Early as it is in the season this game for me "is can JR actually coach" and will Travis show why he moved to Melbourne. Last year NZ poked the bear re Webster hoping JR trying to wind up the red army comes to bite him in the arse.

Should be a cracker, some great match ups, unfortunately for cats fans I think they can win in a close one, that probably means cats no chance then.

Tough weekend for Perth as they then head to Sydney for a game Sunday.

I'm looking at the matchup of Goulding vs Ushee at the 3 spot as pretty intriguing.

Drmic abused Goulding last game off the dribble - I fear for what Usher will do to him.

Game of the round, and should be a good barometer of where Perth are at.

Interested to see what role Tai plays tonight too.

Desire to get boards will come into it bigtime as usual and Perth need to turn the UTD beating us at home hoodoo around and it is Friday the 13th so hoping for a spooky result. If Cats lose hard on the glass tonight there needs to be decisive harsh repercussions, no excuses. Lets pummel them!

United seem to have perths number. It took a miracle game wining three by Corey Webster last season to get a win at home.

United by 3

Vickerman will abuse Rillie.

Surprised to see Cats favs with the bookies.
Hope they're on the money with that.

Delly still thinking he Steff :)

That has to be a foul, in afl that's a free kick. What a joke

Any chance of calling a foul on Melbourne??

Made up kick violation...

The ref just told cottonna high five on the shooting hand is okay?? What the hell is he smoking

Loe showing why it's great he still playing, good game, a lot tougher than the one just finished.

Perth have too many high usage low IQ players in Keanu & the Webster brothers.

Not enough role players imo.

Travers not afraid

Yeah add Usher to the dog shit IQ list

So the Cavs don't care anymore if Travers isn't playing point? Because he was clearly under instruction at Perth.

Team play v iso, refs have realised they are in Perth

Helps when you finally stop shooting 0% from outside the arc

Helps when both your bigs are in foul trouble and Travers is off court with a bloody nose. Enjoyable game.

Doolittle has also been out for most of game, looks to be serious. So Perth undermanned as well.

No doubt JR will use Doolittle out as an excuse

What a shItshow this is

Agree Screeningnick this cats team is so low IQ its either jacking up 3's or charging outta control to the basket. If the threes aren't dropping they cant find other ways to score. Too many dumb players or just bad coaching?

Its Bad coaching.

Ushers game against Jackjumpers was an anomaly and fools gold. He's basically a poor man’s Dillon Brooks without the defense to back it up.

I hope hes not trash talking without actually backing it up

Rillie is a complete moron. Gleeson (politely) tearing him to shreds.

Chatted to a Wildcats legend last weekend and he can't believe the lack of plays being called, especially when you have Cotton. Is it that Rillie has NFI or are these low IQ players too dumb to run simple sets? The garbage on show tonight is, well, garbage. Melbourne not playing particularly brilliant basketball but an infinitely better team.

Give me Jamaal Franklin over Usher. I'm not even kidding.

Rillie game plan not helping Cotton, it's all iso rubbish and yes Perth got some dumb players. Sarr got play all last quarter to have any chance.

First Doolittle, now Pinder :(

Lovin the battle between Hukporti and Sarr

Really poor one dimensional offence for cats. So many hero shots that didnt go in.

I really picked them for top 4 but feeling like is last season all over.

New coach needed.

They look ordinary the cats.

Cant see them top4

Cotton is a great, the rest cats guards are average at best. Cats should still finish top four just on talent. Again defence wins games.

Top 4 probably but championship not a reality. Cant play in the half court against teams with good defense. No decent PG or coach. United and Jackies the favorites from what ive seen so far

Bizarrely it's Cats offence that been the problem tonight. Missing lots of open 3s in the first half and then so much rubbish iso when trying to catchup.

^ That's the way it felt to me too, AA.
We are bad at generating quality looks.

Feels like the worst thing that could have happened to Usher was having the huge opening night scoring performance. Thought he was a defensive type player coming in, but he apparently he was taking notes watching Harvey chuck up early clock contested jumpers last night.

Chalk another one up to not playing like a glued unit just yet. Early days no need to panic certainly got the talent. UTD just much better at finding the open man tonight

SEG extending Rillie's deal during the off-season was downright bizarre.

No win but there is the free cheeseburger.

Looking at the scoring one thing is blatantly obvious, Cotton isn't hitting his shots. You add 20 more points to his game (11) and we win.

These days it feels like United going to Perth is just pencilling a win into the calendar. Incredible record over the past few years

Was at the game. Some observations:

The ball just didn't seem to be in Cotton’s hands enough, and when he did get it he was out of position. Not enough plays being run for him. The Webster brothers while offering another scoring option just don’t run the point like a traditional pass first Norton type which may be a factor.

United were switched on and play very deep. Clark is a real "pro", cool, calm and collected. Hukporti and Sarr battle was great, both solid and even in the end.

Found the in-game experience with the loud, constant music and Lachie Reid screaming very off-putting, it really detracts from the game. Is it just Perth? Prefer to watch on tv unfortunately.

The TV experience isn't much better, especially when Perth are winning or on a run and Reid and the in-arena music is about 10x louder than it needs to be.

I love me some Lachy

United just own the cats mentally and physically with their size. The cats still have the same rebounding and defensive issues that they've had under JR .

Wildcats won the rebound battle 50 to 48. They missed what Doolittle brings. I think they are definitely lacking a high IQ point guard to feed cotton. Our offence has looked like streetball the last couple of games

I used to love the plays that Trev would run to get Cotton free.

Here's a idea run some plays for Pinder in the post

Rillie is either incompetent or adam forde is a far superior coach .
Literally there hasn't been. A set play bar maybe on one possession or 2 where the offense goes through Pinder on the block ..

After seeing what he did the past two seasons rillie has Pinder in action only if he ka bringing up the ball or catching the ball tol of the key
.

He ain't a point forward why aren't U using him to his strengths and putting him in the low post

"The ball just didn't seem to be in Cotton's hands enough, and when he did get it he was out of position. Not enough plays being run for him."

That's what good defensive teams do, blow up offences so good players can't get the ball where they want it very often. That said, Perth need to improve their counters.

Loved the Travers-Sarr battle, really smart move from Vickerman to use that match up.

Cotton shot taking and defense has been a libility this year

Teams are makin him work on both ends more then ever , because talent level across league has improved , schemws have improved