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Episode 10: The Official Word with Bradley Mattioli
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Lachy and Squin are back after a 2 week break to cover what as a massive Round 10 in NBL East 2023. Suitably, East Got Game has a massive episode covering the results, news and Round 10 All-Star 5.
Games covered in this week's episode include the Sutherland Sharks vs. Hills Hornets and Illawarra Hawks vs. CoE in the men's division; plus the Newcastle Falcons vs. Albury-Wodonga Bandits and the Bankstown Bruins vs. Manly-Waringah Sea Eagles games in the women's division.
Joining E.G.G. this week is very special guest, Bradley Mattioli. Bradley is a talented referee who started as a junior and is now an NBL development referee. Bradley provides insight into what it's like being an NBL1 East referee and how he spends his time off court.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Host Updates
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of East Got Game, an unofficial podcast about the MBL One East competition for 2023. Join us as we preview, review and interview our way through MBL One East.
00:00:28
Speaker
And hopefully we can chop up some interviews as well today as we come back from a two week break, which was totally my bad. You can blame COVID for the first week. And I already had a holiday book the second week, so that was unavoidable. But when I say my bad, it's me Jacinta from Central Coast Crusaders. And don't worry, I definitely have my partner in crime in tow, Lockie France.
00:00:54
Speaker
You know him as the voice from Sutherland Sharks and now the part-time voice of the Sydney Comets. Locky, we are back. I'm good. I'm doing great, Squint. It's great to have you back.
Men's Basketball Recap
00:01:07
Speaker
Uh, glad to see you're over the COVID and back and digesting everything MBL1 East. Yeah, slowly digesting. Uh, I would say that having two weeks off from covering the MBL1 East is like almost a lifetime.
00:01:23
Speaker
It's almost like when you're a basketball player in season and you have to like not go to training for two weeks and it feels so foreign when you come back and two weeks on paper isn't that long. But when you're so ingrained in something sometimes, it feels like a lifetime. So it's going to take me a little while to get back in my groove, I think. I'm sure you will hit the ground running, you know, get the headphones back on it up at Terrigal and you'll be flying in no time.
00:01:51
Speaker
But it seems like you've been pretty busy in MBL One East in the last two weeks and it looks like the competition has still been just as exciting. Certainly has. Certainly very tight on the men's side. I think there's probably still 11 or 12 teams still in the hunt for playoff spots. So very good to see and the women's isn't far behind.
00:02:15
Speaker
I think that's the perfect segue actually to get started into our results. So we've just finished off round 10 in MBL1 East for 2023, just over halfway for the season. So Lockie, how about you start us off with going through
00:02:29
Speaker
The men's results and the men's ladder as it stands today as we record. I certainly can do that. Big round as we mentioned, 13 games in all. It was kicked off with the Centre of Excellence coming up to Hornsby and getting a 104-54 win over the Spiders who were without Sharif's eye power on Saturday.
00:02:50
Speaker
Newcastle Falcons got a win in a tight one against the Bankstown Bruins 66-62 as Miles Cherry racked up a 20-20 game or 27-20 game actually. North defeated the Central Coast Crusaders 89-78. Sutherland came back in the fourth quarter on their home patch to defeat Hills 95-88 in a battle of teams that were 7-4 at the time.
00:03:18
Speaker
The Canberra Gunners showed why they are defending champions with a big 99-73 win over the high-flying inner west bulls. The Illawarra Hawks, still without Davo Hickey and Waxy Walker, knocked off Comet's 77-55. The Maitland Mustangs got a 91-80 win over Ulri Wodonga as the boys from the west, Matt Gray and Will Cranston-Lown, combined for 45 of those 91 points.
00:03:47
Speaker
Manly eked out an 81-69 win over Penrith and then moving to Sunday, Will Cranston-Lown with the buzzer beta to get Maitland over the line against Hornsby 81-79. Those spiders just can't buy a win. Bankstown also with a narrow win 68-65 as Mitch Evans game tying three with four seconds left for Manly just fell short.
