So only 7,000 allowed in tonight ? It's a shame we can’t see packed stadiums yet.

I think SEM have a chance of an ambush here, hopefully they can out score the wildcats

Perth don’t look very good on paper this year, bottom 3 from me, they will need someone like Luke Travis to be a lot better this year.

Even though this Wildcats team looks pretty average on paper I expect them to sign some good import big later in the season and should be too much for SEM in their fortress over there.

Some interesting matchups and initial questions.The frontlines Wetzell/Creek/Moore v Travers/Blanchfield/Mooney look to be in favour of SEM but as always Cotton will be hard to stop. On the other side who will step up as the Wildcats new "stopper" with no Damien Martin? Can Norton run the point for a whole season? Wildcats by 8.

Perth will be rusty. So won't be surprised if SEM get the win. Will just be great to be back in the arena again.

No news on Cottons citizenship but they could be keeping it quiet, I guess we'll find out Tuesday.

The Perth roster has regressed significantly.

Even SEM by getting rid of Benson has improved from last year.

We have seen from the Tokoto, Cooke Jnr season that not even Cotton can get it done without help.

Finally the day the NBL season starts. Man it has been a long wait.

Our roster is pretty bad so I'm at peace with the idea of the streak finishing (while also hoping Jack B is not remotely at peace with that idea),
but just happy to be able to go and watch basketball again.

Finally the day the NBL season starts. Man it has been a long wait.

OMG this is shit.
Hopefully they have blown out the quarantine cobwebs now, and the 2nd half will be better.

Don't think there was ever any doubt Mooney would rebound and score, need more time (and better opponents) to tell how he is defensively, though.

To me SEM look like the weakest side this year based on what we've seen so far

SEM woeful on both ends that Q, lucky to be down 3.

Wildcats have some of the best Bench players.

Unfortunately they're all starting.

A little home cooking down the stretch.

Whistle happy NBL

Have the Refs decided who's going to win?

The way SEM defend they need to score 90+, sub-80 won't get it done.

Gliddon and Sykes bringing it home for Perth.

A win is a win but SEM are awful on par with the Sixers. We need a better barometer.

If Sykes had played even 25% better I think SEM win that game, which is maybe not a great sign for Perth @ home. We'll see.

Trev and Perth doing what they do so well at home, controlling the game in the dying minutes, bringing his best 5 on to close out the game.

Great to see.

But let's be honest, SEM are going to do battle for the spoon, possibly favourites at this point.

Annoying to have to watch it on mute because Dickicide was mouth8ng off again.

Home cooking, Covid, Perf fans, homicide...good to see that Hoops hasn't changed between Cats games.

Good win by the cats

Cats have never done a 3-peat, and it would have been nice, but I'm not too fussed.
But if this ends the streak,I will be mightily disappointed.

It seems Perth has just had a few things not go their way (and I know; boo hoo) but the lack of contingency planning is curious.

Perth, as I see it, has two major problems:

The lack of backcourt scoring threat is allowing teams to double-team Cotton. Somebody, or preferably multiple somebodies need to step up. Norton, Steindl, and Blanch need to improve on their 25-30% shooting.

The other is that Mooney can't lead that rag-tag frontcourt against some of the bigger combos in the league.

As it stands, and obviously this is really early, I'd say we need to plug one of those holes to be confident of playoffs, and both to challenge for that 3-peat.

The Good news is that there is still hope:

Travers is going to improve every game, and whilst I see him more as an old-school 3 than a 4, his length and agility will trouble many.
Mooney has been brilliant so far, and as he adapts to the league and the refs, he could be awesome.

There is potential upside in that backcourt. We know what Steindl can do when his confidence is up, Norton may thrive with the new responsibility, and Blanchfield & White could improve as the season progresses.

And who knows what new recruits might be in the pipeline.
Imagine if we could sign an aussie 4 or 5, like Kay, Reath, Maker, or Bolden. Then bring in an import like Terrico or Devondrick.

1 Melbourne
2 NZ
3 Perth
4 Hawks
5 Sydney
6 Cairns
7 SEM
8 Brisbane
9 Adelaide

At this very early going

Cotton played 38 mins.

I don't think that is sustainable.

The win was helped by a couple of calls like the missed goal tend, and touchy fouls at the end. However SEM turned the ball over way too much.

"What was the story with Cotton shooting just two free throws when it appeared he was fouled shooting a three? No replays at the arena so maybe it was clearly a two but the Wildcats bench all jumped up expecting a third shot."
It was called after shot so got the two because they were in bonus. Not saying I agree but that's why

38 minutes not sustainable .... lol
It's a 40 minute game and Cotton is fit as fuck. He has played similar minutes ever since he’s been in the NBL.

Mooney looked good in his debut but whether it's more bench depth or another scorer, it would good for Perth to get a bit deeper as cotton playing 38 a game isn’t ideal.

