Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Season 2 Episode 17: It's the Final Countdown! 2024
48 Plays3 months ago
NBL1 East Finals have tipped off and the results were hot!
Lachy and Squin briefly cover the Qualifying and Elimination finals and preview the Semi Finals.
Also plenty of news and discussion about proposed additions to NBL1 East. What do you think listeners?
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of East Got Game, an unofficial podcast about the NBL1 East Season for 2024. My name's Squin and with me as always is Locky, AKA the Frenchman. How are you Locky? I'm great Hamish.
00:00:29
Speaker
ah Yeah, I'm great.
Poodles at the Game: An Unusual Sight
00:00:31
Speaker
Southern women got a win and I got to see toy poodle puppies at the game. Why were there toy poodle puppies at the game? Because someone from Canberra brought their toy poodle puppies to the game. How many were there? Two. That's really cute. In my head when you said puppies plural, I had in my head a box of six to seven puppies just rocking up to the elimination final. No, just the two. Plus plus the plus the the mother poodle was there. yeah Very, very enjoyable Saturday night.
00:01:08
Speaker
Yeah, we all need a little bit of puppy therapy, especially in stressful times like an elimination finals. And perhaps if you are on the losing end of that elimination final, then the puppies can kind of be a source of comfort of commiseration. Well, the kid at the Canberra team on the way home had, yeah, so all the puppies they could, and they could handle. Yes, that's good. Very good.
NBL1 East Finals Kickoff
00:01:34
Speaker
All right. Well, we, as mentioned, or as we alluded to, it is finals time across the NBL one competition and East has kicked off most recently with a round of elimination finals ah and qualifying finals over the weekend. And just as expected,
00:01:55
Speaker
It was pretty, it was very competitive in the men's and women's competition, some expected results and some very unexpected results, which makes it even more spicy for the end of the season. Oh, doesn't it just? Very much so. Yeah. I think when Sutherland went into their game against Canberra, if they thought if they got the win, they didn't think they'd be going to Aubrey this coming weekend. No, I don't think so. I don't think anyone planned that. But we'll get into that a bit later. How about you start us off by running through the results of the men's finals?
Game Highlights and Player Performances
00:02:31
Speaker
I certainly can do that for you, Squint. So in the
00:02:36
Speaker
one of the four qualifying final. It was Canberra getting up 95-74 over COE down at Tuggeranong. Will Mayfield, Derek M.L.A. Piongwoo and Glenn Morrison all topping the 20-point mark. James Toohey 14-8-7 and three steals whilst COE had five players in double figures despite falling by 21 and they'll get the second chance next, well this coming weekend. in the other qualifying final and went all the way to overtime and it was Maitland getting a 104-99 win over Manly Warringa, Wilcrantz, De Leon, 22-6 and 10, Matt Gray with 22 points as well, as was Billy Parsons. 22 club, 22-30 and then five for Parsons, whilst as per use, well Eldridge, Harper and Bragg all crossing the 20 point mark for Manly and Eldridge with a double-double and Mason Bragg almost with a triple-double.
00:03:34
Speaker
Moving on to the elimination finals and Comet's travel to inner west and got an 83-72 win courtesy of a low scoring 19-9 fourth quarter. The box score is completely broken, but we've all seen that Bawali-Bales went absolutely off in that game. I think he finished with 35 and 15, I think I read somewhere. So i massive game and he might be the ah the X factor for these playoffs. And then down at the hideout, Lauren Jackson Sports Centre down there on the border, it was Aubrey Woodonga getting an 89-75 win over Bankstown. Davo Hickey played the full 40 minutes and had 26-7 and 6 with 4 steals as well. Kevin Blaylock 27-9 whilst
00:04:25
Speaker
Andre Walford top score for Base Tower is 15 and Nay Hightower had 14 and 12 and young Charlie Macbeth 10 points in 17 minutes off the bench for the Bruins whose season comes to an end.
Upcoming Matches and Strategies
00:04:40
Speaker
So looking forward to week two and therefore also week three, we've got Centre of Excellence taking on Aubrey Wodonga at 7pm Saturday again at Tuggeranong and the winner of that game will play Maitland. and mainly versus comments on a Sunday afternoon, Sunday 3pm and the winner of that will play Canberra. As expected at this time of year, some very, very tasty match ups coming up. Yeah, definitely. Because we've said this before on the podcast, but come finals time, it just has a different air about it. There's no guarantees. Sometimes there'll be, you know,
00:05:21
Speaker
certain random variables that will influence the results, but finals time is different from regular season. And that game between Manly Warringa and Maitland in the men's competition that went into overtime looked like a barn burner. That is all like it looks like it kind of has the same high calibre that you would expect from a grand final. And something I was really impressed by is that looking at the quarter by quarter scores, Maitland got up by 10 in the first quarter, and then Manley just slowly chipped away, chipped away, chipped away to get it back to even Stevens by the end of regular time, winning the second quarter by one, the third quarter by one, the last quarter by eight, and then Maitland
00:06:13
Speaker
doing it in overtime scoring the whole 17 points in an overtime period I think is pretty impressive and especially when you mentioned that the likes of Jonas Harper and Mason Bragg, well I mean Jonas Harper played nearly the whole game but he fouled out it looks like and Mason playing the whole 45 minutes, Will Cranston-Lown playing the whole 45 minutes. It was just like a clash of the titans and the big names were really out to perform so just shows how much ah work each team has gone into their scout and into their conditioning and preparation for finals time. Really, really cool.
Team Recognitions and Challenges
00:06:53
Speaker
I mean, 29 points in overtime. I mean, even the best defender in the league is going to struggle to stay in front of people with 44 minutes in his legs. Yeah, gosh. Oh, straight into the ice bath after that and then celebrate. I think celebrating would have to be momentarily postponed to get recovery in first after a game like that. Got champagne bottles in the bathtub. Yeah, yeah. Well, maybe it's cold enough at Maitland that the atmosphere. would you Just walk outside walk outside. Yeah, the Albury and Bankstown game also look like a pretty close contest. Hats off to Bankstown managing to get as far as the elimination final after having a little bit of a wobbly season, but they got the job done in the end. So hopefully they're not too disheartened by losing in the elimination final because they did so well to get there in the first place.
