I wonder why they went Wallace over Melbourne?

Because she has the exp over Melbourne and has been in Aus senior camps for several years

Not sure Mangakahia is ready conditioning wise to play big minutes at pg.
I see minutes distribution as

Mangakahia 10-15 1
Rocci 20-25 1
Shelley 5-10 2-1
Wallace 10-15 2-1
Whitcomb 20-25 2-1
Nicholson 15-20 2-3
Sharp 5-10 3
Allen 20-25 4-3
Froling 15-20 4-3
Garbin 15-20 4-5
Aokuso 15-20 5
Scherf 15-20 5

Didn't Wallace get re-injured again in NBL1. Sure she has more senior camp experience, but a handful of games in three years is not ideal

Goriss is Melbournes Canberra coach and still chose Wallace.

Melbourne's defense is probably not at the level yet but she is still in reserve.

I like the squad, test everyone you can before next years WC.

Glad they went small in asia finally, only took them 8 years to see it.
Hopefully they can defend the perimeter and keep the players from penetrating.

Think the lineup will be-

Rocci
Whitcomb
Nicholson
Allen
Aokuso

Mangakahia
Wallace
Sharp
Froling
Scherf

Shelley
Garbin

Not sold on Sharp, think her footspeed could be an issue. Maybe she's worked on it though.

China will dominate that tiny lineup

China and Japan dominated us the last 5 games with big lineups.

George, cambage, magbegor, smith, Tolo are not available anyway...
We have no choice but to go small ball at the 4.

Sharp is the exact opposite of Jarry lol

Sharp is a shooter, rebounder that can play make but problem is her defense. Side to side and her running up and down in transition is a big problem.

Jarry known as a hard nosed slasher, defender.

Sharp is a poormans Alice Kunek or Rebecca Allen.
Great player but won't cement a longterm job in the opals squad imo.
Think it’s likely she’ll be overtaken quickly or will be on the backend of other players career missing her window. Allen has maybe 4 years left, Talbot 6, blicavsa couple here and there, Froling perhaps. Puoch looks like an early entrant after 2-3 years.

SFs
Ohea 87
Jarry 91
Kunek 91
Allen 92
Blicavs 93
Talbot 94
Froling 96
Sharp 97
Horvat 98
Maley 98
Simons 00
Potter 02
Puoch 04

She's in the finals with seattle, with Ezi
Cambage finals, Las Vegas.
Smith finals, Phoenix.


Allen, Whitcomb sitting in 8th. Drop to 9th and they will be in asia, remain 8th and they won’t be there.

If they make wnba finals and get knocked out on the 23rd are they still playing asia cup?

Or is it just not make top 8, 9-12 finish on the 19th of September.

Don't think getting knocked out on the 23rd, flying out at night on the 24th to get to Jordan on the 25th and playing first game on the 27th is realistic.

Likey if they finish outside 8. Fly to Jordan on the 21st, get to Jordan 22nd, 5 days before first game.

Good that we have Taipei first, phillipines second and then china last group game.


Finish 4th in group, eliminated. Last place overall relegated to div b possibly.

Finish 3rd in group, play Korea most likely, China semis, Japan final.

Finish 2nd in group, play nz most likely, Japan semis, China final.

Finish 1st in group, play Korea most likely in semi final. Japan final.




Finshing first in group is the easiest path to gold by far.

Whitcomb and Allen going to Jordan comes down to 1 game on the weekend vs mystics. A win and they finish 8th, a loss and they finish outside of the top 8 and will be available for asia cup.

Liberty made finals after both sparks n mystics lose.
No Whitcomb or Allen for asia cup.



Team seems to be

Rocci-Mangakahia-Shelley
Wallace-Melbourne-Wehrung
Nicholson-Sharp
Froling-Garbin
Aokuso-Scherf

Lol what's going on...

Currently in Jordan

Mangakahia
Shelley
Melbourne
Wallace
Wehrung
Nicholson
Sharp
Froling
Garbin
Aokuso
Scherf

Rocci mia
Looks asthough Whitcomb may join them and Allen will not.

Someone can clarify?

Really disappointing that so many turned this tournament down.
I understand those that played in Tokyo or those in the wnba finals deserve a break but for those others fighting for positions in the coming years this was the perfect opportunity to show ya stuff.

Tbh it's piss poor you’d prefer to stay home under lockdown or go on holiday than to grab this opportunity if offered.

Think the women’s program is in real trouble atm.

Rocci = bad Achilles

Several uninjured players turned it down.

It's bad timing in terms of WNBL. No NBL players are going for Boomers, they’re sending a C team

The Mens asia cup is next year...

The men's is in November, unless it got moved because of Covid?

It got moved to next year July 2022

I assume from the total lack of promotion that this tourney is not televised?