00:04:13
Speaker
Center of excellence in a high scoring one over Illawarra 106 to 100. Illawarra stormed home but couldn't quite finish the comeback in the fourth quarter.
00:04:25
Speaker
Newcastle was Miles Cherry racking up another big double-double in a 95-76 win over Aubrey Wodonga. And rounding things out on Sunday, Sutherland with a second fourth quarter comeback of the week, winning 86-77 over Comets to go 2-0 on a weekend where even I probably would have been happy to see them go 1-1. It was a very tough week for them coming up against Hills and Comets.
00:04:53
Speaker
But if we move to the latter, it is three teams, Centre of Excellence, Inner West and North, starting to take a real stranglehold in those top three spots. They've all got Centre of Excellence with just the one loss and Inner West and North with just two. Then Sutherland have been on an island at nine and four and fourth. And then Newcastle, Canberra and Hills all with seven wins.
00:05:17
Speaker
And then eight through 11th, Comets, Illawarra, Maitland and Aubrey Wodonga, all with six wins. And then it's Central Coast, Bankstown, Penrith, Manly, and Hornsby just falling off the pace, all with three wins or fewer as every team now has played at least 50% of their games, everyone racking up at least their 11th game this weekend.
00:05:43
Speaker
So plenty to play for in that mid table. 11 teams don't make the playoffs. So plenty to fight for.
Canberra Gunners and Ladder Talk
00:05:51
Speaker
Yeah. We're still trying to figure out slash debate, whether it's top six or top eight that goes through to finals this year. Cause we've heard both scenarios being thrown around. Um, so if anyone else out there knows for sure, if it's top six or top eight that go through to finals this year.
00:06:09
Speaker
Please send us a DM on the eScottGame Instagram account, because we would love to know. Because I think that's going to make a massive difference, Lockie. We did an episode earlier in this season with Rhys Kay, former Canberra Gunner himself, about what's going on with the defending champions. But looking at if you want to take top eight right now, they're looking pretty healthy to make it. I think they're sitting at six, aren't they?
00:06:38
Speaker
Yeah, so equal fifth with Newcastle at seven and four. We'll see how the tiebreakers all play out once everyone's played their full complement of games. And yeah, Hill's just, what, half a game behind at seven and five. Yeah, so it looks like Canberra and Hill's really starting to gel at the right time. Hill's also having a false start to this season a little bit, but it's all coming together for them. And I think they've overtaken some heavyweights like Maitland and Comets on the ladder as well now.
00:07:08
Speaker
They have. Well, coming into that game against Sutherland, he'll start at 0-4 and then it racked up seven wins on the trot. So they'd been flying up the table over the last few weeks and seven or eight minutes to play on Saturday night. They were looking all right for their eighth win on the trot.
00:07:27
Speaker
Yeah,
Women's Basketball Recap
00:07:28
Speaker
good to see. It certainly makes the competition exciting and that's why we love to stick around and be all one East. But I'm now gonna take you through the results for the women's round for round 10. So kicking off with Bankstown hosting Newcastle. Newcastle winning that one 86 to 66. Going into the nation's capital, Canberra Nationals hosted the inner West Bulls and won that one 89 to 60.
00:07:56
Speaker
Hornsby Coringuy Spiders hosted the COE and they lost that one 65-99. Ilewara Hawkes hosted the Sydney Comets and had a 12 point lost 70-82 going in favour of Comets. So not a bad effort from Ilewara who are also showing some improvement this season. Maitland Mustangs hosted the Albury-Wodonga Bandits and that was a very tight race up at Maitland. Maitland losing 63-68.
00:08:25
Speaker
so the bear that's getting a much-needed win. Penrose Panthers were 61 against a very strong, mainly Waringa Seagulls, 114. North Bears had the Central Coast at home with a convincing win, 107 to 63. Sutherland Sharks with a 40-point win over Hills Hornets, which saw Loz and Nicholson get a triple-double in that game. Sutherland Sharks winning 83 to 43.
