

Does Prather dropping the shoulder factor in on the call? Obviously it does/did, but does the rule book factor that kind of thing in?

Brandt sure has been good.

As the earlier poster said it feels like the Hawks should be further in front. AJ really keeping his head down and playing well, Rotnei on point, Cotton sitting and not scoring much and its still close.

Hawks look a lot more impressive than the cats, surprised only a few points in it. Anything could happen, cotton's 4th quarters have been impressive when cats are down so ill hold on to that hope if it comes to that.

Brandt stepping up to fill the bench points stat that is so desperately needed.
Clarke looks to be the most determined player on court.

I can't be the only person to cringe at Ogilvy's shooting motion regardless of the result

Also on the "anyone but Perth" bandwagon.

Rotnei is a WEAPON. Hoping Illawarra can hold out this game, would be near impossible returning to Perth at 0-2.

Ouch. There's Prather's 3rd

Double ouch

Well there goes Knight to another injury.

Wow. Knight ANOTHER concussion

Well Brandt's time to shine

Aside from the KO where was the foul on prather

Must have thought the hit on the backboard was a foul

Wow refs gone from only calling decent fouls to calling anything. Can't even be consistent within the same game

Cats getting some other contributions now. Good stuff

Hawks do many things well....boxing out is not one of them

Redhage looking very lost on the court

Omg waited for contact and none came

Game on

Perth putting the strangle hold on.

Outside of that easy high/low basket a few mins ago, Ellis has been as responsible for the Hawks going into the 4th down than any Wildcat, on both ends of the court.

Prather dribbling like the ball has helium in it, it's the reverse of the tom Brady deflategate lol

Yeah. I'm not a fan. At least Oscar spreads the d

That's a ton of contact

HaHaHa

I know it was Flophage, but that was not a flop. That's a costly fuckup

lol... maybe the first time in his long career that Redhage has actually *not* flopped and been called for it?

Only took 36 or so seasons for Redhage's reputation to catch up with him.

Wagstaff flop! Boooooooooo!

Classy crowd in Wollongong. Disgraceful

Damoooooooo

I wish the Hawks played like this vs Adelaide.

Perth are the superior team in this series. No doubt about it in mind. The Hawks rely so much (too much) on making shots.

Suggest people get used to the thought of Perth winning another title.

Perth just grind it out so well and with the class of Prather and Cotton they only need a few others to help on offense.

It's funny how we are the Cats but the Gong has all the ferals

When Demo's hitting threes you're pretty much screwed. Normally you're happy to give those looks up.

Can't we all just agree that Perth and Illawarra both have their fair share?

Clean sweep for the Wildcats. Doesn't even seem like a GF series. Boring.

Two years in a row where we've had a great regular season followed by an awful finals matchup.

Harsh. This has been a good game so far

Hawks now playing that 4th Quarter Panic Ball

Can't stomach another Perth victory.

Martin and prather with bullshit 4th fouls. Pathetic

Dewey Michaels sighting!

I wish they'd show a flashback to when the 36ers won the championship, whenever that was I can't remember.

Martin has done it again.

No team is beating Perth if Martin goes 4/5

marto bang bang BANG

Another phantom foul. Aj gifted another call

I don't even think Adelaide choked, Illawarra just played really well, and shot the ball really well.

At half time I was all ready to praise AJ for showing more heart than I thought he had.
He's been pretty spudly this half though.

We choked.

Conehead bahahahahahahaha

Series over. Yawn.

Too good. Disappointed because it might mean only one more game to watch.

In a parallel universe Illawarra take this to a 5 game series and clean up. This is not that universe.

Looking forward to next season and hopefully Perth miss the finals altogether.

So much of this game is in the mind.
Hawks just did not seem to have the belief in the 2nd half, and I don't know why, coz they can flat out play.

well, Hawks have to go 3 -0 for the rest of the games to win , and do it on 2 perth home games. Got to say its unlikely, but...

what a series if they at least make it to the 5th game.

be good for the NBl if they do...

The series is over. Let's be realistic here and not run with the "what ifs" and "it's not over until it's over" crap...

Hawks played with 1/10 the aggression of the first quarter after the quarter time break.

Martin mr clutch, wagstaff became a beast defensively after knight went down and hit important 3s.

"The series is over. Let's be realistic here and not run with the "what ifs" and "it's not over until it's over" crap..."

Meme alert: warriors blew a 3-1 lead

Great win considering i don't think we played that well. Too many turnovers , hopefully we can tidy that up and get the W on Sunday for No 8.

Yep, if the Cats are up 3-1 I certainly won't be counting my chickens after what the Cavs did.

I thought we were pretty good from the latter part of the 1st Q. Maybe not fluent and pretty, but considering the Hawks pressure I thought we played a really tough game.

As a Cavs fan I see where people are coming from but this is 2 completely teams in a different league. The Wildcats are far superior experience wise and that's a huge reason they're 2-0 up.

Wagstaff can defend, who knew.

carn the mighty cats!!!!!!