It's on fox, kayo and livebasketballtv

Someone should tell Brent to work on the players cardio and not strength.
Also get netball players to coach defense...

^^ comments from the super coach

^comments from the court sweeper

School holidays time.

Without Whitcomb they would of lost the game. Embarrassing how much better she is than Mitchell.

A lot of players were not ready coming of injury or illness, will get better but likely get spanked by Japan in semis.

Whole program needs a look at. Cant dribble, pass or defend at the same level of other nations and fitness an issue.

Froling / Aokuso / Scherf own the boards in nbl1 but we got outrebounded alot of the time. Shouldn't happen with our size.

Goriss had a s5 of

Mangakhia, Nicholson, Sharp, Garbin, Aokuso

Did not work at all.
Nicholsion is a sf in asia and Sharp a pf.

Melbourne looked way too quick for Taipei but wasn’t used enough.


Tiana and kristy are rusty. Rocci was a big loss

The starting Aussie point gaurd is hobbit like and should never of been selected.

^^ no need for personal (looks based) comments, but yes, Manghakia should not have been selected. Reid would've been a better selection than both Manghakia & Weerung

Don't think they expected injury so late to Rocci

Mangakahia and Wallace still need alot of conditioning. Being thrown into the deep end probably not could on fragile bodies.
So yes reid would have made sense...l

Heal chose not to come. Big mistake on her part.
If Shelley got invited, could have also given amoore a shot.

More time for Melbourne hopefully next easier game.

Heal bidding her time, should have been in Olympics team, no point playing for a coach that doesn't want her. You never know, her father could be the next opals coach.

Rocci should've made Opals at PG, not Heal & no way does Heal Snr ever get the Opals gig, there’s a reason he’s been commentating for the last however many years. He’s not very good

Brondello, Goriss, chambers are a big part of why we are failing the last 3 years.

I can't believe they got extended contracts till paris after going 12-9 over the last 21 games.

Joyce, Graf, maher all got the arse after losing more than 3 games over 4 years.

Brondello loses 10 in her 4 and worst result at olympics, keeps her job.

You could see brondellos life almost flash before her in the Puerto Rico game, a loss would have ended her coaching career.

No d whatsoever, just letting them take open 3s.

Why do we have no development coach?
Our defense has been terrible for years now.

Wallace having a great game

Wallace and Mangakahia were supposed to be play limited minutes behind Whitcomb and Rocci.
Worry watching Wallace have to do so much after back to back acls

Aokuso has been quite lazy this game running the floor. 4 times I watched her walk up the court behind the offense and was the last to get back on d.

Minutes distribution not good. Not sure why you wouldn't play Melbourne.

Gave up in the 4th, no cardio. Credit to China. That's 5 out of last 6 times they’ve beat us.

Running players into the ground playing 25 mins+

Should be fired if we lose to nz.

Nicholson worst game ever 25 mins

0 pts
0 rbd
1 ast
1 stl



Whitcomb carrying us

When will people realise it's a development tour. Means absolutely nothing.

O doubt jobs for the boys.

The fact that Olaf can step in and out is a disgrace.

Wallace got to give sometime. 7 games total now in 3 years... You can see that she is getting back to her old self but I'd have her as te off guard for awhile, not the point.

I don't think it’s too late, this wnbl season we will know though.

Sami avg

15 / 6.7 / 7.7

Leading all categories


Mitchell should never have been in the squad since Sami came in in 2018.

With the silence on Cambage, expecting 2022 WC squad to be


1 guard from this tournament original list
Lavey
Ebzery
Whitcomb
Ohea
Talbot
Allen
Smith
Magbegor
George
Tolo
Cambage

No Ebzery

Nz is only missing Beck and cocks.

We are missing like 10-11 players

Walker v Whitcomb
Goulding v Nicholson
Taia v Sharp
Purcell v Garbin
Davidson v Aokuso

Walker/hippolite v Wallace/mangakahia
Blair/karatiana vs Shelley/Melbourne
Paalvast v wehrung
Richards v Froling
Boagni vs Scherf

Lot of players have struggled fitness wise, we were dead at 3/4 time.

We need a dedicated strength coach, a dedicated cardio coach, a dedicated offensive coach, a dedicated defensive coach, a dedicated recovery coach like the Japanese have along with hc, 2 assistants, equip manager, team manager, psychologist.


We have 6 people currently, nz have 6 the Japanese have 11, China have 10

Aus has only 5 staff I believe. Pretty disgraceful.

Nz loss would be horrible for them. Hardly any games over the next 2 years if they don't make top 4.
No WC qualication games, no friendlies, youth tournaments preselected without nz.

Only Olympic qualification games until 2024.

Nope, top 4. Australia will still play WC qualification if they finish 1-8.

Nz has to make top 3. Aus get auto spot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_FIBA_Women%27s_Basketball_World_Cup_Qualifying_Tournament

Nz have to beat Aus and the next game to qualify for WC qualifiers

Likely Aus and Korea.

