Hate United but fuck me were they raped by the officials today.

Yet another bullshit win to 36ers.

Juniors , seniors, high level, low level, it makes no difference, you can teach players how to defend without fouling, and you can also teach them how to play in a way that means they can't be stopped without fouling by the defense. So many without this experience in the sport just don't get it, and just follow the heard in respect of assuming some balance in the foul count is some sort of indication of good officiating.

Most fouls occur when the offense is challenging the defense with either pace, positioning , or both.

But it appears no coach has ever taught Goulding not to slap down from shoulder level, from behind the player , onto a ball held securely in both hands, in full view of a referee who has been standing there for at least 10-15 seconds.

thats not "home cooking" or unbalanced officiating, thats just a stupid player.

"herd"

If one team attacks the rim every possession and gets into the bonus in most quarters and the other team settles for jump shots FT discrepancies can occur.

It may be more helpful to look at the incorrect foul calls rather than just the raw FT numbers.

There were so many fouls called esp on Barlow and Goulding - standing there under the ring hands straight up - FOUL???? Ridiculous - obviously been told to take the game to 4 or 5 games.

It would have been good to see the game officiated a bit tougher.

It got to the point where the United players had to let them go right by them so not get called for a foul.

The crowd and players were amped up at the start but the refs took the sting out of the game.

Yep I think it is a poor choice to have the same refs 2 games in a row.

New refs can go in impartial and not to affected by comments (by the losing coach) or any talking between players.

United attempted 16 more threes than the 36ers. I don't recall them drawing fouls on any of their 40 3PA.

It's an indictment really on basketball fans in this country that some people can't work out one team attacks the hoop at 90 k's an hour all game every game and the other team likes jacking up 3's all game.

Who would've thought there would be a discrepancy in foul shots?

Anon, if you're so confident that games are engineered for home teams to win, go bet your house on it. Or think about both semi series only going to two games...

Said numerous times, you can't defend other than a foul or a free drive. What's the difference in inishiating a foul or a flop?

Nonsense. Wesley had a number of nice blocks in the first half on Chill that could easily have been blown as fouls, yet weren't. Adelaide's style of play puts them at the line, it's as simple as that.

Initiating

lol

Sorry I can't spell

What's the lol for? You perfect?

It's one of the funnier phonetic attempts you have to admit, surprised your phone/tablet/computer didn’t scream at you

Good luck to you, why people have to point out something just to make them feel better?

OP

United had 20 more FGA than the 36ers. What's your point?

It was just an amusing typo, get over it - you must be bored with Perth being useless

Maybe your team fouled 40 times? Get over yourself. Didn't goulding flop enough for your liking?

It's a good thing Melbourne can hit 3's because the only other thing they managed to do today was hit Adelaide players as they were blowing by them. They looked like they were playing in the masters games.

I'm bored seeing that banner go down every year!

Flop no flop you can't possibly defend a team when the whistle blows like it is a automatically a foul. It's happend all season.

Perth invented the flop. You should have kept the copyright.

All sports are like this to a degree. Debates over refereeing styles are eternal.

My take is that human psychology plays a big part in it.

You have two very, very good teams who have barely lost any games in the past couple of months. Coming into the series, most astute basketball fans thought this would be a very tight series, and the majority of people tipped it would go to 5 games. Reason being- again, simple. Two very good teams.

Now, in basketball you have 5 fouls and you're out. Once you get two early fouls, or 3 before half time, you automatically start modifying the way you play defense. Once the game has been going for 3 or 4 minutes teams start adjusting their play to the way the refs are calling it.

There are many 50-50 calls in basketball. Or grey areas. Calls where you watch the replay and two fans can amicably disagree about the call. Calls that in real time, could "go either way".

When you have thousands of people screaming at you, you're more likely to favour the home team. It's biological, and it's subconscious. There are psychological and maybe even evolutionary reasons why this is the case.

When you have two teams who are very, very good, and 5% of the calls change direction and go the other way, it makes a huge difference to momentum, confidence, the way the players feel they are allowed to play, etc.

This is an intractable problem, but fairly simply when you break it down like this.

It's why I'm thankful that United has home court advantage in this series.

The same psychological factors that influence the refs also influence the players.

Why does the home team win the majority of the time, across virtually all sports and all leagues?

Crowd has to be a huge part of it.

Melbourne lost because they are soft. By the end of the 3rd quarter the rebound count was 40-19. Ended up being 53-36

No team will win a grand final game -20 in rebounding.

Can't wait for Friday

Ambulance Victoria has put out a CODE RED for more staff to work this Friday.

Apparently if Melbourne lose the game, they will all need stretchers to get them off the court and home that night.

IMHO Its a bit late for these children to still be up on a school night,

You won't find a bigger critic of Kestleman than me, and yet even I won't come close to making claims of riggged games or instructing refs to call games to ensure a 5 games series. Its absurd.

NBL refs, are usually pretty terrible, but they are doing their best. A system of semi pro refs just isn't good enough. Don't mistake ineffectiveness for deception.

The two games have been called differently, as many have commented. A lot more was let go in Game 1. Calling it tighter in the second looked to advantage the penetrating team. The refs usually indicate to captains/coaches/players before the game what they will be focusing on. Wouldn't surprise me if they'd adjusted to call it tighter.