00:08:53
Speaker
Bankstown had another home game and they this time had to host Manly Warringa. So pretty tough double for them with two of the three top teams. Bankstown losing 57 to 71. Illawarra had another home game. This time they hosted the Centre of Excellence but going down 63-91. Newcastle back at home in the same weekend, this time against the Bandits. And they won 80 points to 66.
00:09:22
Speaker
then Sutherland Sharks as well at home this time against a very strong Sydney Comet side. And they just lost that one 85 to 91. And to finish off around 10, Hornsby Korean Guy Spiders hosted Maitland Mustangs, and they went down 48 to 90 points.
00:09:42
Speaker
So lots of teams having double headers, as we said before, and lots of teams having double headers at home, which is always helpful. But if we now take a look at the women's ladder after round 10, it looks like Manly has still cemented their place as the top of the table with a 12-1 record. Newcastle not too far behind in second place with a 10-1 record, so they've only played
00:10:08
Speaker
They've played two less games than Manly, so I feel like that obviously makes a difference on the ladder. COE in third spot, Sydney Comets in fourth spot with both of those two teams are on 10 and two.
00:10:21
Speaker
The North Bears are climbing their way up the ladder in fifth spot with a nine and two record. Sutherland Sharks certainly finding their rhythm as well, taking off sixth spot with eight and five. Then we've got Maitland in seventh spot and Aubrey Woodonga in eighth spot with seven and five and seven and six respectively. So as we were talking about before Lockie, whether it's the top six or the top eight is going to be super important. I'm sure that the Aubrey Woodonga Bandits are going to be hopefully
00:10:51
Speaker
trying to find their way to sixth spot to make sure that they make the finals again this season. They certainly are. And having picked up a big signing in Michaela Pivok, they certainly are, you know, nailing their, nailing their colours to the mast in terms of their intentions. Yeah. And she was able to certainly show off a lot of her talents, especially in that Newcastle game, which we'll get into a little bit later.
00:11:17
Speaker
You know, we've had a bit of a break from the podcast and we've got a lot of catching
Sutherland vs Hills Game Analysis
00:11:21
Speaker
up to do. So both of us, we watched a couple of different games this weekend to cover for this week's episode. And so the first game that you covered, you were responsible for the men this week. You had Sutherland and Hills. Talk us through that one.
00:11:36
Speaker
I certainly did have Sutherland and Hills and this is probably a game I would have picked even if I wasn't very conveniently commentating on it because with both teams sitting at seven and four and just an edge behind that top top echelon of teams, it
00:11:52
Speaker
Could have been a, could be a really crucial game and it was really tight in the end. Um, early in the game, we made mention that everything, it just looked a little labored. It almost looked at like everyone was running at 75, 80%.
00:12:08
Speaker
until the first dub started entering the game and providing a bit of energy. I think it was about nine all after five minutes, and then the first quarter ended 25-23, so went from zero to 100 like that.
00:12:24
Speaker
But both teams were missing players. So Hills ran with just nine on the squad. And one of those was Saxon Orsini, who actually made his MBL one debut. But fortunately for Hills, all five of their leading scorers were there, whilst for Sutherland. No Aaron Waban and no Brandon Bates on this occasion. So a short, a backup for Lachie Hutchison and a backup for Jeff Gerlach in terms of Sutherland.
00:12:53
Speaker
but Sutherland won the points in the paint battle 5242, which is actually...
00:13:00
Speaker
for Hills outdid their season average was right on Sutherland's average. They do lead the league in points in the paint and of course they do. They've got, I mean, I would say all five of their starters prefer to score in the paint. Hutchison, Cabrera, Mitchell, Beasley and Gerlach all prefer to either drive to the basket or they're either in the paint in Gerlach's, in Gerlach's case.
