Import-Norton-Zunic(dp)
Cotton-Local or SRP
Import-Travers-Shervill
Law-NS
Mathiang-Majok-HayesBrown(dp)

This is the first time I've seen Wildcats lack competitive fire. They really just went through the motions for most of the year. They probably make the finals if they had Vic Law but I don't think anyone had them as serious contenders if they made it there. First off, I would get rid of Scott Morrison. If you have to pay off his contract, so be it. Rob Beveridge is proven in the NBL and no doubt would be chomping at the bid to coach again in the league. We know there have been controversies around him but I think he deserves another chance. The Wildcats also need an enforcer. Hodgson isn't an enforcer. Majok isn't an enforcer. They need their own Mika Vukona. It's also time for some of the old heads to move on - looking at you Wagstaff. The team needs some fresh blood and some athleticism. If Cotton gets naturalized Perth will be all the better for it, given more import options. But I don't think they can afford to 'wait and see' again, and get bitten as they did with the John Brown situation. They need to get their imports right from the start and get gelling. I'd usually say that Perth will figure it out, (because they always do) but under new management, and given this historic predicament, it's hard to say.

What if Cotton gets his citizenship?

A big regroup, hopefully Cotton citizenship and booking a decent import big well in advance. Scomo shouldn't go anywhere as it's not his fault the underwhelming Bryce Cotton supporting cast didn't stand up when needed. I would be happy to never see another Travers double hesitation drive and panic, a Blanchfield 1 handed jump shot off the front of the rim or especially an offensive rebound with both of out bigs at the 3 point line MIA, over and over and over again.

What's next.

The SPOON, lol.

Dunkman, I dont think so

Scomo shouldn't go anywhere as it's not his fault the underwhelming Bryce Cotton supporting cast didn't stand up when needed.

You start at the top.

First of all get rid of the GM Mills and ScoMo.

SEG need to reassess everything and start over in year two.

Sort out Cotton's citizenship finally now that he can fly overseas since the WA border reopened. There should be no issues now post COVID closure.

Don't cheap out on imports since the local contingent is weak unless you raid other NBL sides, or do both.

Wagstaff to retire.

Sort out Cotton's citizenship finally now that he can fly overseas since the WA border reopened. There should be no issues now post COVID closure.

Good.

I am really not sure why the government continues to stutter on Cotton's citizenship. I've known people who've been here 2-3 years and have got it. I really don't see what the hold up would be?

Morrison wont be going anywhere just yet. Hutchie has already been quoted giving him support for next season. Why wouldn't he? His take down mission isn't fully complete yet. He surreptitiously divested his stake in Melbourne United. Then appointed a GM to deliberately make monumental fuck ups with roster signings and tardy administrative lodgements. Sign an incompetent coach that would almost certainly fail and miss the finals and in the process alienate fans and lose memberships. Next season will be the icing on the cake when Scomo pisses off Bryce so much he walks and signs with United. Once he's finished picking through the carcass of whats left of the once admired club culture he'll jump off the gravy train and reinvest in MU to assume dominance of the NBL for the next decade without needing to go through Perth to win the championship. Melbourne have systematically dismantled the wildcats organisation from the top down. No team could do it in 35 years on the floor so they infiltrated the club from the inside via corporate sabotage merely writing it off as a company loss when he sells for peanuts. Well played Melbourne United/SEG. It only took more than three decades but finally someone figured out how to take down the beast.

Some of you punters should write fairy tales, I know it's hard to handle but it happens in sports and life, things go wrong. Look at Manchester United, kings of England to mid average.
Get a grip.

I am really not sure why the government continues to stutter on Cotton's citizenship. I've known people who've been here 2-3 years and have got it. I really don't see what the hold up would be?

Some of you punters should write fairy tales, I know it's hard to handle but it happens in sports and life, things go wrong. Look at Manchester United, kings of England to mid average.
Get a grip.