00:07:46
Speaker
But Inner West Comets men, was this the results you were expecting? Well, this was the interesting one because remember we were talking when they played earlier in the season that it could be a pretty different game at Inner West due partly just to the court size? So I'm not really that surprised about it, to be honest, maybe, maybe an 11 point margin, maybe, but I'm not really that surprised at the result itself. Probably the, the 19 to nine final quarter, but as I mentioned, the
00:08:25
Speaker
The player stats are completely broken, so I can't actually see like if anyone was in foul trouble. But Inner West only shot 34% from the field, 9 of 38 from 3, and 5 of 11 at the line. Despite shooting 18 more field goal attempts, went down by 11 points. Yeah, so so most some of the box score or most of the box score is on the NBL one app. It's weird because total minutes is completely different. So in a West with 164 total minutes and comments with 94 minutes. Game stats kind of, they all add up like all the field goal percentages and that add up. Yeah, it's just the player stats are completely broken.
00:09:06
Speaker
Yeah, so the player stats are on the app and the game stats are on the website.
Player Spotlights
00:09:10
Speaker
Oh, great. It's like Higgins teacher had a double-double with 12 and 12. Oma had 15 and 2. And yeah, Bails had 35, 15 and 4 according to the NBL1 app with zero minutes played. That's just, so I mean, I know he's in absolutely electric form, but that's great even for him. And form is the right word at the to describe him at the moment. He perhaps it was a bit up and down, I don't know, maybe, maybe the team have made some adjustments to make his scoring opportunities a lot easier. um But something clicked for him after that Indigenous game. So I've just noticed that since they've come to Logan, they had that Indigenous round game where he played next to Hickey and a lot of other Indigenous athletes. Since then, Bawali has just been in his best form. I feel like everything just feels more efficient.
00:10:05
Speaker
ah wasn't as good down in Aubrey the other day, but still it just bill it just feels like he's going to get buckets every time. Yeah. Yeah. He's he's he's on fire at the moment. He's peaking at the right time. And he's doing more other things as well. Like you look back in April, he had like 17 with a couple of assists, 18 with a couple of assists. Now he's going out and getting 25 and 30 and big numbers in other categories as well. And, absolutely dogging the ball handler for the opposition for 40 minutes.
00:10:44
Speaker
yeah Yeah, so he's he's in really great shape and really great form at the moment, which we love to see.
Emerging Talents and Game Analysis
00:10:50
Speaker
And then just the last game of the round was Canberra Gunners and Centre of Excellence. And looking at the Centre of Excellence roster, they played eight players, like you said, multiple players in double figures, which is great because they look like it's the majority of them are the new scholarship holders. And having said that, they're also the same group that went to the under 17 men's World Cup in Turkey not too long ago and and NBA Global Academy Games. So they've had a lot of basketball, high level basketball in a short period of time. So props to them for still putting up these numbers. I mean, it just gets them extra chemistry and live ball situations that they can just bring back.
00:11:36
Speaker
Okay, in the women's competition, the first qualifying final was between the Aubrey Wodonga Bandits and the Newcastle Falcons. And this one, I mean, Coach Bultitude from Newcastle Falcons props to her. She was going into this game with a lot of confidence. She put it out there in the papers for everyone to see. And they got the win, 84 to 96. And another game where I was really impressed with the quarterby quarter by quarter scores, Aubrey put up 28 points.
00:12:08
Speaker
And Newcastle put 29 points in the fourth quarter. that's ah That's just unheard of. That's just showing me, without having watching the game, the level of urgency and desperation that both teams were playing to ensure that they got the win. It would have been so entertaining. So I have to go back and watch the replay when I have time. PS, I would just preface that I haven't been able to watch a lot of East this weekend because I was commentating six games. on the weekend. ah And it wore me out so much I had to take a day off work today. So just cut me some slack. It's hard to watch everything all the time. But Unique Thompson had 38 points, 15 rebounds, three assists.
00:12:53
Speaker
um And it looks like that she got fouled off in the last, say, three and a half minutes. It was, yeah, it was right at the end. We were we were huddled around phones at Sutherland basketball stadium. So all we were down by a bit and got it right back. I think they might've even had the lead for one possession before Newcastle kicked again and got it out to an eight i think it out to eight and then late free throws, pushed it out to 12.
00:13:27
Speaker
And Michaela Pivock had a near triple double again. She had 18 points, nine rebounds, nine assists, plus three steals and two
Women's Finals Recap
00:13:36
Speaker
blocks. And she, it looks like she got fouled out in the last 15 seconds. And I'm not too surprised because if that highlight clip of Nicole Munger making that basket at the end of the game is anything to go by, it looks like a pretty physical game. And speaking of Nicole Munger, she had 28 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, shooting at 55.56 from the floor overall.
00:14:02
Speaker
And as we mentioned, based on that highlight clip, just showing the absolute heroics of her skill set. Alyssa Brett had a pretty decent game in 28 minutes of play with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists. And Isla Juffman's had 14 and seven. And Young Hannah Chicken turning up too with 13 points and four rebounds and two assists. Unfortunately, they were getting fouled off. But I will say with you guys that had a chicken fouling out, she had three fouls. So did Juffamans to start the fourth and I'm pretty sure chicken got her fourth foul pretty early in the fourth quarter. So she played a fair chunk of time without fouling out.
00:14:44
Speaker
And the other qualifying final for the women's competition was the North Bears versus the Manly Warringa Sea Eagles, another rivalry match that we saw in the finals time. And the North Bears winning at the Bear Cave 71 to 68. So Manly Warringa inching closer again for their second win over the Bears. In the fourth quarter, the Bears outscored the eagle the Sea Eagles 18 to 10. um but it looks like the Bears got themselves in a bit of trouble in the third quarter once again, only scoring 12 points to Manley's 25.
00:15:21
Speaker
um North for the North Bears, Karla Pittman had 23 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals and Mati O'Hare had 31 points and three steals. For Manley it was Kimberley Hodge, gosh isn't it great to have Hodge back aka Dickinson back in the league. She had 19 and 6 in just over 27 minutes of play. Brooke Flowers had a double-double with 10 and 12 and Bree Delaney had 11 points and 5 rebounds. So it looks like a lot of team play there from the manly side with the ah the scoring quite spread out.
