Sydney was competitive until about two minutes to go - progress! Would have been a tight game if they could box out better. Still think they should run the offence more through Mangakahia - feel she is steadier at the point than Heal.

The offensive foul call before Heal snr got ejected was clearly correct, bizarre that he would go hard on that & end up in the change rooms before halftime.

Coaching +/-
Shane present: 48-36 (-12)
Shane ejected: 37-39 (+2)

(and yes - the whistle that triggered it looked like a pretty standard illegal screen to me too)

It will be interesting to see what Smith does at season end, he doesn't like losing.

He's clearly a massive fanboy of Heal snr, so probably nothing

What a self indulgent twat, cost his side 3 points with his little tantrum. To top it off he got caught cheating by trying to coach from the rooms when the refs noticed one of the Sydney crew behind the bench with a phone.

Credit to Sydney, much improved. despise Shane though.

Bendigo very good again, hard to believe nz did not want Kereama, Underrated coach-has been for awhile.

Businessman are not fan boys for long around losers.

What a self indulgent twat, cost his side 3 points with his little tantrum. To top it off he got caught cheating by trying to coach from the rooms when the refs noticed one of the Sydney crew behind the bench with a phone.

I hope the phone on the bench is investigated. Regardless of whether Heal was using it to still coach, it surely is a breach of the rules to have one there.

Interesting to see how Mr Heal blows the whole thing off on his Fox Sports show this week, i would consider that phone thing a serious piece of misconduct and really a guy that is in that sort of position should be a lot better than that. Any other Coach did that he would be ballistic, remember the Ref tapes??

Heal was a 'mates with ownership' appointment and it shows. Hopefully soon the ownership group will finally decide to take women's basketball more seriously.

Hibbert was very well respected and apparently pretty annoyed when smith took the reigns and very quickly named heal hc.

Let's not forget the wise and mighty know it all of all things coaching and development one Weedy Slug has on numerous occasions ridiculed players for choosing to play in Victoria because they'd develop more under Heal.

Its easy to throw mud at literally anyone in a position of authority within BA or state bodies when there's no repercussions.

Weedy has been way wrong more often than right. And here again on Heal was so far off the mark I gave up paying any attention to their arrogant posts.

I said he was a good skills coach and the young would develop skills better under heal than say chambers.

I was clearly in favour of hibbert remaining as hc.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/the-oz/news/an-emotional-basketball-boss-is-suing-the-boys-club/news-story/ab53e80827391a27ece0634bfc91b188

Didn't that news come out months ago?

Yes although a bunch more media coverage in recent days.

Flames let another slip away

Flames would be decent if games were 35 minutes long.

To be fair, they played at 5.30pm in Bendigo 2 days ago

Melbourne missed quite a few layups in that game. The margin is a bit flattering to the Flames.

For the season so far, Shyla Heal is shooting 25% from three and Willoughby's 2 point percentage is worse than her 3 point percentage. I think these stats sums up the Flames' crap offence well. Also, Mangakahia looked pointless out there today and that is a coaching issue.

I agree, Tiana is not getting enough touches on offence!

Heal should be the off guard with T at the 1.

Nice to see Puoch have a breakout game offensively. She should drive more because it's her specialty but Chambers doesn't want her to? I guess she is the fifth option on offence when on court but she's not going to develop if she doesn't have the opportunities to make plays.

Should have stayed in Canberra instead of going home.

Melbourne tramples Adelaide by 25 points on the road minus Tiffany Mitchell. Unexpected. Nelson-Ododa's emergence in the last couple of weeks as an inside offensive threat is very helpful for them and I can't wait to see Melbourne play against Bendigo.

I'm always impressed at how Borlase manages to score despite not having much run for her. Adelaide's starters could have taken tips from her on how to finish inside today - they were a combined 7/33 from two point range.

What makes you think Chambers doesn't want Puoch to drive SP? And, Weedy, she should’ve stayed in Canberra? She would’ve been behind Potter & Swain, plus what is playing alongside the GOAT your first year in the league worth? I would think it’s priceless

What makes me think Chambers doesn't want Puoch to drive? She rarely does it. Like maybe once or twice so far this season. Instead, she usually wafts around on offence looking directionless. This is not Puoch's fault. Last game was the clear outlier in relation to this, though having no Bishop and A Rocci around probably forced a change in offensive role. Hopefully it's a sign Chambers wants to integrate Puoch more into the offence.

Swain is a sg and potter injured early as a sf.
Puoch as a sf would have started but now would be backup to munger.
She would have gotten twice as many minutes at Canberra and developed her ball handling under veal.
At Southside Blicavs and thornton play big minutes at sf and chambers and the rest of the staff aren't helping in the skill development.

Potter's injury happened in R1, if not injured Potter’s minutes would’ve been similar to Melbourne’s, therefore not much time for Puoch. Thornton is being played at the 4 spot isn’t she?

If potter wasn't injured, would be no 1 of scwagmeyer or munger...

As for 'Veal would've developed her handles", didn’t Veal have her at the COE for the past 2 years? If that was the case, shouldn’t her handles be a bit tidier already then?

Yes, but that's not the program they run.
Veal is free to do whatever, not under ba rule.

Yeah maybe but Potter wasn't injured when Puoch was choosing where to play so it’s a moot point imo

They spend the same amount of time developing skills as you would in the backyard.
Lots of shooting drills and theory which has no equated to better shooting percentages at youth level.

^^ that's a bit disturbing then isn’t it? Sounds like (assuming that’s true) the COE needs an overhaul

Plan was

Melbourne
Smart - dropped to backup sg
Burrell
Cohen - left rd 3, replaced by scwagmeyer, a sg
Bunton

Calleia
Swain - now starting at sg
Potter - injured rd 1, replaced by munger, a sf
Pizzey
Harmon - now starting at pf

Tonks

They are on a timetable at Coe, train, go to school, theory, train. Day off, play game, recover, eat, gym etc. more about pro preparation than skill development.
Just compare the players who started early at ausa or elsewhere with those that went through hpp only.