Bol the thought did run through my mind haha

Apart from the obvious in signing quality big men PF and C as we got monstered and diced up in the key all year. Having wagstaff playing as a centre at times this year just showed the misplaced recruiting. Start with getting more depth of bench and developing youth. Bench points 17 pts v 38 pts yesterday tells the story, cats rely on too few to get things done

Coach Morrison is safe according to the owners so they havent even reviewed the causes of the failed season and assume its not the coaches fault.

By agreeing to keep Scomo they effectively put the blame at the players and not at the system the coach put in. Is the assumption new talent will fix the problems.

This reminds me of the Dean Demopoulos saga where he had a talented squad and failed both years in a row at United. Look at Illawara , with Goorjan its been finals two years straight.

The ownership is showing itself not to have deep pockets, they hesitated on John Brown (or Frazier replacement for most of the season) and are giving Morrison a free pass to miss finals next year instead of paying him out and finding a better tactical and cultural fit at the club.

This reminds me of the Dean Demopoulos saga

"The ownership is showing itself not to have deep pockets, "

About time.

Might as well fold. What good are the Wildcats without their streak?

This reminds me of the Dean Demopoulos saga where he had a talented squad and failed both years in a row at United.

Danny Mills was perfect for the role because he needed a mole on the inside to infiltrate and destroy

God damn Melburnians! (in City Wok guy's voice)

The slow transition continues- United gradually replacing Perth as the benchmark franchise in the NBL

I rekon it is a conflict of interest to have a company own two sporting teams in the same league. Cats selling to hutchy and SEG should never have been allowed to happen by the NBL. Surely WA has enough people with coin who could have bought the cats from within

SEG's basketball team purchases over the past year also include Bendigo Spirit (WNBL) and Otago Nuggets (NZNBL).

They are trying their hand at the multi sports club empire game, which has taken off overseas, but in markets where there is little to no profit margin.

Along with SEG's other media assets the Wildcats are a small piece of the portfolio. Will they hire the right personnel? Will they spend? Will they care, assuming crowd levels remain in the short term, about results? They're based over east so the community aspect is gone as well.

The whole thing is uninspiring.

Perthworld totally agree - I respect everything old jack did for the cats but for him to sell out to hutchy was probably the worst move he made in charge. I would happily wave a hutchy out sign in the crowd if the season repeats itself and have the clubs soul back in WA. I rated seeing the team back in black and gold and would love to see it changed back for good. I know there is recent history now with the red colours/red army supporters nickname but after supporting club from day dot (call me old school) I never understood why the club decided to come up with red if we had our state colours originally. Maybe they employed a marketing intern who said "hey wouldn't it be great idea if we randomly chose the colour red and roll with this for absolutely no reason, it doesnt matter that the hawks have exactly the same colours let's claim it". If someone can fill me in on why this happened I would love to know the reason why. For example if I supported melbourne utd I would have been ropable when they dropped the tigers nickname for United. As a fan of nbl where is the history, basketball isnt soccer

Red sports teams

Time to bring in JvG as a consultant in the rebuild?

"I am really not sure why the government continues to stutter on Cotton's citizenship. I've known people who've been here 2-3 years and have got it. I really don't see what the hold up would be?"

I can tell you from current experience it is taking much longer. My wife has been in the country (as a resident) about a month less than Cotton and applied for her citizenship at around the same time. We're not expecting it to be processed for another year yet. This is just how it is

Apparently he applied for a distinguished talent visa to fast track the process in time for the olympics. Once he didn't get his citizenship in time then he went back into the pool like everyone else and it pretty much started all over again. Gone are the days of the wildcats getting these things done quickly via the back channels.

Monday Dech im pretty sure they changed their colours in '95 when they had the Coke sponsorship. I guess they just stuck with it after that for their rebranding.

"Apparently he applied for a distinguished talent visa to fast track the process in time for the olympics. Once he didn't get his citizenship in time then he went back into the pool like everyone else and it pretty much started all over again. Gone are the days of the wildcats getting these things done quickly via the back channels."

yep, thats where the "hold up" was. If he'd been given an exception to have that visa sorted while in the country (which I think would have been fair) he could have applied for citizenship earlier (maybe even a year earlier) and could have his citizenship by now.