There's been bigger upsets than this, all I'm sayin. I may be a cats fan, but I'm also a st.kilda footy fan, pessimism comes with the territory of being a saints fan :p

Just think, Perth were one Melbourne United 3 pointer away from missing the playoffs just over a fortnight ago. Now they look almost certain to win the title.

Yet another example of a great truth of sports. It doesn't matter who the best team is during the regular season. It doesn't even matter who looks like the 'team to beat' at any stage. It's all about finding form at the right time.

Western Bulldogs were a great example of this, and now we have another.

(Likely) have another. Lest I speak too soon. Carn Hawks!!

"Yet another example of a great truth of sports. It doesn't matter who the best team is during the regular season. It doesn't even matter who looks like the 'team to beat' at any stage. It's all about finding form at the right time."


That would make a daylight call half way through the season look quite stupid then I guess.

I suppose Perth did outspend Illawarra but I doubt they outspent Sydney or Melbourne

"As an nbl fan can't help but wonder just how much adelaide shot themsevws in the foot and choked a title up. Perth look okish but definitely beatable, but these Hawks played their GF in the semi final series and celebrated accordingly. They were elated and for good reason but feel like they knew then they had already overachieved. Cats will win number 8 meh... Dazz will be happy somewhere out there"

Agree with those points.
Adelaide clearly the best team all year should have made the Grand Final and it would have been a great battle. Perth with Cotton have proven the advantage of coming good at the right time.

I also think we cant overlook the finals experience of Perth.

To be fair the worst part of the cats season was during martins injury. If not for that they probably would have cleared 2nd on the ladder.

Illawarra look like they're lucky to be there. Did well to make the grand final I guess so well done. Out in 3 is my prediction though.

Perth just hustled and hustled and it paid off. Didn't like Illawarra's subs much. Harris looked tired almost from the start (-16 in 12 minutes). Oscar hit a three and didn't get much more time - find him more shots while he's out there?

Sometimes you play to the scouting report and a player gets hot (Martin in this game) but there's not much excuse for soft passing that makes for easy steals. It was a close enough game at times that a couple of these were enough to swing it.

Once down about 5, Illawarra kinda looked like they expected to lose. The commentators commented on the bench being lifeless.

Why the hell is Bevo kids on the bench hi 5 players, it's the grand final.

Love how Kenny ended up on the press conference like he was man of the match..

^^^^ Haha yeah Ricky i was thinking the same thing

The adversity the cats have faced throughout the year has held them in good stead these finals. They are just playing with cool heads and drawing on their experience to get the job done. Even when they were 11 down they looked at ease and just turned the screws in the third. If they can tidy up the turnovers game 3 will be a blowout. The hawks' up tempo game plan is impossible to maintain with all the travel they have done. Tonight in the second half they looked spent!

Anon do you really think the refs cost illawarra. The calls were bad all night. But the dubious non existant calls actually did favour the hawks.

Can the Hawks bounce back from here?
Logic, tradition, and stats say no.

Next question - can they bounce back enough to make a fight of it?

If Knight can't play, does that give the Hawks hope?

"Once down about 5, Illawarra kinda looked like they expected to lose. The commentators commented on the bench being lifeless."

Too True
I know the Wildcats have a history of grinding teams down, but other teams have taken them right to the wire and won.

How do Illawrra start out dominating the boards then just seem to tire?

Oh well. It was a good regular season.

Cats had plenty of adversity, some unfortunate all 3 pgs out at the same time, some from poor decisions ( import rotation). However they persevered and got through. They made a very unpopular call letting Johnson go the second time, can anyone blame them now, imagine if sydney and Melbourne used as much due diligence and made the tough calls when replacing there imports.

It very well could have being sydney then daylight, lol.

The limited minutes for Oscar is fine by me, when he gets on a role he can seriously shoot. He seems to hit a shot and then goes to the bench, plus i'm sure he could help on the boards. So i'm happy he's sitting for extended periods :)

Fantastic road win by the Cats!!

As LV said, All a club has to do is make the playoff's to be in with a shot of winning... Then it is totally about finding form at the right part of the season.

The Wildcats have done just that and the Cotton signing has definitely turned things around. But saying the reason the Cats are 1 win away from another title solely due to Cotton is totally wrong. Damo is back at his best, Prather is injury free and killing it, Wagstaff coming up with huge plays at crucial times, Brandt in career best form.

As to being over the cap.. I'm not sure what the Cats are paying Cotton.. But I'm pretty sure Nick Marvin has said we tried to stick pretty close to the cap as the Cats didn't want to pay luxury tax. No doubt Cotton would have tipped us over by a little bit, but no where near the insane Sydney or Melbourne numbers.

Redhage will come off the salary situation, and if we're being realistic, possibly Matty Knight. Hopefully that means we can keep Cotton and give Brandt a deal that will keep him around long term.

With Lucas Walker still hanging around, it's a good chance he'll be in Redhages spot next year.. what a luxury to have available to do.

Bit rich from those posters belittling the Hawks achieving what they have.

Sure they have faded badly in the second half of both GF games but they have made the GF on their own merits and dealt with Adelaide on the way.

The way they play the game at such a high tempo has probably taken some sting out of them at the back end of games.

