May the referees undertake a full investigation assisted by a drawn out video review process, and then realise that it was a case of mistaken identity, and in actual fact it was not Mitch McCarron who burgled each of their homes, terrorised their children and ran over their pet cats with their lawnmowers.

LV, for the sake of the grand final series I hope your team are mentally capable of responding to a 29 point demolition better than you are.

Really embarrassing stuff.

I'm fine- I'm not as attached to United as I was to Melbourne Tigers. Or St Kilda.

White was as hot as the roof of your shed on Black Saturday, while United's two best scorers couldn't have hit an open layup last night

Hats off to Perth. They were the better team.

But, there's nothing wrong with drawing attention to the bush league reffing. As an NBL fan of my whole life, I'm just saying they need to get better at this.

Damn Luuc! Easy on the ether!

But, there's nothing wrong with drawing attention to the bush league reffing.

Luuuc, United got help last Sunday too. And like Perth, United was just the better team, in addition to getting help

But, the difference was there wasn't one individual Wildcat who was impacted like McCarron has been in the two games in Perth

Can't buy experience and McCarron hasn't handled it well so far in his 1st gf series. It ain't over but if it does go 5 game's United probably lost it mentally already.

Would be good to close it out tomorrow away from home for a change and I expect a different wildcats team that played last Sunday.

Bookmakers have Melbourne winning game 4 by 9pts. Thoughts?

They have Wildcats as hot favourites to win the championship though.

"I've been waiting for Cotton to absolutely explode in a game this series. It could be this one. He has been reasonably well held but a lot of it is his shots just not dropping."

Cotton is still injured, still playing with his hand heavily strapped.

It would seem its going to come down to 3 point shooting again. Surely Melbourne can't be that poor again, so they'll come back, whereas Perth struggled in game 2.

Obviously I want the Cats to win the series, but I am kinda torn.
I'd love to watch them win at home, again, it really is special. But I'd also just like them to win on Sunday and be done with it.

Of course we also have to hope that Martin and Jervis recover ok and got extra legroom on the flight over.

Perth to win... hopefully

Would be a few nerves in this one, can't recall perth going into a gf up one to close it out away.

Will be tough but hopefully they will ended today. Please let not talk about the ref's!

Refs betting big on Melbourne hence the crush in the price for Melbourne?

Dream commentary team of Heal and Dwayne Russell... Yay. FFS

Absolute joke commentary team.

The game is on the main 9HD channel channel in Perth :o

I thought we had moved past Dwayne
:(

Oh jeez, McCarron just fouled Cotton. Impending flood of ref h8 right here

Oh Angus :/

Melb looking much better offensively. But the d is still not good enough

Terrico's asking price has just doubled in the space of a week

Heal? *mute*

Was John Casey busy today? I like Heal and Santamaria, but the other guy drives me crazy.

So I guess STFU about reffing in this thread is already out the window.

United spudding

I like this DJ post up stuff from Melbourne, although they've got almost zero out of it so far.

Damo shooting like a gawd

Should be John Casey. Heal also seems to do what he likes and avoids Perth which hates. A junior commentator but LK's golden child. Sickening.

which he hates*

Don't know why commentators still act shocked with Martin hits a 3. You'd rather him shooting it than White or Cotton, but he can knock them down.

Because they're shit, but you already knew that.

Finally we get some high level shooting/scoring! Both teams looking sharp.

Just when I'm on the under too.

CG43.

Mmmmmmm

Nice of Goulding to show up.

Love that 3 and foul from Goulding, hey PW

Refs back to favouring the home team tonight, what a shock. Amount of contact on Cotton there versus the loose ball contact on that blown foul.

Trev yelling expletives like a homeless person

Finally some offense in this series.

And I'm on the under.

Ware runs into wagstaff, gets foul... wow

There he is.

"Great turn and shoot by Pledger". Wow, he really knows his basketball terminology.

4for4 home cooking this series. United bunping on d pressing , cats allowed 0 contact

Damo fouled multiple times then goulding gets an offensive foul...