The citizenship process itself though just takes time. Its longer now than ever and, while he may have gotten help to get the visa through (in the end, without result) with the actual citizenship you just gotta wait.

Pre pandemic this was taking around 8 months. Its at least double that now.

On Shane Heals basketball show they got stuck into coach Morrisons suitability after his explosive comments. Good watch from around the 26.55 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hbCX6BgOIQ

Somewhat understandably a lot of debbie downerism in here but it's the cats, they will return and exact revenge. As Simon Mitchell said after the game give Scomo a break, and the team. $hitty season no doubt at all but lots of annoying external factors that didn't help along the way. The cats are held to a standard much higher than other team and rightly so, a bad year is such a rarity it's caused ructions but if they were to ever have a poor campaign the season where the coaching, management and ownership changes coupled with the chaos of covid on the schedule was going to be the one. It's already in the past, the big off season regroup will yield results and the teams track record shows that. So in summary if you were into the cats when they were winning but want to cancel the franchise due to this season please cancel your occasional membership and go support an Eastern States team.

The Cats will be fine. They've got the biggest supporter base in the country, the best player in the league on their books and a history of excellence. Every team has dips, its just amazing it has taken the Cats this long to have one, and even then they've finished with a plus .500 record

During covid the visa timelines have blown out massively, it's actually a disgrace and has been devastating for a number of families.

The department is a complete disaster - personally experienced it trying to get a PR for my partner.

Would love to see a JVG take over to get cotton the talent/help he needs

Monday Dech im pretty sure they changed their colours in '95 when they had the Coke sponsorship.

I respect everything old jack did for the cats but for him to sell out to hutchy was probably the worst move he made in charge.

Would love to see a JVG take over to get cotton the talent/help he needs

Didn't the 95 championship team wear black and red? Or is my memory failing in my old age

Wagstaff possible retirement , you mean definitely retirement .
Time to move on and new blood .

JVG is there man, turn into absolute rabble.

They had cotton and when they signed vic law they said our job is done haha

Didn't the 95 championship team wear black and red? Or is my memory failing in my old age

ah ok fair enough, cheers

My bad my memory is a little hazy going back then. I didn't remember there was quite a few years between the coke sponsorship and the time they went red. Indeed it was primarily black with red trim.

I was calling for Scomo's head after the finals, but more to do with his attitude, the comments prior to the final game and then walking out with his players still on the court didn't sit well with me. I've had a chance to regroup and willing to give him another change. I don't think it comes down to Wildcats were terrible, but more the league around us is getting better and we aren't trying to improve, we're just trying to maintain that level that has always got us there which has shown doesn't work now. The quality of import is an all time high and the Cats decided to go all out offense this season which wasn't working and by the time they tried to get Brown for defensive purposes it was too late. I'm a Frazier fan, so had no problem with him and he handled everything like a professional. If Cotton gets naturalised and we keep Law then I'd be happy to welcome Frazier back alongside a defensive big. Ideally Wagstaff needs to retire and make way for a younger body. Love Norton, but he ragdolls himself worse than Damo did. If we were to get an import C then we'd wouldn't have room for all of Majok/Hodgson/OHB. Love Blanch too, but if we're not going to use him correctly then he's not really any use to us. And if Travers does indeed get drafted then he's gone, I don't think he will though. Need to possibly look at bringing back some home talent like a Dech to share duties with Norton and relieve the SG position at times. Ideally:

PG: Norton/Import/White
SG: Cotton/Local dech type
SF: Law/Blanchfield
PF: Import/Travers
C: Hodgson/Majok

I don't particularly care about ScoMo's attitude towards the press - especially when it is in response to silly questions - but I do worry that some of his behaviour is symptomatic of traits that could affect his ability to coach a team well.

My main question is does he still have the players engaged & clear on their roles.
From the outside looking in, it doesn't seem like he does. To me we don't appear to be a team that is locked in to a game plan and giving it 100%, and often times I'm left wondering if we even have a Plan A, let alone a Plan B for when Plan A isn't working. (are my expectations just too high after so many years of refinement of the system under Gleeson?)
I guess the player exit interviews would best reveal that type of thing.
Also, how many Wildcats got better this season? How many went backwards? How many played to their potential? What are the reasons?