They aren't far away from being a championship team. (by some miracle they might still be).

Replace either Harris with Craig or Hollyfield with McKay and their rebounding and defensive shortcomings would be far less noticeable. Perth have demonstrated how much difference one star import added can make and I am not even talking superstar here.

Cant take anything away from Perth. Solid veterans led by arguably the toughest competitor to ever play the game(note I'm not talking talent)and one of the best import duos in a long long time.

Just hoping for a underdog victory in game 3 to extend the series.

Bloody great effort to get there by Bevo - lost the Killer K's and still make a GF.

Bevo just needs to upgrade @ the power import spots and keep that core together.

Looks like it'll be a very healthy crowd on Sunday, just single seats left!

Martin
Rotnei
Harris
Ellis/Forman
Holyfield

That bench could go with anyone though.

@FSTOS "Bit rich from those posters belittling the Hawks achieving what they have."

Yep, same ones who were dissing the Taipans.

I think it's actually showing just how good the Wildcats are this season - just took them a while to get their act together.

But all credit to them, they're about as together as they need to be, aren't they? Sweep Cairns, possibly sweep Hawks - either way they've won the four in a row that actually matter at this end of the season.

There's always next year... (*crosses fingers*)

so anything but the title is mediocrity and the teams suck.

You really are a clueless fwit.

I hope you can find the other half of your brain!

In my opinion Adelaide, Hawks and United when rolling were just sensational to watch this season. As good on the eye as any for a long time.

There have been so many other great games in this incredible (yeah the playoffs have been a little one sided)and every team has played their part. To crap on about how poor some teams are shows you have little concept for reality or knowledge of the NBL.

None of the easy on the eye comments are meant to be a criticism of Perth who one cant help to admire because of their commitment to getting the W and the crowds they get game in game out.

"It was more directed at Taipans, man they choked. Enjoy being the only club with no title.

Hawks I guess benefitted from Randle hogball. But then you make the GF and come out like that in your first game at home? Pathetic. Enjoy."

I rest my case your Honour.

You really think every club doesn't want to win. Perth have a very solid core AND have been the beneficiary of a benevolent benefactor who liked to win to such an extent that he provided enough resources to build the team. This got them through the period until the new arena allowed the club to be more self sufficient.

I am sure the Hawks would have loved to dump Holyfield and Bring in say Josh Boone or Harris and bring in someone of Cotton's standard.

If you really believe that is to do with culture and not $$$ you are a bigger tool than I thought.

People on here generally don't like Perth, they dislike smug fwits who gloat on here when they win or whine about refs etc whenever the team l dropping a game.

Your culture was a point or two away from not even making the playoffs. Get a freeking grip.

I meant to say "people om here generally don't dislike Perth"

I think one issue with the Hawks imports was that Harris started the season well, while Rotnei was struggling. The latter however was on a two year deal, so he'd be expensive for a community club to cut.

When they might have noticed the chance for an upgrade on Harris (no idea if they were of this view, just that I was) they had made their way to second spot on the ladder. Why mess with the roster then? Bit like Ferguson being pretty deficient but starting through the Sixers strong run and being part of the top regular season team.

And then with Holyfield, they already had essentially four local bigs, so where do you spend your third import? End up with two import SFs along with Coenraad? They had PG covered.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't retain either of Harris or Holyfield, but I can see how/why they didn't get replaced.

I think SG/SF is right for one spot, but ideally someone more experienced. And then a big that gives them a different look - Holyfield not far off that being exclusively an inside player.

It is all speculation.

I don't think Cairns stunk or choked. They did well to make the playoffs ahead of most of the big budget teams. Only I feel their 2nd placing suggested they were better than they were.
The wildcats knew they had to win on the road and it would make their job easier if they did it in game 1.

I also feel that there have been 3 wildcat teams; the middle-ground team with Johnson, the injury ravaged team, and now with Cotton. If they'd had him all year it would have been a different look and we might have been expecting this.

Plus also we are missing the best team. Adelaide with HCA would have been hard to beat in a 5-game seris.

#boredatwork

Plus also we are missing the best team. Adelaide with HCA would have been hard to beat in a 5-game seris.

I am a Perth fan, so of course I want them to win, but even I must admit this is getting old. If the Wildcast win that will 3 out of the last 4 and no signs of them slowing down

It was a great season so I really hope next year is another corker and there is stiff competition for the championship.

There kind of is signs of them slowing down... this season they scraped through and got lucky with the Hawks beating the sixers. Damo & Matty Knight surely dont have many seasons left in them, also Redhage set to retire. The core players are starting to come to an end and with that the club could also start to struggle to continue this dominance.

That's true, of this playing group.
I suppose I was referring to the organisation as a whole. It's hard to secure good local players, but I feel the Wildcats would have the chequebook out.
It's not like AFL where you have to go to the draft and then spend 5 years developing the players.

Only stumbling block would be if there was too much turnover. If suppose they needed two new locals and all new imports because the others got better offers.
Even then I suppose they would be competitive.

I'm sure Perth will beable to lure decent Aussie talent over once Damo, Matty and Wagstaff retire given the history and allure (money + success) of the organisation..