This is going to game 5

#Game5revenuebooster

This reffing is fckin comical

"on wag staff was there - the replay clear showed him stepping over."

Long before ware was there

11 fouls to 4. Crazy.

Yeah, give the refs a home jersey this series.

I don't mind the contact on the perimeter that's going on tonight (especially from Melbourne), but fact is that these would have been whistled fouls on Friday night.

Haha that was huge by Hire

I'm thinking a screen similar to the one Vlahov set on Mark Dickel is required here.

That was an uncharacteristic foul from Martin.

Goulding thinks he's never committed a foul in his life.

"did he roll an ankle there" while watching him run back up the court fine. Professional commentators for next season please

" it's waived away and the points will count" what

Gouldings flopping and complaining could get him a spot with the Rockets.

Moller from three = LOL

Mmm mmm are we getting take away today?

Great minutes from Hire.

Mr hustle Hire will actually be missed. Become a very niche player

'does that count as an assist for Hire?'

Do you get an assist for foul shots?

Niche as in past it?

Yes you do if a foul shot is made.

If you can't see how Gleeson has used hire this season to turn games around this season then I can't help you

18 free throws for Melbourne in that half, 7 for Perth.

There's one team who deserves to win right now and their name is Perth, unfortunately

That's because NBL score benches make a lot of mistakes.

United with 18fta attempts to 7... perth going to have to be flawless the rest of the way

Weren't United supposed to be winning the series today in four?

Some big contributions for Perth off the bench - Jervis, Hire, Norton all really important. Cotton huge obviously. Big time effort by the Cats to keep a lead in the face of all the foul trouble.

Could it be because Wagstaff wasn't actually shooting when the foul occurred.

Just a thought

Far from over is this game #yoda

Crackin contest this is #doubleyoda

Don't see a game 5 happening based on that first half, which itself feels a bit like a blessing.

Stat guy heard Heal say he won't get a stat for that and deferred to the expert

Could it be because Wagstaff wasn't actually shooting when the foul occurred.

Just a thought

Where's Homocide

I'd rather listen to homicide on a loop than this commentary team.

Heal is a spud.
LV has summed it up Perth are better.

First 2 minutes will tell the tale.

Far from over is this game #yoda

Crackin contest this is #doubleyoda

Referees actually called a few actual fouls that went Perth's way that quarter which just stopped the foul count reaching 2/1 Melbourne's favor at 6/12. Perth the better team by far today but the outcome of this game will be determined by referee consistency or lack of it. First quarter so many soft defensive fouls on Perth and so few even hard on Melbourne, the highest fouling team in the NBL.

I still believe that as our own refs change for finals (especially by putting the whistle away when it suits them) that independant refs should be brought in for the finals!!

Is it just me or has Nick Kay been very quiet this series?

Boone is having another shocker.

Love a good SHABANG call by Dwayneo

Yeah, BS charge call.

Wildcats come out a bit flat on movement, they need someone to fire them up

Like I said

Like i said need to be flawless...

Huge couple of minutes coming up here.

Great response, started by a Damo poke-away

How many steps from CG43 there?

Terrico is absolutely flaming

Jervis hand on the ball, and they want to start a fight?

Jervis had lots of ball, I don't see the big deal.

Get on that screen Mayberry!!

Jervus bkocked the continuation, got all ball, then kennedy comes in and escalates... but im sure perth gets tje worst end of this...

If that's an unsportsmanlike on Jervis. It should be on Kennedy too for the shove

Clock is stopped at 4:20. There's a 4 point difference and 20 seconds left on the shot clock

420 boyz

Yeah only DJ with anything here.

How the f does Jervis get unsportsmanlike

I don't get why that's an unsportsmanlike on Jervis. Makes no sense

Couldn't see goulding travel before though....

"How the f does Jervis get unsportsmanlike"

Fouled well after whistle

That's game

Terrico holy fuck

Terrico!!!!!

MVP MVP MVP, white is cooking

Value tripled

Not the same play again!!!!

Fool me once, fool me twice hahah

So what if Jervis fouled after the whistle? He's not allowed to make sure if he stops the and-1? Terrible call.