Bendat was the type of owner who wouldn't think twice about paying out a contracted coach/player if it was time for them to go. The new owners wouldn't have that freedom, so of course the default position is going to be trying to make it work without a change of coach. That's understandable.
Hutchy's comments along the lines of "we are committed to him for next season and he is committed to us" are mostly meaningless to me though. Numerous coaches have been sacked within weeks of those type of statements being made.

Ultimately the Cats have still got a solid core of players to build around, and the resources to add good pieces around them. So even with a mediocre coach I'm sure we'll be competitive next season. I've seen a few comments about needing to blow the team up and that's clearly not the case.

ScoMo did have plenty of handicaps along the journey this past season. That can't be denied, and IMO it is a reasonable excuse for lacking the 1 extra win that would have kept the playoff streak going.
But my issue is that we had the personnel to be better than just scraping into 4th ahead of the JackJumpers.

It's possible that NBL coaching was a steep learning curve for ScoMo, and with what he knows now plus having input into the roster changes plus actually being here for the pre-season we will be fine next season.

Senator11 I think White has retired?

I'm not certain Law was the right fit for Cotton, yes Law can play, just needs a lot of ball that starves Cotton.

Dunkman - problem is Cotton has the ball too much, so Law essentially was a good fit because he could carry that scoring load. I think the problem was Law is better at the SF position that way the Cats could have bigger bodies at the 4 which would help us with the defensive woes we struggled with.

Law and ScoMo both have attitude issues that would have seen them ousted posthaste under the old regime.

My bad my memory is a little hazy going back then. I didn't remember there was quite a few years between the coke sponsorship and the time they went red. Indeed it was primarily black with red trim.

Might just be the age I was when they were around, but they're one of my favourite jersey designs.

Not just you or your age - it is one of if not the most unique NBL colour scheme ever.

It's a shame with modern graphic design no club is trying for something outside the box. Jerseys are all so ho-hum nowadays.

What's next?

Perhaps we finally sign a Next Star?

The NBL gives each designer a jersey template and all elements have to be within that template.

Yeah I heard about that - we're in the Worst Ever era for jersey designs because of it.

I wish someone would start a petition for LK to scrap the mandatory white away strip and allow clubs more creative freedom with their alternate away jerseys.There definitely are more important changes to petition for but it would be cool.

There's no mandatory white away strip. New Zealand wear blue, Brisbane wear yellow.

"Senator11 I think White has retired?"

Where'd you hear this? Haven't heard anything and would presume he wouldn't announce so soon after the regular season.

Senator - I actually think it was mentioned during the season? I could be wrong but I was under the belief this was his last run.

Big Fudge, I mean I wouldn't be surprised and happy to replace with a younger back up, but for what he prob makes he's decent in that spot if was to continue.

I wonder where Clarke sits in their plans. He was with the team all season and, like a couple of others, never was given much chance to show if he is likely.

That's pretty typical for a DP, really.

The problem is simple.

Jack wanted the Wildcats to be profitable in their own right, but it didn't phase when they weren't. He certainly invested early on, and whenever they took a hit he had their backs.

SEG NEED the Wildcats to be a profitable business enterprise, to pay a return on their investment, and to do it every year.

Their plan is simple. They've bought the biggest and most loyal fanbase in the NBL, and they need to milk that for every cent, whilst curtailing expenditure on the other side of the ledger.
It's no coincidence that within weeks of their purchase becoming a reality, there was a mass exodus.

I read an Interview with Gleeson, where he basically came straight out and blamed his departure on the new owners.
(Obviously he was his usual subtle and tactful self)

I think he was asked the obvious question about what had tempted him to take the Raptors offer.
And his reply was literally something like "I've had lots of offers over the years all offering me more money, but I never considered any of them because I had the backing of a good owner, good organisation, and good system..."

