Lynx looking down the barrel of a 0-5 start if we can't pull off a 36+ point turnaround tomorrow night.
(Not much basis to predict that we will, but I do think it's possible)

I think the home sides should prevail this week, though Bendigo should be favourites against Perth. Townsville if getting through fatigue should come close. Should be a decent tv game.

What's the reason no games on Friday?

Eager to hear AshT's predictions after last week's clean sweep :D

All good till they get injured, then they become a liability to which ever sport is left holding the contract I suppose .

Such a shame about Duever, hope she recovers well. I think the Boomers depth is good enough to cover that injury without adding another player, but I guess we'll see what happens.

The Boomers player re-signing as mentioned in last round's thread is current DP Chelsea D'Angelo for another 4 years.

Looks like they are going young next year with M.Conti, A.Grant & D'Angleo already signed.
Hopefully they will be able sign a few big name players so help them.
Was Jenna O’hea a two year deal?

Both O'Hea and Purcell were on two year deals. In a league where most contracts are only one season, I reckon it's a good move by the Boomers to try and lock away that young group - a few seasons together and they could become quite a solid unit. It probably helps that their major sponsor is a university though - no doubt part of those deals would include free/discounted uni given that both Conti & D'Angelo's extension articles mentioned attending Deakin.

Anyone else's live stats for the Fire/Flames game not working?

Is the Livestats for Townsille v Sydney farked?

Yeh nothing showing up for me Melbs fan. Believe Flames are leading 17-5

So the league (or individual teams) film their games but don't stream them??

As far as I am aware they have always had to film the games and submit them to the league.

Very fun game in Perth. Shame Bendigo couldn't keep it close, because I'd love to have seen what score we could have amassed without so much garbage time.

I'm so pleased I was at a wedding and missed what sounds like yet another live scores fail. They had the whole layout and everything working just right a couple of seasons ago- 10+ plus, plain & simple to read, lines of play-by-play on my screen,etc.

On clubs filming games - I'd assume most clubs would do this regardless of league requirements for the sole purpose of being able to review the footage and pick up on where the team needs to improve/what they did well etc

Sydney Wiesse the huge WNBA pick up better show something soon but to be honest there is not enough basketballs in the Ville between Suzy & Cayla launching all their shots. I have very little confidence in Fire Head Coach to blend all their talent successfully together.

They managed to make a lot of talent look pretty average today, yeah.
Credit to the Rangers though. Must-win game for them and they maintained the upper hand all game.

Meanwhile the Lightning just blew 15 point lead on the 4th and it has gone to OT. Wonder if Bendigo will rue putting their starters back into the game in garbage time on Thursday night.

Lightning gets up in OT.
Nice way for Chris Lucas to return to head coaching duties!

Does anyone know if the Capitals have any injuries this week?

No O'Hea for the Boomers tonight.. if the Lynx can somewhat combat Liz then I'd say it mightn't be as nasty a score line as first predicted.

According to Megan Hustwaite's twitter - Jenna O'Hea will be out for the next 8 weeks with a calf injury.

Effectively that's just about the whole season, geez

Wasn't the best game between Rangers and Fire that's for sure, neither team really played that well, it was really only Mijovic that kept Rangers ticking over. Not too impressed with the Spanish Import, hopefully she will adjust to the more physical game played here over the next few games, and having Lavey as starting PG brings little, Toddhunter looked like she wasn't moving well at all. Suzy took till the 3rd to warm up and actually play, Fire looked tired and grumpy.

Ranger have to back it up tomorrow in Canberra, less than a 24hr turn around, is the league wanting more injuries, Anderson didn't use her bench at all, so be interesting to see if they pull up ok , otherwise Caos will run over the top of them.

O'Hea out for 8 weeks?....if true not good news for boomers, she was just getting going really. This short season sucks!!

Very exciting game to watch! The lynx were unlucky IMO - 19 steals to 5 and to level with the Boomers on the rebound count was exceptional and to take it to OT and only lose by 2 is a credit to them, I'd have thought they'd lose by 10ish pre-game.

Cambage with another few too many tantrums on the court/bench. Poor form especially considering she was supposedly their captain in O'Hea's absence tonight (according to livestats). 23 points and 22 boards was a really great performance by her and I have no doubt she'll likely be POTW - though with the behaviour she's probably not the most deserving player.

The loss of O'Hea will be massive for the Boomers - they went very small in the SF spot with Garrick taking the bulk of those minutes. Certainly will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Cambage is certainly no role model that's for sure, her two techs and ejection from the first game of the season was kept quiet by the Boomer media band, even when they got the win as it was an away game, guaranteed her antics at tonight's game will again be swept under the carpet.

They will miss OHeas leadership on the crt that's for sure .