That incident with Jervis hasn't had the desired effect for melb.

Definitely has for the cats

"
Fouled well after whistle

"
If the offensive player playing on defense is allowed to also. Never risk a bad continuation call

I said wildcats needed someone to fire them up, just didn't think it would be a Melbourne player

Well hey at least Adnam is headed to Cairns

Holy shit Goulding , that's your legacy

Yes it is

Melbourne Unite

You can tell Terrico has played the game at a higher level than this league. It's like he's been on valium this whole season, now his thinking is super quick. As quick as anyone on the court

How many times the Wildcats going to burn United on the same baseline cut.

The difference between Perth and Melbourne. One Blazing from 3, the other making the extra pass

Angus yes it keeps happening - United are either lazy or too old.

I am really enjoying this.

Plenty of time left here

Really Gus

Jervis carving Melbourne Unite up.

Tommy "d'oh another dumb foul" Jervis ... way to step it up in games 3 & 4
Damo … way to stay being Damo

I'm not even mad. This is most odd

LV WHERE ARE YOU?

Still a ton of time left in this

Eat it Manu.

Thanks for leaving Cotton open :-)

Not so much time left now

Haha yeah fair cop, PW, thank god I'm not invested enough to be mad. Thank you, Fiba break

Let's never speak of this Finals series again.

Terrico to Taipans 2020

Joke D by MEL in a GF. Time for a total rebuild for them.

Who gets finals MVP? Cotton or White? Hard to pick between the two, but I'm thinking White by a hair.

LV come on down!

It still doesn't even feel like a GF series. Total non-event, MEL no intensity.

lol... Jervis with the man-sized layup miss at the basket.

STAND TOGETHER, WEST AUSTRALIA!

I think we can put to bed the stupid comments that this melb team is even close to being the best ever.

Maybe the best ever underachievers. Melbourne showed some moxy versus the Kings, but really they hadn't looked sharp this year.

Also. White is easily the finals MVP

They shouldn't have let go of the GROWN MAN.

Bonus treat: Venky Jois free throws.

How fitting is it for Melbourne's season to finish on Jois free throws

LOL a banked free throw.

97 points again, defense broke down way too often for Melbourne.

White is the finals MVP for sure, was pivotal in every wildcats win

Terrico for GF MVP is a lock.

Ok congrats to the Cats and all that, but imagine how much better we would have been with 3 imports

Terrico will now want a $600K per season deal like Cotton. Is problem.

Props to accepting an interview by McCarron. I always think it's cringe approaching players at moments like this.

Yesssssss!!!
9!!

What's cringe are those gaps in McCarron's facial hair.

Coach of the year has 3 of his best 5 sitting during the second qtr whilst Perth playing with starters.

Nice Gesture from Goulding, giving Hire a couple more points to go out with.

Hopefully this is the last time I see a Michael Clark whatever his name is Wagner Vitamins ad.

Yes... incredible series...

I'm just happy to don't have to hear that Hungry Jacks advert 800 times every weekend for a few months.

How much do US college coaches get paid. Actually think Gleeson's style suits that environment. Gets a lot out of role players and gets results without being flashy.

We now all have a few months recovery time to deal with the PTSD from the horror of watching all the repetitive ads.

MVP MVP MVP MVP

So this is what a real MVP looks like.

"SHOW. ME. THE. MONEY."

#$600Kper

Damo and Jesse now have the Infinity Gauntlet

Damo and Jesse now have the Infinity Gauntlet

Damo and Jesse now have the Infinity Gauntlet

White absolutely deserving of the GF MVP, more on that later.

Watching this series has confirmed for me that the best player in the league, over the whole season, was hands down Casper Ware.

Well done Perth- the better team.

Brought their A game this whole series except game 2.

Empty congratulations from LV.

Well done.

"
Watching this series has confirmed for me that the best player in the league, over the whole season, was hands down Casper Ware."

26% 20% 25%, wares Fg% the last 3 games. Yeh he really stepped up

Casper who?
Melbourne were terrible.
Cotton and White outstanding.
One of the worst GF seasons I have seen in 30+ years of watching them.