And just look at what happened with Hodgson. They missed out on every big in Australia (presumably by low-balling) and still waited until Hodgson had literally nowhere else to go. No doubt they congratulated themselves on getting him cheap, but imagine if they'd missed him as well.

If you look in the dictionary for "Team Player", it probably says "Not Vic Law."
No doubt they patted themselves on the back again, for another "money-ball" bargain.

I find it amazing how the mighty Perth could not play finals when average teams like thee JJs and hawks are.

It's not that amazing really IMO. If Law doesn't go down with a season-ending injury then the Cats are in the playoffs. (Not making any noise, but they're in there)
Despite all the many things they did wrong they were still one very unlucky moment away from making it.
... which I think is mostly a reflection of how mediocre the rest of the league was.

Can't find this reported anywhere online yet but channel 10 news last night reporting Cottoon has re-signed with the Cats for another 3 years. Great news if it's true can anyone verify?

Just this but from the same source:

https://twitter.com/Lachy_Reid/status/1521056662752497664

Sportando had it a couple of days ago.

https://sportando.basketball/en/sources-bryce-cotton-to-remain-with-perth-wildcats/

@D.20 your assessment looks spot on. I suspect for last few years cat have recruited bargain buy players like White and then put their main investment in Cotton to get over the line. This year that didn't work.

If SEG are looking for return on investment by not investing in a good roster or a coach that can introduce a system to get around a lack of talent (Gleeson and Roth) then it could be some dark years ahead for the Wildcats as a franchise.

Hodgson to me was a backup centre at most with his age and the move to agile centres like JLA, Martin and co. But the late signing of him was very much getting some at the right price.

Well SEG may discover that a lack of success = less fans and sponsorship and less money. They will track more like Brisbane who lack the finances to compete for a championship and less like Melbourne or Sydney.

"which I think is mostly a reflection of how mediocre the rest of the league was."

More a reflection of how good Perth's ability to score was for much of the year.

Fundamental issue remains that the new owners have stumbled, badly, and they've done it again, and again, and again. It's not a good look.

As new owners, with hugely sceptical fans, their number one priority should have been "first do no harm." They should have been prepared to spend big to make sure the wheel didn't fall off in the first season at the helm.

Frankly, it shows an inexplicable level of stupidity that they would even proceed with a purchase without having already locked Gleeson in with an iron-clad commitment.
Instead they did the exact opposite.

Having lost Gleeson, they needed to double down and hire enough on-court talent to carry the team. The one non-negotiable requirement of the new owners was that they maintain the streak. And the blew it.

And ultimately, they blew it badly.

Holding your coach hostage is unlikely to generate much goodwill.

And ultimately, they blew it badly."

Please. In about half the Wildcats existence their record has been equal or worse what it was this year. They got unlucky. A 57% winning record makes playoffs almost every year.

Holding your coach hostage is unlikely to generate much goodwill

This was the first season since 86 with a losing(or poor) home record. SO even in the years where their percentage was less - they at least made their home court a fortress.

If I am paying 200-300 for tickets to a game , It better be a win and if it is a loss then at least super competitive quality game. This season was neither.

And ultimately, they blew it badly.

Please. In about half the Wildcats existence their record has been equal or worse what it was this year. They got unlucky.

Under the previous ownership Trevor Gleeson went 16-12 twice and 15-13 once. This year was just circumstance, the new owners didn't damage the brand.

I wonder how many people realise Perth's streak included 2 seasons where they finished 7th out of 11 teams, and one where they finished 7th out of 12

(2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06)

Was Trevor Gleeson ever a petty, arrogant prick to the media?

Did Trevor Gleeson recruit selfish players with massive egos?

Did Trevor Gleeson have a losing home record?

16 wins is irrelevant. It was still not enough to make the playoffs this year

"SEG purchased the most successful, highest earning, most "profitable" (and presumably most expensive) team in the league." Well based on previous years where they make a small profit it will be a negative this season with the extra costs of COVID and Perth being away for so long. That's not SEG's fault either.

Any word on Cotton Citizenship? My wife who has similar time frames just got her callup for the interview next month.