00:16:01
Speaker
And into the elimination finals we had the Central Coast Crusaders at home against the Sydney Comets which was probably one of the first women's finals games. I think it was the first ever senior women's finals game that we've had at Breakers Indoor Sports Stadium because the times before where we've had Elimination or qualifying final for a women's team was Youth League So I'm pretty confident that this was the first senior women's final held at home So Central Coast Crusaders got up 80 points to 74 and I'd love to tell you some stats from the box score But again, it's broken
00:16:37
Speaker
And it's not available on the MV01 app and it's not available on the website either.
Sutherland Sharks' Road to Victory
00:16:43
Speaker
But I'm pretty sure that I was able to see these stats on the app during the weekend because I was keeping an eye on it when I was commentating for the Brisbane caps. And it looks like fairly even spread of scoring. I think the likes of Dumpkins and Mitchell would do what they were going to do. Shyla Hill did what she was going to do. So it was a pretty um It looked like the the stars came out on show again this week. In the second elimination final for the round was the Sutherland Sharks hosting the Canberra Nationals. The Canberra Nationals nabbing that final spot in the top eight as the COE decided to bow out of the competition and Sutherland winning 83 to 60 and Lachie you are on the mic for this game tell me a little bit more about it.
00:17:28
Speaker
It was, I mean, it was always likely to be tough for Canberra with no Amelia Mott's. Three weeks ago Sutherland beat Canberra in Canberra with no Lauren Nicholson. Bringing Nicholson back just swings things massively in Sutherland's favour and it was 13-12 Canberra after five minutes. It was 26-13 after a quarter. It was a 14-0 run to end the first and I think it was two points in 12 minutes of action or something for Canberra between the midway point of the the first quarter and just after the halfway point of the second.
00:18:06
Speaker
And that was really what blew it open. Sutherland at that point were up by almost 20. At certain points, they got it out to 28 to 30. Canberra get it back to 20 or 21, but never really any closer than that. Olivia White going nine points and 21 rebounds. Yes, that is massive, but she has a telepathic knowledge of where Lauren Nicholson is going to be. She gets the rebound and there's no where's Lauren. It's just. Lauren's gonna be there. And it just helps Sutherland get out and running so much faster. And if Nicholson's not in the court, well, she just finds Pabro instead. It just really helps. Sutherland hit threes in spurts. Canberra, there was at least one occasion where the entire bench is screaming, don't double because Matty Norris has picked and popped. Before the second defender can even get there to stop Pabro or Nicholson, whoever's the ball handler. The pass has already gone to Matty Norris wide open on the wing. Well, we all know how that one ends.
00:19:03
Speaker
Four players in double figures and then Liv White, nine and 21 and Taya Webb, nine points in 24 minutes. It's like everyone just chipped in, did their job, got things done. Yeah, the ball movement was great for Sutherland. It looked like they were running a few things to get ah Eliza Fabro open in the corner, which worked pretty well. She had some open looks. Maddie Penn, 15 and 16. I mean, she was literally and metaphorically biggest player on the night. and Lizzie Tonks, 17 and 10, but yeah, just running with eight. Not a full strength against a Sutherland team that's at more full strength than it's been in a long time. Sometimes these matchups just don't favour you, they come at the wrong time, but finals time you can only play the hand you're dealt really.
Lauren Nicholson's Finals Journey
00:19:51
Speaker
And so going through some of the stats, Lauren Nicholson almost had a triple double with 29 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. And Maddy Norris also flirted with a triple double, having 12 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. As you mentioned, Liv White with nine and 21, that is Michaela Roof numbers, 21 rebounds. There have been a couple of people asking Lockie how Lauren Nicholson was able to qualify for finals and you did a good job explaining it to me off air. So just for those wondering who are listening to EGG, give us a summary of how Lauren qualified for finals.
00:20:28
Speaker
The rules state, as far, this is as far as I can read them, you can get, you get a waiver if you're injured. Injured, you have to, I think you have to submit something, but with national teams, it's basically a given thing. And Lauren Nicholson's been over to Japan with the Opals, then she was in Melbourne. The rules also state that you have to play four games. So Lauren, yes, she was only listed as playing three games, but she did dress for the game against Aubrey Wodonga, which took her to four games on the roster. So even if you get a wave up for the entire rest of the season, you still have to be on the match day sheet for four games. So those four games played, plus she was away for james games in Japan. I think she was away for, she go to China as well? I feel like she did.
00:21:25
Speaker
And then the games in Melbourne. So she was a way for enough games to get her the waiver, to get her up to eight games combined with what she played and what she missed due to national team duty. Yeah. Awesome. That's good. Good to know. Because sometimes people just don't know the ins and outs of those, of that, you know, that, that admin kind of part of the league, I suppose.
Women's Semi-Finals Preview
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah. So semi-finals for next week will now be set as Aubrey Widonga hosting the Sutherland Sharks. on Saturday at 6.30pm and the winner will go through go through to play north in the preliminary finals.
00:21:59
Speaker
and the second semi-final will be Manley, Waringa, Seagulls versus the Central Coast Crusaders in Manley on Sunday at 1pm and the winner will go through to play Newcastle in the preliminary finals. Interesting, so Manley and the Central Coast Crusaders played I think in the last round of regular season. Central Coast turned up with a pretty depleted roster, even the likes of Hutch didn't get a lot of court time that game. So now that Central Coast are playing with a full roster, question mark if Christina Moore is still going to be here or if she's going to be off to Belgium. I'm still trying to find that out. um It's going to be definitely a a tighter competition than it was in the last round that we saw. And the winner plays Newcastle.