00:13:27
Speaker
But I do want to shout out Orsini because he had 4,007 minutes, but he was a real spark out there. Um, you got a steal. I don't think he got the steel, but he, um, picked up the deflection that would be encountered as the steel to get the layup to end the first quarter. And, uh, probably just a little bit of misplaced debutante energy on defense more than anything, but on offense, he was a real spark for them, which was very nice to see. And.
00:13:59
Speaker
Here's a stat for you. Bench points 27 to three in Hill's advantage. Wow, that's massive. 27 to three. So it was, uh, I think Wocky Charlton had 13, um, coming off the bench, uh, sorry, 12. And then Orsini had five, Marv Fidel had six, and Josh Cowie had four. I talked to Pat Williamson on the Sunday just to ask him before the commerce game, how the boys were backing up.
00:14:26
Speaker
And he said as much that Sutherland starters all played in excess of 30 minutes and they all scored at least 13 points, obviously, because they scored, the starter scored 92 of the 95 and
00:14:39
Speaker
Pat Williamson was just saying that no one on the bench could really get into a scoring rhythm. Callum Norris hit 1-3 in his 14 minutes, had a couple of assists, that were the only bench points. Nick Feng was good on defense, but they needed people who could put the ball in the hole and the five starters were the only people actually doing it with any regularity. And I guess that kind of showed in that Sutherland, once Hills got a lead in the second quarter,
00:15:09
Speaker
It would get out to eight, 10, maybe 12 points and someone would get it back to five or six, but then Hills would go again and they'd get it back and they'd go again. And these games always go one of two ways. Either the elastic band just snaps and eventually the lead goes from 12 to 20, 25 and the game's done. Or you get it back, you finally get the lead and suddenly you're the ones with the momentum and the opposition has had the lead all night suddenly has to change their energy. And that is what happened.
00:15:39
Speaker
Sutherland. They finally got the lead, they had the momentum, suddenly it's Hills who have to go from maintaining advantage to their suddenly in comeback mode or at least stick with Sutherland mode and Sutherland were able to finally in the fourth quarter actually stick a lead and maintain it throughout the rest of the fourth quarter.
00:16:05
Speaker
They'll also be very buoyed by the fact that for a team that shot 22% from three point range coming in, they shot 35% from three. And of course with Angus Lake and Callum Norris, who would usually be their shooters, not knocking them down. It was actually Adrian Cabrera hitting three of five from deep, which will be, you know, if they've got that extra weapon in their armory, that'll be very, very nice for them going forward.
00:16:34
Speaker
At Hills, four starters in double figures. Liam Moss, big energy as always, 17 points, three rebounds, four assists and five steals. And I think, probably Lockie Hutchison was best performed for Sutherland. 11 of 15 at the wine. The guy, he just, the ball just wouldn't go in the basket. So many, so many
00:17:00
Speaker
two-shot attempts at the line and very few and ones. And then he wrote it out and ended up with 22, seven, and five, even when things weren't going right for him. It was one moment, he had some, I don't remember the exact moment, but he pulled up his jersey and just screamed into his jersey. It just was like the emotional relief. And from then he was just dialed in and just back to being Locky Hutchison, really.
00:17:31
Speaker
Just needed a bit of a moment to regulate his emotions, it sounds like. He certainly did. And you can't blame me. He was just, he'd go up and shots that you'd see fall for him most of the time, even with the foul. But I mean, credit to Hills, they made him, made him earn them at the line, but he did. I mean, he finished with seven turnovers, but he did also have 22 points and five assists and seven rebounds. So yeah, it's, it was definitely a, uh,
00:17:59
Speaker
I want to say a game of two halves, maybe a game of three quarters and then the fourth quarter more than anything. Sounds like two kind of almost totally different games. If you were to watch them separately, it's two totally different games. The fourth quarter was 26 to 12 in Sutherland's advantage. So yeah, it was 76, 69 through three quarters.
00:18:22
Speaker
really high scoring, it was 59-48 at halftime. So yeah, as the scoring slowed down, it started to swing back in in Sutherland's advantage. I mean, they scored less in the second half than they did in the first and still managed to reel hills in. And speaking of high scoring, you also covered a game that happened just down the road.
