White out is an advantage but Cats would want revenge for the last debacle.

Without White I sense a sneaky Cairns upset.

The one advantage the Cats have is only playing once this round.

Last time round it seemed they were already planning for game 2, that won't happen here.

But at the same time, Cairns have to be careful to leave something in the tank for the Hawks. They can't afford to flog their starters as they usually do.

Ordinarily I would say that Perth's strength was in its depth, but without White that will be tested.
Trev spoke of running small ball. I can only hope that was a furphy designed to deceive the opposition.

Cairns strength is their starting backcourt, coupled with their frontcourt size, they are probably running some of the biggest rotations around. Especially with Deng playing so well off the bench.
Ordinarily I would back White to be too much for Noi & Djeric to handle, but without him I think their best bet is starting Wagstaff at the 3, backed up by Steindl.

This is going to be a test for Perth's big man rotation. They need Hunt & Jook to do their thing, and some decent minutes from Vague. Their inconsistency to date is what makes it hard to predict. Fail this test, and I'm afraid Perth will be looking for a new Centre.

WTF at these Cats jerseys. Woeful.

I like the Perth jerseys! Cairns also.

Representative somewhat of the 'city' too, unlike Brisbane’s.

Sunset City is lame. Perthworld would've been awesome however. Missed opportunity.

Wow Stiendl 4/5 FG.

LOL yep.

I can't watch this guy Noi play anymore. Every week he kills me. Mate, have you noticed your teammates are rolling? It’s not about you...

You’re long and athletic. Smash the boards, run the lanes, be active on D and shoot the OPEN 3. Stick to that and the snakes may win. You have no handle and very little range.

When your name is Vaughan Mayberry that's how.

Oh wow. Why wasn't that an unsportsmanlike foul on Kenny how grabbing Cotton's hips as he ran past?

not doing Cairns any favours - threw out 3 fouls for little on Olover and then that overrule

Well refs are just gifting it to cairns atm!

Foul on Hunt for existing

Martin is a little trigger happy when he is open from 3

Cairns doing their best to give this away.

Surely that pleb moved under an airvorne mvp... wow

I think I'd take Oliver over Long all things considered.

Been watching the Wildcats since 1986 and this is one of the worst collapses I have seen. What a pitiful final quarter.

Agreed, Norton should have been on down the stretch there. He was playing a hell of a game and kept the defense honest. Currently Cairns are using 5 players to guard 4 players

So does this mean that Mike Kelly deserves to be an NBL coach after all?

Martin has always had a pretty elite floater game. Alas, Oliver returned it to sender at the end there.

He shot 50% from three in 2010 and 45% from three in 2014.

He dropped off dramatically in 2011 with the extended line from memory, but outside of that dip he's generally been somewhere in the ballpark of adequate.

A little early on the Noi bagging y'all. Single handedly kept Snakes in the game. Rookie of the year maybe? But on a good learning arc

Not sure why you would suddenly choose to bag Damo?
Might as well say that you expected Britt to drop 20 points.

Sure, if Damo could score as well he does other stuff, he'd have been in the NBA. But again, might as well ask "what if he was 7 feet tall."

At some point, Perth need to face some harsh realities, and sadly they were easy to see coming.

Many teams have made a huge effort to improve, catch, and surpass the Cats over the past few years. Bringing in Cotton, then Kay and Norton, was huge for Perth, but there wasn't much upside in the team at the end of last season.

Obviously, throw White back into the team and they win tonight. Against Cairns. This team isn't going to beat Sydney and will struggle against a full-strength Melbourne.

I have struggled all season to figure out who Perth is paying as their 6th man, because there just doesn't appear to be one.
My assumption (which may be wrong) is that at the end of their careers, Martin and Wagstaff have re-signed for moderate amounts, which should have allowed for signing a decent 6th man, but I just don't see it.

Steindl was good tonight, Wagstaff wasn't. That kind of evens out out.
The other main players were also good, but they needed to either crank up the D, or for somebody to step up, and it just didn't happen.

Cotton's output was obviously disappointing.
Unfortunately other coaches and teams have been working on how to stop him for 3 years, and when your only other backcourt scoring threats are Steindl and Martin, its just too easy.

I've also been noticing just how often Martin hands off to Cotton to run the point, whilst he heads for the corner. It kinda makes sense to have the ball in the hands of your most potent weapon, but if he's going to distribute he needs better options on the wings.

Like I said, White coming back solves a lot of problems, however if you consider that Norton is a de facto starter, this has exposed the lack of depth.
Vague showed a lot of promise, and should be coming on, but he just isn't.

If this squad comes together, and everyone plays to their potential, then look out. But at the moment they are struggling.

I chuckled to myself as Noi went 5-5 in the second half after my comment, but I stand by it.

2 fg's were off O boards where he should make his living. He hit a tough 3 which is the kinda shot he forced in the 1st, then an ugly bank which was clearly lucky. But generally speaking he stuck to what he does and didn’t play outside of himself. Even with that, Kelly knew not to play him down the stretch.

To be clear, he’s very talented. He just needs to stick to what he does well, let Machado and Newbill run the show and take what the D gives. His energy helped bring them back but imo he was also very responsible for them being down 10.

Why is no one talking about the fact that there is a major stuff up in the Taipans City jerseys?

Have a look at the jersey and then the map of NQ... Where Cairns is on the map isn't shown on the jerseys...

Umm WTF?

Noi will only get better and I think he is having a better rookie season than Froling

Haha Taipan I did notice that. Cutting off FNQ on the outline of Queensland on a Cairns jersey is another piece of gold by the NBL. Never change.

Map of NQ? It's a map of the whole of QLD and "Cairns" writing is up at NQ.

LOL at those saying "oh Martin should have just worked on his shooting", like its that easy.

If it were, clubs would have entire teams of 3 point guns, and everyone would be 99% from the stripe.

Shooting is the easiest skill to learn, all it takes is you in a gym for an hour or more a day getting up shots. Not everyone does it, but all the great shooters do - Ray Allen used to shoot 500 shots every single day.

It's simple Perth are Cairns b!tch’s..