00:22:45
Speaker
It'd be very interesting if Manly and Newcastle play again in the plymout preliminary final, given their history this season. The Manly and Newcastle matchup for what's happened this season, or Central Coast Newcastle just for the F3 Derby, it's going to be ridiculous regardless, that game. And on the other side, Aubrey Wodonga versus North. um That's going to be a pretty nice matchup. Who do you think from North is going to be tasked with guarding Eunique Thompson? They have to get through Sutherland first. Fair. Fair. And with Sutherland, Rumour has it that Vanessa Pernousis is likely to be back for that game as well. So, Sharkies are going to have Loz Nicholson and Pernousis. Yes, and no LJ, no Hannon, no Lizzie Murphy for Aubrey Wodonga. Is that the situation? That was what it was on the weekend. Don't know. I heard she was injured, but I'm not 100% sure. But she wasn't there. So, I mean,
00:23:44
Speaker
Everything's week to week. no ah No one wants to give anything away at this stage. so I mean, it would be it would be very cruel for Aubrey Woodonga to lose so many players too to injury at this stage after doing so well, you know, going undefeated. Sutherland, they're not going to get a better chance to beat Aubrey Woodonga. But the silver lining to Aubrey now having to play Sutherland back at home is that it is ah another home final, another chance for their crowd to come and support them, bring that big atmosphere down at the hideout. And as Sammy Mack mentioned in our Instagram live last week, it's a prime opportunity for clubs to try and get some money back. like It's like it's a good financial feat for the club too. So I guess that hopefully is the silver lining. I'm sure that's not what they intended though.
00:24:31
Speaker
So on the discussion points you've kindly prepared for this episode, the first thing, what does the Aubrey Newcastle result mean for both teams?
Team Futures and Implications
00:24:40
Speaker
What do you think? I don't think it changes much from Aubrey Wodonga's perspective as far as their goal. I hate saying it's the win they had to have because I don't really believe in that. I feel like if you recognize when you have down performances, you can learn from them. Even if you think you're locked in, as locked in as you possibly can be, maybe it might just make you realize, but okay, we can go to another level. We can do better.
00:25:11
Speaker
It might not be the worst thing in the world for them. And for Newcastle, to have your coach come out and say, yeah, we can go down there, we can win, we can beat Aubrey Woodonga, who have gone 20-0, and then do it. They will be on a cloud at the moment. They are going to be ridiculously difficult to stop now. ah you like players like, I mean, Jofferman has done it against the best young players in the world, but like someone like Chicken now has just come out and been an integral part of that winning team. Those young players, Alyssa Brett has like come out and done it, you know, she's fully integrated into the team. I think it's a massive result for Newcastle.
00:25:52
Speaker
I wouldn't like to pick a winner in a mainly Newcastle game because we've already seen how close those matches are, but I think it's it's huge. It's huge for Newcastle. More than just the result in getting the week off, it's just what it's going to do for their confidence. Yeah, and I think Newcastle, particularly the women's program, is always a team that it's just their norm now that they're going to be in the top six, four four to six. And we always expect them to be there, but always, ah I feel like the last couple of seasons, maybe they've just fallen a tiny bit short of where they could, how far they could have gone. So I'm really happy for them that they got this win and that they can keep going. Because they didn't make, they made top six last season, but they didn't make the semis, did they?
00:26:46
Speaker
No, the semis were comets. The Panusas heel comets beat Newcastle in the first round. So comet Newcastle finished second on the table last year and lost to seventh place comets after Shyla heel went absolutely off. That's right. That's what it was. Yeah, so it's really, really nice that Newcastle can go one step closer this season after coming so close the last couple. They do have that 2021 shared championship with the Sutherland Sharks, though.
00:27:20
Speaker
Oh, geez, we'll leave that that where that is.
Scoring Dependencies and Offensive Evaluations
00:27:26
Speaker
Second point that you've got here is North getting 54 points from two players, of course, for concern for the Bears or for future opponents.
00:27:39
Speaker
There isn't an interesting one, especially because one of those players was Carla Pittman. It wasn't Emily Simons and Matty-O here, or Ree Harris and Matty-O here. It was Pittman stepping up whilst, you know, some of their other bigger names had a lesser day. So don't think the Bears should be concerned at all by it. I think it's just another player who's fine scoring from anywhere. Honestly, the fact that, uh, all those other players didn't have big scoring days probably means they're primed for one in a couple of weeks. Now if you keep Emily Simons to single figures probably doesn't bode well for north next the next team North's face. Yeah exactly like on any given day in that North team someone can have 20 points. It just depends on the day, depends on
00:28:26
Speaker
the flow of the game, who the opposition have scouted. So yeah, I wouldn't be concerned that it's only those two getting 54 points. Maybe more of a concern if that was the case for the whole season, when you've got a team where two highly skilled players are scoring all the points all the time, that's going to be a little bit easier to scout and to defend. Another discussion point, do Sutherland and the Central Coast have the firepower to upset the apple cart and can they utilize it? Well, Sutherland we touched on before that they're going to have now Penucis and Nicholson together. However, they haven't actually played, they played together for Sutherland two seasons ago in the inaugural MBL1E season, haven't played
00:29:10
Speaker
together this season but they have played in the most recent flame season together so they do have playing history but not very recent history do you think that's going to matter it will but i don't think it's going to matter that much what might matter more is the change role of players. Because Nicholson is essentially in that starting lineup for the Sharks with Fabro, Garland, Norris and White. She's essentially the two. In this lineup, if it's Panusas and Fabro, then she shifts to the three. Laura Nicholson is obviously good enough to just come in and play.
00:29:53
Speaker
but you've still got to kind of maneuver all the pieces correctly. The positives will vastly outweigh any kind of any kind of adjustments that have to be made, should this all pan out, as everyone at Sutherland hopes it does. Even, you know, Ness has had some time away. She's had some holidays overseas with a bestie Tiana mangaka here, which looks lovely, but she has still been getting some workouts in, according to her Instagram stories. I saw that the other day, that was, ah I like seeing that.
00:30:26
Speaker
very disciplined of her. um So do you go with the starting five that you've been rolling with and had success with, you know, in the last round and bring Ness off the bench? Because the plus side of bringing Ness off the bench is by the time the ah opposition have started their bench plays in, you've got, you know, a stronger bench with Ness starting and in the six man position. That's, I mean, that's definitely an option that I really didn't think of. I think it's actually a great idea, to be honest. Yeah, don't, I mean, Manly Waringa have done the same with Honey Badger, with Kim Dickinson. Since she's come back, she's been coming off, she's been playing probably close to starters minutes, especially she played 27 this week. But she's been coming off the bench, because she's she's been out for a while and they're starting lineups rolling. Yeah, if you can bring an elite player on against the opposition second unit, they can, you know, they can roll sometimes.
00:31:21
Speaker
As for the Central Coast, have they got the firepower to get over Manly Waringa Sea Eagles? Very good question.