While I don’t think any imports are gonna get cut anytime soon, if I’m the Phoenix (and it’s still early days) I’d be getting worried about moore

Mooney was great, played with energy and enthusiasm and it showed in his numbers.

Ben Moore whilst high energy, appears to be low IQ for SE Melbourne.

TeRangi should be playing his ass off if he wants to stay in the league.

It was Perth's first match and we are comparing them to teams who have an extra game or two up their belt. They will need some time. Think Bullets will get better too.

Mooney was great and is going to basically be a walking double double each night, prob monster the younger skinnier bigs like Wetzel, but might struggle against the real big boys. He's got high IQ too. The missed 3 into his own oreb into the dunk was quick thinking.

The bigger takeaway for me was that Cotton looked like a different beast out there, looked much more like a true PG than just a SG. He's never been selfish, but he looked like a pass first PG rather than our #1 scorer even though he rattled down 27pts of his own. If we see 6+ assists from him a night we're always going to be close, just depends if his teammates let him down or not. Blanchfield could'be had 30 last night, but missed a lot of easy buckets.

I liked what I seen from Norton, when he is agressively trying to get to the basket then he is a much better player, however I'm a little concerned about him not shooting the open 3 as he turned that down a couple of times and I'm hoping teams don't play off him like they did with Damo.

Wani played more the 3 this game, I've said previously that this is a massive season for him as if he's only going to get spot minutes then you'd imagine he won't be retained for next season.

White, I'm not hating on the decision to sign him but looked clueless and as if he caught the ire of Trev, I hope it's a case of still learning the system otherwise he is as others have suggested.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Blanchfield always plays his best basketball during the first season at a new club (then after getting our expectations higher plateaus and you wonder what happened). He should be very helpful this season and I looks forward to seeing his combinations with other players grow and develop.

I liked what I seen from Jarvis and Bairstow, Moore wasn't very effective for SEM but he's an import and if our back up bigs can curb the effectiveness of imports then that will raise their confidence.

Well done to Travers being a DP starter, he did some good things and I'm glad that he's starting and keep him hungry, if we need to make changes to our starting 5 then he looks the obvious change but Blanchfield or Norton would be the others in danger of losing their starting spots if we need to mix it up.

I liked how active Sykes looked out there but he simply was moving around everywhere without doing a great deal. Moore seemed like he was playing out of position far more than Mooney. I'd love to see more Kendall Stephens, he could be a very helpful piece to an NBL squad but Simon Mitchell doesn't want to play him.

For those saying Adelaide and SEM are the worst teams in the league, whilst I agree with you, how can you let Brisbane off that easily, they look shot already and I'm not certain that Hodgson will make a great difference.

I don't want to be mean to individual players (I'd hate to think they ever read the stuff we say about them), and it goes without saying that the worst player in the NBL is ten times better than I ever was.
We had a lot of guys who looked ok and promising, and I'd be happy to have any of them on the bench. Just not ALL of them!

"I liked what I seen from Norton, when he is agressively trying to get to the basket "

I hate that. He persistently tries to drive where there is no opening, and instead of dishing off, he takes 0% shots and turns the ball over. His defence is also poor. They need to get Damo in as a defensive coach.
Hopefully he is just rusty, because so far he has been playing low IQ ball.

Travers going from DP last year to starter this year is quite impressive, especially at the Wildcats.

I'll be honest I don't know anything about him or how high his ceiling is, but it is great to see young talent like Giddey, King, Wigness and Travers getting a chance to show what they can do.

Travers going from DP last year to starter this year

My point regarding Norton is that it's good to see him atleast trying to get to the ring, as last season he seemed completely ineffective at the offensive end and obviously being a point guard you'd want him setting up a team mate for a better look.

Norton scored what 9 early points and if he starts then we can do worse than that. I know opposition will scout this and I'm sure Trev will have counters in place for that and hopefully Norton can get more assists per game.

As for his defence, I certainly expected him to become an elite defender when he was at Townsville and was very excited for his signing as a young veteran with a ceiling that he may have hit earlier than expected but I'll continue to back him in

I agree that we need Norton to stay aggressive offensively. I can live with a couple of dodgy attempts. What we can't do is get stagnant and end up with Cotton trying to bail us out over & over.
As an individual he is far from being "the man" but from a team POV he had to keep pushing in that game because not much else was happening. Hopefully as they get more comfortable Mooney & Travers will pick up more of that load, and Steindl has more good games than bad. But I was happy with Norton's game 1.
Though clearly Norton's most important directive should be staying out of foul trouble. Those Kevin White minutes were scary as hell.

SE looked bad. Crap coach with every doesn't understand to recruit a team that has team chemistry.

Perth have lost a lot of talent but the chemistry is still there.

Wright and Norton is very underwhelming.

Wildcats need an import possible an combo guard or a tall point to be top 4.

Blanchfield looked good in the system but the Wildcats are lacking fire power.

no problem