Illawarra Hawks vs COE Match
00:18:49
Speaker
in Wollongong, which was the Illawarra Hawks hosting the COE. And that looked like a huge game. Yeah, so I picked this one because I actually picked this one after it happened. I went back and rewatched it because after the game, we were talking after the Sutherland Comets game about the Sutherland COE game.
00:19:16
Speaker
And when Sutherland scored 99 against COE, and apparently, as you would expect, Robbie McKinlay was absolutely ropable that despite the fact that COE scored 121 against Sutherland, they gave up 99 points. And again here, COE, yes, they scored 106, but they gave up 100 points again.
00:19:39
Speaker
Uh, and again, I'm pretty sure Robert McKinlay would not be happy at all with his team, you know, coughing up triple figures to a Illawarra team with no Lucas Walker and still no Davo Hickey. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was going to say. Two, two of the main scorers, uh, fire power from the Hawks were missing from that game and yet they still scored a hundred points. I certainly did. Thanks in large part to Timmy Conrad.
00:20:05
Speaker
35 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, shot 10 of 19 from the field and 13 of 14 at the line. And scoring in all manner of ways, only 2 of 7 from 3, but knocked down a couple. You know, shooting midranges, turnarounds, getting to the rack, just winding back in the clock, Timmy.
00:20:26
Speaker
And I feel like it's interesting you said it's the game that you watched only on reflection of what was available because these are the two teams that we have each picked to take out the championship this season. So I thought that perhaps would have attracted you straight away.
00:20:40
Speaker
Well, I wanted to get my options open, especially I knew I had a very busy weekend, um, commentating on Saturday and Sunday. So I didn't want to lock something in and then go and watch that and, uh, have it turned bad. So I made sure that, yeah, I mean, obviously this was going to be one of the best games because, uh, not only did Tim Conrad drop 35 Ben Henshaw wasn't far behind with 34.6 rebound seven assists and three steals of his own.
00:21:10
Speaker
But interestingly, no one had more than 11 apart from him. So Alex Toohey, Jacob Perfey and Julius Halifinure all had 11 for COE, but definitely led by future Perth Wildcat. Well, I guess we can call him current Perth Wildcat. He has signed Ben Henshaw.
00:21:28
Speaker
Yeah, that was really a game of, uh, NBL, uh, greats of old and, uh, emerging NBL stars, like, you know, in Tim Conrad and Ben Henshaw respectively. Certainly. Yeah, certainly was. Yeah. Um, you know, other players chipping in, you know, Phil Depod, Noah Pagotto, Freddie Webb, Sam Giles chipping in with double figures for Illawarra, but yeah, definitely a game of the, uh, two stars, but, uh,
00:21:56
Speaker
Got to make mention of Freddie Webb and Ethan Laudato and Tim Conrad had five assists so Illawarra finished with 22 assists on 35 made field goals and
00:22:09
Speaker
maybe it's confirmation bias, but it felt like a lot of them were giving up good looks for great looks, not just the past being the only option. It's ones where you could have shot, but you've got a better shooter there to take the shot. So just look like really selfless play at times. Conversely, COE only 14 assists on 32 makes. Henshaw dishing out seven of those. So certainly knows when to a
00:22:36
Speaker
give it up to a teammate if you can drop seven assists whilst also contributing 34 points. Yeah, so we're all super excited to see his debut in the NBL and it's great that he's sticking around to play NBL and he's not playing college, I think. Definitely and I have heard that he wants to stick around for the rest of the NBL one season and you know, ride out the entire campaign for the COE. So hopefully that's true and hopefully he can do so.
00:23:06
Speaker
Yes. We know that COE in both men's and women's will have graduates during this year. I think they've already had some graduation ceremonies. I know in the women's squad, there's been the likes of Jess Peachtree who graduated alongside I think Summer Hanson maybe?