I have to admit we were the best team. White made the haters eat their words and will go down in Cats folklore. Trev proved he is a great motivator and leader YET AGAIN. This team has championship DNA.

Casper is top quality, no doubt, and he did a pretty good job of slowing Cotton down. But he clearly paid for it at the other end, and overall Cotton was still an effective player offensively even though his points were down.

Maybe Matty Neilsen can finally get some shut eye now. Man looks like he hasn't slept for a whole month

As I said, over the season.
Did his best in the GF, but was well held, which is one of the reasons we won.
NB: Without the injury, I think Cotton is better.

With the way this post season went, should've just crowned the top of the ladder at the end of the season, ala Football.

For Melbourne Ware was poor. Goulding was his usual self - hero threes and not a lot else. Boone looked old. Kennedy was poor today but I thought Melbourne just went away from him after he missed the two post up attempts. I think they should have kept with it. McCarron and Barlow the only real signs of life for Melbourne overall. A very mediocre finish, and a terrible showing in a finals series. Last year's finals series made this look like a Div 5 social comp final by comparison.

Obviously Perth's D and hustle is a big part of why Melbourne (game 2 aside) never took off, hats off to them - bounced back after the 2nd poorest stretch of the season by any team. But like I said above, let's never speak of this series again and just enjoy the lack of Hungry Jacks adverts for the next couple of months.

Melbourne should have done better in the second and third quarter exploiting perths early foul trouble. Credit to the cats bench players for playing their role to a tee and to white and cotton for finding the open man when they were doubled.

AngusH, I agree with your summary but would add that Vickerman was also poor.

Perth didn't see to have too much trouble scoring by playing as a TEAM, while Melbourne seemed to need to rely on hero ball and poor reffing too much to stay in it.

Best regular season followed by one of the worst playoffs - agreed.

Obviously the refs stood up to Larry to make sure the Red Army could rub it in his face in Melbourne.

Counting down the seconds until the new conspiracy theory that LK was letting Perth win so that next year's GF has more riding on it, to boost TV audiences.

Good to see the team that played the more consistently cohesive brand of basketball win it all. Although this GF series needed a close game or a game 5 to redeem itself.

Hire was +14 in less than 9 minutes of court time. I don't think that was a fluke, really changed the momentum when he first got on court. He's going to be massively missed by the Cats.

As somebody said above, Jervis probably saved his career with these last couple of games. Literally stood tall when it mattered. His ability to match Boone and Pledger was critically important.

Cats with a demolishing. I said it before and I'll say it again, you're going to struggle when Hooley and Moller eat up the majority of your bench minutes. Utter trash players.

Last week when I suggested Perth had superior depth to United, I was told I was "reverse woofing"

Now Perth fans are allowed to say it

Norton, Steindl and Jervis were starters for other teams. They've started over 200 NBL games between them.

Wagstaff and Hire are veterans who've each played the last 6 years under Gleeson.

Of course, guys like Hooley and Moller could yet have careers like that. But the point is, right now they're still inexperienced and relatively unproven.

Moller is too limited offensively right now, and needs to improve before deciding big minutes

Depends on teammates though. Last season had Wesley at the 4 and 2018 Boone. Then Casper and CG. Moller could fit in and his lack of offense wasn't an issue

Deserving* big minutes

Fair call.

Like you say, Barlow did tire at times- eg: During the Sydney series and game 1 in Perth he didn't contribute much. Moller could play the 4 a bit.

I don't think Moller's ready to be a starter but I was hoping he'd get a few more minutes than last season. Unfortunately, didn't happen. He's 24 and has only been back playing basketball for 3 years. There's still time.

Feel free to quote me in 5 years time, Moller and Hooley will amount to nothing in the NBL, if they ever get a starting gig it would be worse than Cadee starting. Screenshot this and get back to me...

Moller to me looks a lot like a young Tommy Greer, but with a bit more potential

Greer ended up captaining the Tigers and started for a couple of seasons. Moller could do the same or better.