Matchup Previews and Team Dynamics
00:31:29
Speaker
I think that on paper Central Coast certainly do. The thing that Manly Waringer I think have an advantage is that they've had a very consistent roster for two seasons, that they've had success with that roster for two seasons and they've all got a long playing history with each other and they're all besties off the court. So all of those kinds of things
00:31:52
Speaker
you have to take into consideration that's that aren't kind of unspoken about chemistry in teams that and culture in teams that can go a long way particularly in finals time i think that's going to be the x factor and. They had that confident win against the Crusaders in the last round. We know that the Crusaders didn't have their full team but mainly still played that game as they would any other game and I think that was really important just because the opposition doesn't have their full team doesn't mean that you should kind of drop your standard. They still played at a high standard. Central Coast
00:32:24
Speaker
like I said definitely on paper have the firepower to overcome manly it's going to come down to their defence so what I did like and what I've heard from people in the Central Coast Crusaders camp is that their elimination final against Sydney Comets they certainly played with a lot more team principles, sharing the ball a lot more, um sticking to their non-negotiables, which, as I've mentioned lots of times, doesn't always happen in central coast in either Crusader's teams. Sometimes people like to go their own way rather than sticking to what is working with the team.
00:33:02
Speaker
Hopefully that can continue in this semi-final against Manly, but I think it's actually going to come down to their defence, their strong communication and defence. Because if the crew aren't scoring, they really have to stop Manly from scoring. like They have to make it really, really difficult for Manly to get the shots that they want. Sticking to the scouts, knowing the likes of Miller and Bullman can be the X-factors for Manly, so not being complacent with them either. Yeah, I 100% agree. We talked all year about what that Central Coast roster looks like on paper when everyone's there. As you said, Christina Moore might not be, but that's still more than they've had
00:33:46
Speaker
for a lot of the season in a lot of games this year. It's hard to say, oh, you know, what would have happened if Central Coast had a full roster against Manly the other day? All we can see is that Manly took the win and they'll gain confidence from that, but it's not going to be the same game. No, absolutely not. And final discussion question. Aubrey Wodonga and Manly Warringa, the two double-barrel names as well, are the only clubs left with both men's and women's teams in the finals. Will either of them do the double? Oof. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? That would be that would be pretty cool. Oh, this is interesting because it's actually the two teams we picked.
00:34:25
Speaker
to win the women's competition. yeah Did you pick Aubrey to win the men? Um, correct. So it's, are you picked Aubrey to win the men? I picked Aubrey to win the women. I did. I did. I picked Maitland to win the men. Yes. I am going to say no, neither team's doing the double cause I'm still, still sticking with Maitland for the men. And if it's not Maitland, it's going to be Canberra. I know they finished top two and it's easy to say, but Canberra just won a qualifying final by 20. You know, Maitland, yeah you can't lose two grand finals in a row and not have that hunger. and No one's winning the double this year because neither of those clubs are winning the men. And sure, like it does look like it's an easy prediction because they were one and two, but they were one and two for a reason. um They all did the grunt. You can tell how much Maitland have improved this year.
00:35:20
Speaker
um They've obviously put in a lot of work in being able to finish games off. Sometimes last season they were getting a little bit wobbly when it came to the crunch and they've certainly performed more consistently this season. Canberra, play just doing Canberra things, they're they're probably the best team in the competition that know how to finish a game off. When they're down in the third, they're certainly not down and out. And they've gone through some some roster changes since they won that inaugural title. They don't have any imports, um but they're still top of the table. So the strong reasons why both of these teams are one and two, and you can see them both in the final. Manly, they just seem to have this for a brand new roster and a brand new coach to the men's program. They are a team that looks like they've been playing for a long time. That's got to be reflective of Tim Hill's coaching abilities. He has to be nominated for Coach of the Year, surely.
00:36:16
Speaker
Oh, 100%. You know, you can say, well, he's got a good roster. He recruited that roster. You know, you can't be like, Oh, you got a good roster. Yeah. Cause he recruited that roster. He brought in, you know, he got Harper, he got Bragg, uh, players are developing under implies that we didn't see get many minutes last year or making more of an impact. And he's able to get Eldridge back considering that Eldridge was the the main player and the star of that manly men's team last season who were in the bottom of the table. That's a hard. Conversation to have with oh hey i know you're an import and he came and he played for us and we didn't do very well but would you be willing to come back on the proviso that i've secured these players and we've got this coach like that's a good get. I think you've got yeah and then you got a selling that these guys that you've got. I'm going to be good as well and just quickly over don't give us a center of excellence.
00:37:10
Speaker
are I don't want to tip anyone, but Aubrey can get this. This is a different Centre for Excellence team from the start of the season they played before. So the young kids had a lot of, you know, the young bodies are going to be able to cope with all of the day in, day out, high level basketball they've played over the last six weeks. I think in terms of size and physicality, Aubrey can use that to their advantage to the get the win. Oh yeah, yeah, Blaylock, Montague, Then you've got Davo, Mitchell Dance is coming off the bench as we mentioned a few weeks ago. He was MVP of that all-room team, I think in South or a few years ago and now coming off the bench for them and still doing a great job. Yeah, I like you said, it's a different COE team and it's just how the how the cards fall at this time of year. guys
00:38:01
Speaker
Get NBL deals. They finish up at COE. They've got to go somewhere. They've got to go somewhere else. They play overseas in national teams. For COE? Yeah, it's obviously the players, the coaches. They want to get out. They want to win a championship. They want to win every game. But at the end of the day, it's part of their development process. And if they go and play for national teams, guys get signed to NBL teams and that means they don't win a championship. Well, it still means the program's obviously doing things right because guys are going to NBL teams instead. That's right. The program is doing what it's designed to do.
International Basketball Updates
00:38:33
Speaker
Time now for news and gossip from around NBL One East. And there are some little sprinkles of NBL One East specific things, but making a little bit more of an international flavor locky.
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah, a little bit. Uh, of course we mentioned last week, the, uh, fever under 17 women's world cup, which the, uh, sapphires were playing in and they ended up finishing fifth. They got up 67 64 over Japan this morning. It's kind of, uh, cement their status as a, you know, top team in Asia. after winning under 18's Asian Cup and now getting over Japan in under 17 Worlds. Madison Ryan had 25 points, not a COE player, not an East player, but worthy of a shout-out. Top scorer for the tournament was none other than former COE player Lara Somfi, but Ruby Perkins, after that 25 we mentioned last week, finished averaging 10.7.