The idea that players and coaches reference the refs is nothing outlandish - they do it every game. Everyone feels like they're the ones getting screwed. Every coach in a series makes comments trying to influence the calling style in the subsequent game.

In both games there were dud calls, as in all games. One of the worst was in G1 where the ball went out off Barlow, after he juggled the ball, and United kept possession. There was at least one equivalent in G2 that favoured Adelaide.

Ware's fifth foul didn't look to be much to me and I would've let them play on (looked tame and DJ retained the ball) in the interest of playing basketball and keeping the best players in the game. I commented as such on Twitter and had responses both way - 'Another example of United getting screwed' vs 'Ware was at fault, should've known better.' (I'm an Adelaide fan but had money on Melbourne, and occasionally pretend not to be too biased.)

Anyway, during the season, Melbourne were the second highest fouling team. Despite their pace, and easily the highest scoring game, Adelaide were the second lowest. Melbourne second in 3PA, Adelaide clear last.

In the regular season, Adelaide's opponents averaged almost 4 FPG more than any other team. Assuming you get HCA-type bias around the league (Perth, NZ, etc), I imagine you can put this down to the style of game they play.

It's the game style and Melbourne were terrible yesterday but people always want to have an excuse. Thosr stats were always going to cause lots of bleating.

United tried to use the dirty Perth model to slow the running game down. This is the end result, thankfully.

As others said, Melb jack threes constantly where Adelaide drive hard.

That said, there were RIDICULOUS calls in both directions. Hardly any consistency and at points, endangered players.


In any case, I'm surprised Goulding's neck is still able to function. Any time a human passes within 3 feet of him, he performs a spot on re-enactment of JFK's execution.

If all the fouls were being called the same then Andersen would have fouled out in his first 60 seconds. I have a huge amount of respect for what he's achieved in his career and he's virtually unstoppable around the basket, so I don't know why he's resorting to grabbing, holding, pushing, illegal screens. He got away with so much yesterday, I was actually quite surprised with his tactics given his talent and game-smarts.

Anderson is getting old so his speed isn't whatit used to be. Probably why he's grabbing. Can't keep up.

@NBLfacts:

*Most FT attempts in a Grand Final game since Perth took 47 (to Adelaide's 13) in game one of 2014 GF series.

NBL referees are nothing more than home town cheer leaders.

Another interesting one:

The @MelbUnitedHQ have taken 64 three-point shots in the first 2 games of this @NBL Grand Final series. (36ers have taken 64 free-throw's in first 2 games)

That is the most 3-PTA's by any team since the Sydney Kings took 80 in first two games of 2006 Grand Final.

Easy equations

Lots of 3's = less fouls as defender hangs back and only has to jump straight up.

Lots of attacking, fast, penetration = more fouls because defenders have to play close and move fast.

Melbourne looked really slow yesterday and only tbe 3's have kept them in both the first 2 games.

So 47 to 13 in 2014 is the record? That just for 40 minute games?

Anon - I feel like Sobey has cut down on the throw your head back crap to some extent. Drmic still has a bit of that in him though.

I noticed Adnam now does it quite a bit. Don't remember him over acting that much when he was here. But then, he barely played here.

As much as I hate NBL refs, they were largely responsible for stamping out Sobey's trying to draw a foul antics with their insta-calls on flops early on.

If anything the refs have put away the flop call, and are calling anything where a players is attempting a shot or layup and there is contact. Not really a bad thing as players need to adapt. If Melb continue to shoot so heavily from deep then the foul count will continue to be different. The fouls for Adelaide have been the same all season sp the finals are not being called all that differently. They play fast tempo and attack the rim and the defenders are slow and have crap footwork.

What I didn't like seeing in this game was the two occasions Sobey deliberately hit Boone in the side/back, off the ball with cheap shots.

He is an exceptional talent when he is on, but a pretty poor display, especially when your team is already up by 20.

I just hope this series isn't ruined by injuries or some sort of brain implosion

Any word on Childress?

Wesley attempting a single leg takedown... but Sobey is the Cobra Kai alumni?

Maybe the NBL can organise an overseas referee exchange programme during the season and come finals use external independent referees for the finals series.

I would have loved to have the Asian referees we saw over here for the world cup doing this finals series.

The current squad of referees desperately need retraining, upgrading or something. The standard and consistency has declined to an almost all time low.

The current frustration level of all teams and spectators is immense, regardless of win or lose.

An in season exchange programme might be a great help to improve their abilities and qualification ratings internationally and I'm sure our refs wouldn't object. There might be unseen benefits through such an alliance as well.

Maybe Foxtel could contribute to the cost!

You need to slow the Sixers down for two reasons. 1. They are scoring at this speed and are attacking increasing the risk of fouls. 2. If you foul, it gives your team a little spell to get their breath back.

Sixers are keen to go flat out for the 40 minutes. Most of their opposition struggle with this, fouling keeps them physically in the game. Fouling too much gives them extended rest however increases the workload on the best 7.

I guess a few NBL teams need to get fitter and faster over the season break.