00:23:24
Speaker
They both go to college this year, so yeah, that would make sense, yes. I mean, I was a third athlete as well, and if we're not remembering, it's my brain to remember. But I know that Opal Bird has now been added to the roster, which is awesome, another New South Wales athlete. But yeah, those roster changes with both COE, yeah, like you said, it'd be great if some of their stars who are ready to graduate and move on to the next thing will stick around until the end of the MBL1E season.
00:23:51
Speaker
I just also want to make mention, new addition to the men's team, Kai Savage came off the bench and knocked down a couple of threes and was three or four at the line, finished with nine points. So, a tidy start for him, but Illawarra, they came back from, they were 17 down with three minutes to play and got it within four in the final 10 seconds before COE scored the final basket.
00:24:12
Speaker
But for them, moral victories don't do a lot at the moment. They're six and six and their next four games are in a Western Newcastle at home before they travel to Canberra, who just knocked off the inner West, and then they have to host Sutherland.
00:24:27
Speaker
So six and six with a tough run in front of them before they get three games against Bankstown, Penderth and Maitland who are all currently below them on the standings. So they've put themselves in a little bit of a tough spot, have the Hawks. If they can ride this next four game stretch out well, they'll be in good shape. And if they don't, could be a very, very tough, tough run into the finals for them.
00:24:52
Speaker
And COE have three games next round as well because they're still going to make up for the game against the Gunners that they missed a few weeks ago due to health and safety protocols. So they've got Crusaders, Comets and Gunners all next week. So, yeah. Central Coast are a little bit down the table, but when you got three games, you can't really, you know,
00:25:21
Speaker
They're going to catch up with you, even if you're as young and sprightly as those are, COE players are. But I mean, they'll have plenty of experience playing carnival style at under 16, 18 and 20s Nationals and World Junior World Cup. So I'm sure they'll be able to push through it. That's right. Their bodies are already prepped for that heavy workload.
Women's Game Highlights
00:25:43
Speaker
Um, but, uh, for me, I covered some women's games for round 10. And the first one I looked at was the game of the week between the Falcons and the bandits. Uh, and this one was really, really great game to watch. It was definitely worthy of the game of the week title. Um, I'm pretty sure it was game of the week this week, right? Falcons bandits. Uh, yes, yes, it was the, was the KO game.
00:26:08
Speaker
Um, yeah, certainly a worthy matchup in both men's and women's, but I only managed to catch the women's game. Um, and it was really exciting because the bandits have added Michaela Pivich to their lineup, who you'll get to talk about a little bit later in our news and gossip section of the episode, because you're all over that. Um, I did love how you tweeted Lockie when her name was added to the list. And you're like, Hey,
00:26:34
Speaker
Is she coming to play? Someone gave me some information on this. And, you know, speaking with our contact at Aubrey Wodonga Bandits, they couldn't confirm your tweet at the time because it hadn't been officially announced by the club. So that's why you probably didn't get any love back.
00:26:51
Speaker
in the Twitter sphere. That's fine. I accept that. I know how this world works. I've been around a while. Yes, I've been around a couple of times. So yes, some really great match ups in this game. Nicole Munger and Pivich are very similar players, very similar skill set. Pivich looked like she'd been playing all season. She was very comfortable with the style of game and her role in the bandits team. So that was really nice to watch.
00:27:16
Speaker
Also, Curtin and Hannon was a really nice matchup and sometimes Curtin and Pivich as well. Also a really nice matchup. Aubrey was very much in control of this game from the start. They tended to look inside very early to Pivich and Hannon all taking turns. Obviously a strong focus in the half-court offense to get the ball inside. What was interesting is that Newcastle were in a 2-3 zone.
00:27:44
Speaker
for a first part of the game initially. And that meant that the likes of Hannan was able to pin that middle defender quite easily under the basket. And surprisingly, Newcastle didn't try and front the post. They actually tried to. They just kept playing behind, which I thought was weird. Because it just meant that Aubrey had a lot of easier deep captures and scoring opportunities or opportunities to get to the free throw line.