00:39:33
Speaker
And Satya Fagan averaging 6.9 points and 6.4 rebounds. So getting getting it done in multiple ways. But Ruby um had a really great tournament and she was also someone that the FIBA next gen social media channels were kind of pushing as the MVP for the fan vote, which is pretty cool. um And if anyone wants to watch those games, they're all available for free on YouTube. And fifth, you know, we had a really talented team at that tournament. But they were pretty unlucky with their draw. They had USA and Croatia in their group, as we mentioned in early episodes. And I think finishing fifth is actually the best possible outcome for them. So they did really well to fight their way back to get fifth. Who ended up winning was obviously USA and then Canada made the final for the first time in tournament history. Spain were third and France were fourth.
00:40:28
Speaker
We lost to Spain. That's why we played in 5th versus 8th because we lost to Spain in the in the quarters. so Yeah, and they had got a convincing win over France in the end for the bronze medal, which was a very surprisingly low scoring game. I saw that 49-37. Yeah. well I thought that was the half time score. It was a full time score. I'm guessing fatigue was setting in, but Uh, France and Spain in particular have put in a lot of resources into their junior programs in the last five years. So they've consistently been high performance at men's and women's competitions. So coming fifth for us is really, really good. Yeah. And also shout out to, uh, mainly Waringa's Cassidy Thompson and North's Olivia Hastings. They were both on the New Zealand team that finished 12th.
00:41:17
Speaker
So I think there were five or six Australian-based players in that New Zealand team. Players from none of Whaddying and some from up in Queensland as well. That's right, including a hippolite from Brisbane Caps. And yeah, that New Zealand team, they showed a lot of promise. I think it's the first time in a while that they've also featured at the Under-17 Women's World Cup. um Just couldn't kind of get the chemistry quite right. They certainly had the talent, but they just kind of needed to gel a little bit more. um But yeah, it was really, like they should be, I hope they're happy with 12th place, because they they still had a pretty decent tournament.
00:41:56
Speaker
I mean, like you said, not there haven't been under 17 as well. World Cups a whole lot. Sticking with the theme of the green and gold in just four days time from the day of today recording, the Olympics start. Can you believe that? I am feeling very Olympic today. I can't believe that the Olympics are starting in four days time. Our Opals and Boomers are currently playing friendlies in, you know, in Europe, which is great because I remember one of the criticisms in preparation for Tokyo was that the Opals in particular didn't have enough practice matches. Can't believe it tips off four days times. The Boomers and the Opals looks like they have some New South Wales representation.
00:42:42
Speaker
They certainly do. Yeah, we mentioned the other week, Josh Green, are Hills and Penrith, Nick Cave from Tamworth, Patty Mills, obviously from Canberra, and then Jack McBay, grew up playing in Queensland, but born just south of the border in Cabarita Beach. So four players with New South Wales, ACT, MBL one, East Lynx in the, ah in the Boomers roster and gets underway for them. on Saturday at 7pm against Spain and then they take on Canada the following Tuesday at 9.30pm and then Greece the next Friday, so Friday week at 9.30pm. So pretty, pretty favorable times to ah stay up and watch The Boomers. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty happy about that actually. um So we can kind of have the typical
00:43:34
Speaker
come home from work, do what you need to do, settle in for the night and watch some Olympic basketball. And the Opals you've mentioned here, obviously, LJ representing country New South Wales as well. And Christy Wallace, of course, who, similar to Jack McVeigh, was born south of the Queensland border, it played a lot for Queensland South. Did you happen to see the clips that um Basketball Australia put on their social media recently from Christy Wallace and Jack McVeigh at a junior, I think it was at Under 16's Nationals? No, I haven't seen it.
00:44:09
Speaker
Oh, it's really cool. ah Hopefully it's a post and not just on the story, but they interviewed both Christy Wallace and Jack McVeigh when I think they were either under 16s or under 18s nationals and just talking about their aspirations for their basketball playing career and, you know, a very young Christy Wallace saying that she'd love to play for the Opals and maybe the WNBA and, you know, it's all come to fruition. So we love those full circle moments. We certainly do. i just but We just love Christy Wallace and Jack McVay. Jack McVay's great too. Yes, love his story as well of ah working hard and getting into the Boomers. ah Definitely a pick in the Boomers squad based on form and he is in top form at the moment and now going to the NBA. Yeah, good. And so what is the ah schedule looking like for the Opals at the Paris Olympics?
Olympic Preparations and Challenges
00:45:00
Speaker
So Opals tip off a couple of days later than the Boomers. They've got Nigeria on next Monday at 7pm and then Canada at 9.30pm on Thursday and then an early morning wake up on the following Monday, 5am against France. Tough, tough group. Very tough group. Be interesting to see who's on the final roster for Nigeria in the women's competition. Canada, or they are looking good. They are looking good. ah There's clips also on their Instagram and their social media pages of ah the team in training.
00:45:36
Speaker
um And France, I mean, they're always going to be good as well. They have a pretty loaded roster for the Olympics as well. And they're going to have obviously the home court advantage and a big crowd behind them. Can I just say how good this tournament format is compared to the World Cup where teams had to play five group games in six days. That was brutal for me just being there, let alone playing. Yeah, that was brutal. that That was intense. That was so intense. and that it just I imagine as a player, you wouldn't have any kind of mental break either just to stop and take it all in or have ah have a mental rest. um Yeah, that would have been tough. but All you've got time to do is get chips on a stick.
00:46:19
Speaker
yeah That's right. Stewie at least made sure she had time for that. Interestingly though, two of the three teams that the Opals are playing at the Olympics, they did also play at the World Cup. The opening game against France they lost and as we know they beat Canada for the bronze medal. Reckon LJ is ready to drop another 30 piece against Canada like she did at the World Cup. I hope so and if she doesn't I wouldn't mind if someone else did. yeah Yeah, maybe someone else can take a turn. And WNBL free agency
WNBL Free Agency Developments
00:46:52
Speaker
news. Now free agency has been pretty slow going in the WNBL so far. Free agency for most leagues, particularly the WNBL is my favorite time of the year and it's been running at a glacial pace. But this signing ah that was recently announced is going to be music to ear the ears of the NBL One East fans.