Very proud of the Lynx for getting that close in OT on the road, even without O'Hea in the game. 19 steals is amazing ... 6 apiece for Sami & Courtney. Still couldn't make up for the rebounding discrepancy though. Liz with 22 in 28 minutes.

Wish I could have seen that one :(

Yeah, fantastic battle to watch, both sides were switched on. With Lynx ahead 7 & 5 down the stretch they had about five shots in a row that did everything but drop - felt just one of those would have broken the Boomers. Courtney's shoulder on ice after the game and didn't do warm down. Couple of late plays didn't seem like her usual self?

Thought Pederson was fantastic on the Fire bigs in the earlier game and really set the tone.

Will be interesting to see Boomers next weekend when they take on two top teams in Sydney and Townsville both in away games..
Who will replace OHea, Ott, Duever ?

Does anyone know what happened to Ott? Presumably Tomlinson will slot back in next week and shoulder some of the PF/C load (thought she was meant to return last night, so I'm assuming she'll be right for next weekend), but they're looking fairly light on in the SF department. I'd assume as per last night Garrick would start SF and with Tomlinson back it should free up Grant to play the backup role.

I believe Guy said in the post game press conference that Ott has a stress fracture in her fibula and could be out for a month or so.

Burton will be back up 2,3,4 man with Kalka & Tomlinson returning from a broken finger to fill the remaining spots for the up coming games.

How bad is O'hea injury ?

Yikes, no good for the Boomers on the injury front then.. Megan Hustwaite said on her twitter that O'Hea was out for around 8 weeks with a calf injury.

To be honest I'm not surprised re. soft tissue/stress injuries (particularly soft tissues on older players like O'Hea and stress ones on inexperienced/lower order bench players like Ott) and with the season the way it is I'd be shocked if there weren't quite a few more occurring as the season goes on. That is why alarm bells go off in my head when I see players like Snell, Batkovic etc being played consistently for 30-35+ mins a game.

Ouch. That's no standard calf injury if it's an 8-weeker.
As a side issue, if rehab does take that long, that would give her only 2 rounds of action before the playoffs start. I hope the games-played criteria for a player to qualify for playoffs has some common sense built into them so that Jenna would still be eligible in this scenario.

The schedule this season is a killer for anyone who cops an injury.
Might be survival of the fittest rather than which team is best by the time we get to the playoffs.
(That is why I was so surprised to see players like Griffin, Laney & Payne subbing back into the game in the dying minutes on Thursday night, especially when they had another game this round!)
Limiting risk and managing fatigue is something the coaches need to be very conscious of. The WNBL has never had a schedule like this before.

Another obvious detriment about the shortened season is players who do get a 2+ month injury can mean season over.

I do wonder if Laney got injured in that Adelaide game yesterday - she went 0/4 from the field and wasn't subbed back in after 27 seconds in to the second quarter. Seems a bit odd considering it went to OT - she'd be one you'd want out there, so I'm assuming she's injured.

On O'Hea it probably doesn't help that she's getting older now - you'd want to rehab it longer as a precaution especially as it's soft tissue. If she's done her calf badly there'd be a high chance she re-injures it if she rushes back in too soon. Does anyone know what the current eligibility criteria is for finals?

Both Hamblin & Laney out of that game with injuries in Q2.

Geez that's no good, Hamblin injured her back according to the Lightning game recap - no clue what Laney did. Hopefully they can both recover quickly as neither team can really afford to lose them for a long period of time - particularly Adelaide as they're already down one with Hodges.

What a thriller the Caps/Rangers game was to follow on live stats - 4 lead changes in the last minute with Palau seemingly getting a buzzer beater for the Rangers to win by 1! Wish we could've seen that (among all the games this round really) on streams.

Biggest thrill with livestats is when it actually works.

Meanwhile, in a sport where the administrators show that the interests of the athletes are paramount, Australia have taken the lead against World Champs England in a pulsating first up Ashes match in Brisbane.

just sayin'

JJS was talking about cricket, which should be remembered, nearly had the whole Ashes cancelled because it's administrators didn't want to pay the women.

Seems we had some really good games this week though not so much at the expense of injuries, don't want to see that. Shame we couldn't see many of them either :(

Dandenong had two really good games. Townsville in the end are going to be rueing their two losses. Sydney and Adelaide both look like contenders and Boomers are all about Liz it seems.

Despite their good first match it seems Capitals have joined Perth and Bendigo at the bottom and I don't really expect those 3 teams to do much better this season.

A bit of fun from the Boomers-Lynx game

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/5004133/laney-injured-as-spirit-fall-in-overtime/

Laney may have done her ACL again.. hopefully her scans come back all clear.

Is Ott injured as well?

Yes, fibula stress fracture. At least a month apparently.