00:28:10
Speaker
But it still kind of worked in Newcastle's favour. Sometimes Aubrey, we're getting called for three seconds or travels or things like that. So it kind of went either way. Aubrey also switched into a two, three zone early in the first quarter, which had a pretty good effect early on. And I think that's probably what contributed to the early lead in this game.
00:28:32
Speaker
But ultimately the game as a whole, Aubrey had a lot of offensive rebounds, which Coach McLean was getting quite upset with understandably throughout the game. But Newcastle looked their best when they were playing with up tempo on offense. Their ball movement and execution in the half court offense, like they are just so disciplined and certainly buying into Coach McLean's systems on offense. So they look really, really good when they move the ball at pace. And for Aubrey,
00:29:02
Speaker
I think it all just kind of felt started to fall apart a little bit when Newcastle extended their defence quite far out and starting to deny some of their post captures and then the offense started to fall apart a little bit for Aubrey. They were relying a lot on three point shots that just weren't going in, unfortunately, and it made them a little bit disorganized going into halftime. I'm not too sure if Aubrey were able to recuperate from that, but still a very entertaining contest, lots of talent.
00:29:32
Speaker
That kind of makes me take another closer look at Ashley Hannan and think I'm sure that given her skill set and her size and her length, there may be some WMBL clubs that are probably interested in having her at least as a squad member. So I would love to see her on a roster. I might start building up some hype on socials. So some pairs of eyes get on her.
00:29:55
Speaker
Um, but I'll just quickly go through some outstanding statistics for this game. What was interesting is, um, Akia Gray, she had four, I think she had, sorry, three fouls, uh, with six minutes to go in the second. So that limited a lot of her opportunities, but she managed to stay on the court for the game, which was great. She didn't get any more fouls after that. And she finished the game with 21 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals. So she's also someone who's starting to feel very comfortable.
00:30:23
Speaker
in NBL1 East as well. Kingham had a great game too, 19 points, 4 rebounds, Abigail Curtin 14.6 rebounds and Manga with the classic double-double that she always provides, 15 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists so she almost had her first triple-double.
00:30:46
Speaker
Albury side, Emma Mahade ended up putting a team on her back with 27 points and five rebounds. She was supported by Pivich with 18 points, eight rebounds, and Hannon with nine and 11. So yeah, still a really, really good matchup. Yeah, like I said, even though I said it kind of started to fall apart a little bit before, Albury in the second quarter, they still won that second quarter, 17 to 11.
00:31:13
Speaker
But I think it was the momentum shift as it started to derail going into halftime, Newcastle were able to take that momentum into the second half and they ended up winning the third quarter 25 to 16 and the fourth quarter 26 to 13. So it really started to turn around in the second.
00:31:33
Speaker
I think in terms of other statistics that kind of stood out, nothing too big. I mean, points in the paint, 32 to 26 in favour of Newcastle, I'm not too surprised about because both teams did have a little bit more of a focus in getting the ball inside. And we know that between the likes of Curtin and Munger, there's going to be a lot of great shots coming in from the paint. And I just want to double check the offensive rebound count.
00:32:03
Speaker
It was, yeah, 17 to Aubrey or Donga and 10 to Newcastle. So, you know, still giving up 10 offensive rebounds is still a pretty, you know, you don't want to be giving up that much, but giving up 17. Yeah, that was certainly working well for Aubrey at that stage. But otherwise,
00:32:24
Speaker
Lots of good things from Aubrey, especially now adding Pivich to the lineup. I can, no Molly Rice either, I think she's still imaging, unfortunately. But now that Pivich is in the lineup, I can see Aubrey's probably starting to probably make a sprint for that sixth position. It's gonna be tough for them though, because they've got the Comets in the next round. And in the following round, they've got the COE, so they've got a couple of
00:32:53
Speaker
couple of tough games at home to try and cement their spot in the top six. I just also noticed that Newcastle, no Emily Foy, no Kelly McLean and no Rachel McInneson. So did it with just seven players and Ralph and Cleeman only, you know, 10 to 15 minutes a piece. So doing it with a short roster.