00:47:13
Speaker
It certainly will because while she doesn't currently play in MBL1E, she is a Hills Junior and she is back from Melbourne and playing for the Sydney Flames again. It's Cherie Kalaya. Yeah, really excited to hear that she's um she's playing with the Flames again. Yeah, i so been interstate for both MBL1 and WMBL for a couple of years now, but ah she can come back to the flames, maybe ah maybe she can come back to hills as well.
00:47:46
Speaker
Yeah, that would be pretty cool. um And she's someone who puts in a lot of time and effort into her game when she's outside of team training. So I'm sure she's someone who's going to totally maximize the news hoops capital facilities. as well. um But it's also a great signing, you know, being a local Hills Junior, now playing for her local WNBL team, just showcasing the pathway that you can, you know, you have access to in New South Wales for women's professional leagues too. So it's always a ah good point of representation next to alongside, you know, Loz Nicholson. I mean, it, it's always great to just see New South Wales players go to the higher levels.
00:48:31
Speaker
yeah anywhere in the WBL, but when they're right there front and centre, it's not all about inspiring the next generation, but that is going to be part of it. If you can see players front and centre every week that come from a club you've played for, or a club you've played against, it just it really hits home more than watching a player who plays for Perth on TV. And finally, this is an interesting point you've put into news and gossip. I actually had to do a bit more research in preparation for the episode about this. MB01 South Crest Shield. give us a quick Do you want me to do a quick rundown of what it is or would you like to?
00:49:11
Speaker
Uh, you can go ahead seeing as you've probably just read the media release. Correct. That is exactly what I did. Um, so MBL One South and Basketball Victoria have announced a new award at the MBL One South competition called the CREST Shield.
NBL One South's New Award and Its Impacts
00:49:26
Speaker
CREST is an acronym that stands for Combined Results End of Season Tally. The name stemming from a suggestion from the league advisory panel, it's a key foundation in the formation of MB01 South in late 2018, achieve gender equal equity, not equality, gender equity in the league. There is a difference. You all can look it up. Most notably a requirement that associations need to field both a men and women's team in the competition.
00:49:53
Speaker
So basically how it works is like the total amount of wins collected by the men's and women's team but from a club. Pretty straightforward. That's right. So you have a men and men and women's team in the competition. And between those two teams, whoever tallies the most number of combined wins gets the the crest shield. So this season, it was Knox Raiders. Between the men's and women's teams, they collected 33 wins out of a possible 44 games. That's pretty good. 33 out of 44. That's pretty good. If we had one this year in East, Aubrey Wodonga would have won it with 33 wins from a possible 40 games. Interesting. I wasn't sure if it was going to be Aubrey or Manly. So Manly finished, Aubrey Wodonga finished on 33, Manly on 31, North on 28, Canberra on 27, COE 24 at Newcastle 23.
00:50:49
Speaker
Well done for you for doing that homework. So yeah, interesting concept. ah What are your thoughts and feelings about the Crest Shield? The name is contrived. I don't like the acronym. I think just name, find someone to name it after. There's always more people deserving of having things named after them than there are things to name after people. So I would like to say, no, that's a someone, but that'd probably just, you know, you you name it after someone from, you know, non-awarding and people from 15 other clubs have a win, sure. But I like the idea, similar but different to what we see in state league soccer. They do club championship, but um they do it for first grade, reserve grade and under 18s combined results. But that also has an effect on promotion and relegation for clubs, which, so,
00:51:44
Speaker
It's kind of different, but I like the idea. I mean, I hope it becomes something that clubs aspire to. So they actually want to make sure they have, I mean, every team wants to have a strong team in men's and women's, but it just, if you are actually, if it becomes something to aspire to, it means you can't have a down season in either kind of thing. but Sorry, going back to the name Crest Shield, Like sometimes, you know, people have a family crest and it's in the shape of a shield. And, you know, it's um it's almost like a.
00:52:22
Speaker
saying shield, shield, anyway. um It would be kind of cool if this became standardized across the whole league, if there was a crest shield for every conference, almost if it was mandated to kind of hold each conference accountable for the same thing. So I think what South has started is a really cool idea. I'm not confident that the East are going to implement something like this. That's unfortunate. maybe Maybe we can start it and call it the egg cup. I would love that. It's on it's on record now. It's on record now. We are going to take the responsibility for implementing our own version of the Crest Shield and call it the egg cup. Perfect. Perfect. And we should go as far locky as to have that patented or copyrighted or something to make sure that you were the person that started the egg
Innovative Concepts in Sports Performance
00:53:18
Speaker
cup.
00:53:18
Speaker
i it it's It's been recorded, you know, it's in Hansard. Yeah, exactly, exactly. This is why we've got to have, this is the plus side of having a digital footprint. The next point is, lucky rants about geometric mean. The geometric mean is a way of averaging things. It's not just add them up and divide, it's multiply them all together and do the, well for two it'd be the the men's and the women's multiplied together in the square root. um But more to the point, it means that outliers have less of an effect. And and would it will never happen because just adding the wins together is easy for everyone to understand.
00:54:05
Speaker
But i would have liked to see I would like to see the geometric main use because, for example, in East this year, Comets and Maitland both finished with 22 total wins. But Maitland finished with 17 in men and five in women. And Comets had 12 in men and 10 in women. So that would using this calculation would benefit comets who was solid in both rather than good in one and not good in the other kind of thing. So that's my rant. It's very mathematical. and Adding wins together is what everyone understands and you're only awarding the shield to one team and it's usually going to be the same team at the top regardless. I don't think that's particularly a rant. I think that's just a really valid point that
00:54:54
Speaker
you would have to take into consideration when starting things like this. It's not always going to be equal parts that both teams are going to be mildly successful and therefore winning the shield. It could be a case of, hey, we have a really great successful men's team and our women's team are okay or vice versa. So I think that's a good point to make when making things like this. But other trophy ideas, e.g. a Challenge Cup, my initial thought with a Crest Shield was perhaps it could replace the wildcard entry if they ever bring that back into NBL1 Nationals. So if you're thinking about if you want to add more teams to Nationals or if someone pulls out who are you going to place, maybe the winner of the Crest Shield could be considered. um But other trophy ideas like a Challenge Cup or something like that, what were your thoughts?