16 teams 2022 WC teams for qualification


Americas-
USA
Canada
Brazil
Puerto Rico

Europe-
Belarus
France
Bosnia
Serbia
Belgium
Russia

Africa-
Mali
Nigeria

Asia-
Australia
China
Japan
Korea or Taipei or nz


Top 16 go into 4 random groups of 4,
bottom place team in each group doesn't make the WC.
12 teams go to Sydney.

Weird not seeing Spain after eurobasket collapse.

Spain had the same issue as Aus does now, obsession with veterans.

Mondelo is now fired and it's a new youthful squad with a new coach.

Olaf Lange gets fired from Russia n.t after worst run ever.
Russia gets new coach
Olaf gets picked up as assistant/hc for Australia.
Russia make WC qualifiers
Australia has worst ever Olympic result.
Olaf remains ac for aus till 2025

Like watching a bunch of wheelchair players play defense.
Get someone in that can improve this basic skill.

1 person carrying this team. 4 post players who can't rebound...

Goriss = stupid o
Gassed players half way through first half, plays rotation of 7.

Shit I thought it was 26 seconds.... 2.6 seconds.

Well played Molloy

Whitcomb carrying this team. Selecting Mitchell over her probably cost us a shot at a medal.

It's Whitcomb against nz.

Fire Goriss, brondello, chambers, Olaf ASAP. No jobs for mates till 2025.
Team needs to start from scratch.

The gap between Sami and player 2 is like u20 player playing with u12s

Need the day off desperatelybefore the next game.

Japan by 20pts

Yes more probably

Japan only has 5 players from there silver medal Olympic squad. I think opals lose by 10pts. Won't be able to match there speed, ball movement and 3 point shooting.

Let's face it, about 7-8 of these players should never be an opal again.

It’s Whitcomb as the only assured WC player.
....
….
…..
The rest….
underdone players who should not be playing yet….

Kristy, tiana and z were not ready conditioning wise for sure.

Nice to see goriss gave Jade Melbourne a chance in the 2nd. For sure sandy would of given her a Dnp. We need another dynamic scorer out there to support Whitcomb. Fooling and scherf need to keep bullying in the paint and we could win this.

Yeah, should have played Melbourne more in the previous games.

Great game by Scherf.

Horrible by Goriss last 5 mins playing 4 forwards and Wehrung as the point.

Very strange rotations by Goriss after Sami got her fourth foul

Wow did the fka that up

What a game. Sami gave her all and played with heart. Great game by Scherf as well. Hopefully they can beat Korea for bronze. Japan is the superior team.

Whitcomb play point at WC or sg?

Japan didn't totally botch their rotations and we did. And that decided the result. Very good effort by the players.

Performance so far

Mangakahia 1/10
Whitcomb 10/10
Shelley 5/10
Wehrung 6/10
Melbourne 7/10
Wallace 3/10
Nicholson 5/10
Sharp 5/10
Froling 6/10
Garbin 6/10
Aokuso 3/10
Scherf 8/10

Bit harsh on wallace. She was bad today but had a great game against China.

3 of Heal or Rocci or Lavey or Melbourne
Whitcomb
Ohea
Kunek
Talbot
Allen
Magbegor
George
Tolo
Cambage


Mitchell, Smith cut
Blicavs reserve

Wallace is good but too early for her, 6 15 min games in nbl1 ain't going to get you to the conditioning level required .
Aokuso needs a lot of work on cardio too.

That stretch when Sami went off with 4 with 5 mins to go and gorry had put out Wehrung, Nicholson, Sharp, Garbin, Aokuso was a big mistake.
You had Froling, Scherf and Melbourne playing well at that time.

agreed on the rotations down the stretch, what the hell was he doing.

Maley would have been super useful.

Not sure why Wehrung played so many minutes. Melbourne should have played more.

Nicholson cant score the ball was a huge liability the last 2 minutes.

Yes Maley would have come in real handy for the rebounding.


We will Continue to be shiteaslong as Goriss, sandy, chambers, Olaf remain.

Great young talent, what's considered young?

Anyone older than 23 ain’t young talent anymore imo.
We had just 3 players below 23y.o shelley21 n Melbourne19 n Aokuso22

Bronze medal would be satisfactory for this group.

A 4th would mean what?

4th would be a fail

WHat 'great young talent' do we have? Like who is going to be wnba starter level?

Like watching a bunch of u14s play defense. Wave a hand 2metres away from a 3pt shooting side

So many uneducated morons post here

Like yourself bob.

Sharp shooting the 3 well

3rd.

Sami to WC, the rest still have a lot of work to do.

Han, li, Whitcomb, okaho and 1 other

Why women asia cup every 2 years, mens every 4?