It's my opinion and I'll stand by it wrong or right, under my name and not some anon account because you're too scared to back your own opinion.

Vague will have a better and more successful career than both too, how do like them apples?

Eagles win at the MCG, 6 months later Wildcats win in Melbroune...safe to say the West owns Victoria.

Hopefully Senator11 ends up with egg on his face like Senator19 did.

I'll go a bit easier on my comments...I realise the hate we have copped over here in WA first from AFL media then by NBL media prior to winning both has compounded and caused me to vent hate back. We cop a lot of shit over here, unwarranted, media bias is ruthless, it does feel good when you get them to shut up.

Anyway, congrats wildcats, bad luck United. Bring on AFL 2019 and then back for NBL 2019/2020.

Sport in Australia is the big winner!

Just for the record, I don't have any problem with people making predictions. Even when it is negative predictions, it's all good if people are willing to put their name (or username) on the line. That goes for Homicide too. He says some silly stuff, but a) it sucks a lot of people in to engaging about the NBL; b) he is fine with admitting when he is wrong, and c) I don't feel like his comments come from a nasty place (his Cadee post being an exception - and one he retracted and apologised for). To me that's what separates him from say Shane Heal, whose comments are regularly tainted by nastiness, and who is willing to dish it out but unable to cop it back.

As much as I hope Senator is wrong and hope that every young aussie player in the league goes on to be much better, it's not like I think they all will. As much as I like Moller, I also liked every time he put up a jump shot in the finals. I haven't studied Hooley's game long enough to have an opinion about his ceiling.

A season average of 42% is what's proving he is going to be good?!? Those "fact" percentages are a terrible comparison as Ware and Goulding are taking a lot more shots and are taking tougher shots due to the person defending them.

The "eye" test has been used for decades and that's always going to be good enough to make a judgement right or wrong. You can't predict a players future based on FG % for 1 season...

Ok, I'm done with responding to anons.

Ware, Kennedy, Goulding 10 of 36.
COTTON, WHITE 17 of 35.
Series over.

"A season average of 42% is what's proving he is going to be good?!?"

Actually, he shot 44% from the field including 33% from 3 and over 50% from 2pt range during the regular season. That's respectable, especially for someone relatively new to basketball. It was his loss of form in the playoffs, with 29% from the field and 13% from 3, that pulled the FG% down to 42%. Even including this playoff slump, his FG%, 3pt% and FT% were +6, +4 and +7 from the season before. It would've been +8, +9 and +9 if we assessed him before the playoffs began. You don't see that as a promising level of improvement, at least with respect to his shooting?

RJD, As Moller gets more game time and more experience of course he's going to improve and I would expect that, natural progression of a young player. Do I think he'll ever be a "great" player? No I don't, I think he will struggle to be legitimate starter, unless he ends up at a smaller market team, the Kings and United's are always going to pay up, especially for players in his position. Using Wildcats as a comparison, I see him fitting somewhere between Hire and Wagstaff, but peak Wagstaff would be his absolute ceiling IMO.

"Could only laugh at the talk of Melbourne's depth They had one of the skinniest benches in the league by design, having spent big on the first seven who were a very talented group "

I guess there's depth, and then there's depth

With 11 man rosters (plus DPs) and 40 minute games, you don't need a lot of minutes from the end of your bench Although some of the poorer teams struggles to put 4 stars on the floor, most coaches prefer a strong rotation of 6~7, maybe 8 tops

In the case of these two teams, I think comparing their top 7 is fair:

Martin Ware
Cotton McCarron
White Kennedy
Kay Barlowe
Brandt Boone
Norton Goulding
Wagstaff Pledger

Different blends, but I'd say that on the whole they compare favourably I'd give a clear offensive edge (on an average day) to Melbourne

Now if we look at the full depth:

Jervis Moller
Steindl Hooley
Hire Smith-Milner
Vague Jois

I think we can see that Gleeson being able to get quality minutes from the end of his bench was a clear advantage

As for Moller, fans need to remember that he once played for the Fremantle Muppets, and as such he is forever tainted in the eye of most West Australians.