00:55:43
Speaker
Well, I think like the Rand Furley shield in New Zealand rugby, you win it and then every home game you play after that, you the trophy is up for grabs. And if you lose, you pass the shield on to the next team. And after a certain time, all games become trophy challenges. Um, I just like it. It's just, it's just a perpetual trophy. Um, the rain fairly shielding rugby is arguably, maybe inarguably as important as the provincial championship. It's been around forever. Netball has one for suit. I know that had one back in the old trans Tasman comp days. I don't know if they still have it for super netball. It's another thing to put up for grabs when teams play each other. That's that's what I believe. Yeah. I've always liked the idea of the perpetual trophy, the challenge trophy.
00:56:33
Speaker
And while we're on potential while we're on the topic of ah proposing additions to MBL One East, something that comes up has come up the last couple of years, and our friend of the podcast, James O'Donoghue, MBL One East photographer extraordinaire has asked me about this recently, Awards Night. Every other conference has an Awards Night but East. See, if it was just south or just north, I'd be like, yeah, well, the standard is raising rising in east. We've got to do it. You've got to keep up appearances. It just, it looks more professional. Say you're an import and you know, oh, I go play in Australia, flick through your Instagram and just like, oh, north, they've got their stuff together. South, they've got their stuff together. East, oh, what's east?
00:57:26
Speaker
if Is East any different? They don't have an awards night. They, you know, BQ up here, I think have hired people in particular just to do social media and just to do, you know, they even have their social media team go and cover the Junior National Tournament so they can have extra content on their Junior National Teams, like Queensland South, Queensland North. How are they doing at all these tournaments? They have a team that just to do that. And now people, part of that team, a guy named Nelson Kaler, who was also playing for the Sunshine Coast Phoenix this season, he's now
00:58:01
Speaker
that that guy for the boomers. So he's gone to Paris. So even creating those pathways in BNSW, Basketball Victoria, Basketball Queensland, of having that kind of team can put you into into that international scale. But just going back to the awards, you're right, it just creates an extra level of professionalism. It can be an incentive for some teams and some players. um MBL1 Central, they have had their type of awards since the dawn of time, so they've got like the Halls medal and the Wallacott medal or something like that. So they've always had that and now they've just kind of converted it into the MVP of MBL1 Central.
00:58:41
Speaker
ah North and West go as far as to give awards for um the top of a particular stat statistics, you know, points per game, rebounds per game, etc. But they also give awards to referee, statistician and bench person of the year and things like that. and commentator Yes, so the West do give commentator of the year and we were very pleased to see that one of our good friends, one NBL West commentator of the year, Eric McFarlane. Congratulations, Eric. absolute Absolute legend that he is.
00:59:17
Speaker
He ah is an absolute legend. He may not hear the shout out, so I'll have to give, send him a clip. Cause he did me a solid of giving my ABC sports article about Mary Goulding a shout out when he commentated the East Perth Eagles game. So hopefully I can return the favor somehow. ah Yeah, but I was really, really happy that he won commentator of the year over there. Very well deserved. He puts a lot of time and effort into it. And he has such a great personality when he calls a game as the play-by-play commentator. Did you did you you call a game with him at Nationals?
00:59:50
Speaker
Yes. So I got to call a game with him at MBL1, the very first MBL1 Nationals in Victoria that we went to. He was so good. Like some of his pop culture references, he would s slide slip into the call at the appropriate context of the game. It was hard to stay composed because that was, that was so funny. It was, it was really, really funny. Kind of caught me off guard. Um, but I really enjoyed calling a game with him. So that was, that was good fun. I have not and not had the privilege quite yet. Oh, hopefully one day you do. um But yeah, so would love for MBL One East to also have an awards. Perhaps that's something that EGG. Well, we do, the MBL One East at least do give out awards, but we don't have an award ceremony or an awards night. Probably not something that we're able to do off our own back, organize and a whole awards night just yet.
01:00:44
Speaker
but But you're saying that our central have the, they have medals named after people. So does that mean we could have the Kate Seabomb defensive player of the year? Absolutely. We could have the Kate Seabomb defensive player of the year. Maybe, yeah maybe we will be able to have our own awards night on an Instagram live or something and just invite the recipients in for, for little moments of the Instagram live or something like that. No promises on that one. No promises on that one. That would take a little bit of coordinating. But if there are any potential recipients of the award this year that listening to this episode and you'd be interested, please send us a message on our Instagram account at EscottGame.
01:01:29
Speaker
And suggestions for who to name awards after. Yes, we would love to hear your suggestions as well. Well, Kate Seabomb, Defensive Player of the Year, that is already printed in the program. Who would you name like MVP after? It's it's funny because like, if you think about the history, we were talking about the history. It's like the history of Waratah League stretches so far back to I think it officially became Warrata League in the early 90s, but it was just New South Wales Division 1 before that. I mean, you could do one of two things is you could name it after someone who was a legend of New South Wales basketball or Warrata League. Or I said one of two things, you do one of many things, but or you could name them after the inaugural MVP. Or do you name it after the administrators that got
01:02:22
Speaker
you know, got Waratar or even before that one was called like CBA and ABA up and running. Exactly. it's there so many There would be so many people. I mean, I don't know who won all the MVPs in the Waratar days going that far back, but you could yeah even name it after whoever won the most MVPs in Waratar, men and women over those. however many years. But we'd love to hear all of your suggestions EGG listeners. Please send us a DM on our Instagram account and remember any news, gossip, suggestions, um things like that that you would like to share with us, we can keep it as anonymous. We won't name and shame on the air unless you want us to. But ah that will wrap up the episode for now. We have some
01:03:15
Speaker
huge games coming up in the east it's gonna it's very hard to predict how it's gonna go i mean do you think it's gonna follow how the ladder has fallen after the regular season or not we don't know but time will tell time will tell and i i make a lot of predictions that generally turn out to be wrong but i mean just look at these games dartboard but This is why we love finals time. Alright, well that will wrap us up and we'll see everyone next week when we will know who will be heading to the preliminary finals. Thanks for listening to another episode of East Got Game. Remember to subscribe to our podcast on your favourite streaming platform.