Unbelievable final, no way we were beating either side.

Wrong for anyone to say we have a bright future when the teams that beat us were also inexperienced and younger.

Cracker of a final.

Glad the Japanese won, what a final.

Aus will be struggling to qualify for major events before we know it.

Social media cheering us for coming 3rd in the asia cup is a new low point for the opals

Exactly,
People forget just 4 years ago were averaging 1 loss a year for 20 years and since 2018, our record is 21 wins - 12 losses.

A loss meant change, people seem to just be accepting this steady fall without wondering why.

I'll be surprised if we are even competitive with japan or China around 2028.

Golden generation of the opals is long gone. Japan is the powerhouse of Asian basketball.

China were 1.08 at pre game odds. Huge upset for Japan B squad to upset a full strength China.

Japan b+

Missing

Machida
Motohashi
The other mawuli sister
Miyazawa
Nagaoka
Takada
Tokashiki


Guaranteed we will see miyuzaki and Steph Mawuli in the A team next year along with the staples Akaho, Hayashi and okoye
I

China were missing starting sf also. Meng li

Look at aus, so young, bright future...

But, Older than most of the teams in the tournament…. Including g the winners and runners up

Aus is doomed on the women's side.

Statistically we are on track to drop to 6th in the world rankings in 2023.
Failure(outside the top half)next year and we could be looking at 8th in the updated rankings.
Not making paris olympics and we could drop out of the top 10 and as low as 12 in 2025.
Imagine going from #2 to #10 in 2 cycles under sandy/Goriss/chambers/olaf.

Spain not qualifying has helped Aus but Canada, Serbia, France, belgium, China, Japan look to overtake us if they do better than us next year and paris.

Can we naturalise one of the Japanese point guards

No they play for Japan.

What r u saying cram

How so

Sure overall we had less experience but both the Japanese and Chinese teams were younger than us and both missing several players.
Our Olympic squad has been beaten by these teams 7 out of the past 9 times.
Third is ok,but very worrying since we used to beat these teams by 30+

You don't get it, we were losing to these teams with our best squad, we lost to these b teams with our b team also.
If we are losing with our present and future, it’s a clear sign we are falling behind.
If we had our Olympic team here, what would be a good result? 3rd still?

Australia has never been in a position where we have lost more than 10 games in 1 4 year cycle.

21-12 under sandy/Goriss/chambers

Previous 3 cycles (4 years) we lost no more than 4 games.

Once again, you should look at the records. Don't assume.

WC and olympic used to be 8-9 games, now just 6.
We used to play friendlies in Europe, now we don't.

Same number of games just more qualyfying the last few years.

Accept it, we are in mass decline u less things are changed in early development

Harrower one era, taylor another, jackson the next. Cambage this era but still we lost to Japan and China even surrounded by 6 wnba players.
Japan has no superstar which means nothing, t's a team game and they play better with more heart and more desire and they put much more work into developing players. More practise, less theory.

Yes they were same age. But twice jackson was injured and we only had one star on the team.
Only 1 occasion where we have had multiple hof on the team at once.

What's our February team look like? Surely this team will be the WC side to improve chemistry

If sandys locked in as coach, she won't change much. She will probably choose...


G
Whitcomb, Ebzery, Madgen, Lavey
F
Allen, Talbot, Ohea
P
Cambage, Tolo, George, Magbegor, Smith


Whitcomb replaces Mitchell at naturalised spot.


Not who I would choose though.




Think most people would be willing to move on from smith n Madgen and some others Ebzery and lavey.
Most people agree Cambage attitude etc should stop her from playing ever again but her issues have been swept under the rug by BA and they are well aware that we are not a medal chance without her at a home WC

^^ sadly 'most people' aren’t picking the team

Whitcomb - replaces Mitchell
Talbot - played sg under sandy for 4 years
Allen - played sf under sandy for 4 years
Magbegor - played pf position at olympics
Cambage - returns unfortunately as starting c

Ebzery - could be the third pg off the bench but she has the exp
Ohea - played as g/f since coming back in 2018
Kunek - derserves her shot after playing so well in Europe
Blicavs - replaces smith, few options here but probably the most versatile out of Garbin/Froling
George - better at c than pf, played here at olympics

Heal or Lavey or Rocci - offense or defense essentially
Tolo - easy decision after olympics, lean Bunton, Scherf, Aokuso in waiting.

Next years Japanese squad could win it imo

5'3 93 R.Machida/5’5 93 N.Motohashi/5’6 95 S.Miyazaki
5’8 95 S.Hayashi/5’9 92 S.Motokawa
6’0 93 Y.Miyazawa/5’11 95 E.Mawuli
6’1 98 H.Akaho/6’0 98 S.Mawuli/6’0 99 M.Okoye
6’4 91 R.Tokashiki/6’1 89 M.Takada