00:33:16
Speaker
And Ebsary has been absent as well, so I'm not too sure if she is injured because she's been absent a few rounds now, so I'm not sure if she's injured or if she's just decided not to continue playing. I also noticed Keely McLean hasn't played for a few weeks. The commentary team at Newcastle said during this Bandits game that Emily Foy was being arrested due to a hamstring injury.
00:33:43
Speaker
And McGinnisgan as well has also been absent. She didn't play recently when Newcastle came to play Crusaders in Terrigal, so perhaps she's also injured unfortunately. A bit of an injury cloud at Newcastle unfortunately, but also
00:34:02
Speaker
Got a shout out to Abby Curtin, who actually came on and guest-commentated with Jake Hilton and myself for the Sutherland Hills Women's Game on Saturday. After playing Bankstown, she came over to watch her sister Kelsey play, and I managed to rope her into her to be part of the commentary team. So thank you very much for that, Abby.
00:34:23
Speaker
Excellent, Abby. Maybe perhaps a future avenue for when you decide to hang up your boots, but hopefully you won't be hanging up your boots too soon. Hopefully not. And the second game that I decided to cover was Bankstown Bruins and the Manly-Wearinger Sea Eagles, purely because I don't think we've really covered a lot of either of these teams so far in our Eastcott Game Podcast this season. So we've talked about in previous episodes as well how
00:34:53
Speaker
The Manly Warringah Seagulls women's team has shown some struggles against a 2-3 zone earlier in the season. So interestingly, the Bruins started out this game in a 2-3 zone, but it looks like Manly has certainly came more prepared with Alex Delaney hitting two long bombs quite early. And it looks like Manly, still a very good transition team, so that was certainly their focus this game.
00:35:21
Speaker
But their ball movement and their use of the high post against the zone has really improved a lot since the first couple of rounds of the season. So they ended up having an 11-0 start to this game. Understandably, Bruin's having to call an early timeout to kind of stop the bleeding. And they also did a really good job of doubling down on Morrow. So after that early timeout in the first,
00:35:49
Speaker
then Bruins changed up some of their half court offensive sets and started to get a little bit more flow going in the offensive end. And then by then, they changed back to man to man as well. But overall, I mean, Wright and Morrow for the Bankstown Bruins were really limited. It was really nice to see that they tried to work together in a high post, low post kind of action with Brittany Wright in the high post and Capri and Morrow in the low post.
00:36:19
Speaker
But Manley did a really good job of doubling down on Morrow in the low post. So she had a lot of limited touches. She was forced to take up a lot more outside shots than perhaps she would like, but she was zero from 10 from the three point line. So not a very good shooting out, outing for
00:36:37
Speaker
Cappy in that game. But it looked like the Bruins also struggled a lot with their defensive transition all game and coming up against a team like Manly who was so deadly on offensive transition, they Manly very well exploited that and came away with a pretty, pretty cruisy win in the end.
00:36:59
Speaker
Yeah, I just also noticed, looks like Gracie Lee is back from college for Manly Waringa. So another handy option off the bench to add to the rotation. Not like Manly need more handy options off the bench, but they've got one. Yeah. It is nice to see Gracie Lee back actually. I remember coaching against her in 18's and she was a really, really great player to watch. And obviously you don't want to coach against her because of her talents, but it's
00:37:28
Speaker
I think we're going to start seeing a lot of college kids coming back now. Like I saw on someone's Instagram story that Kyra Evans is back in Newcastle. She was suited up in a Newcastle Falcons training single, but I'm not too sure if she's allowed to play. No, D1 players aren't allowed to play in the off season, but the NCAA D2 players are.
00:37:49
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, okay. That's good. So that's handy. So that kind of helps me figure out then who is playing D2 and who's playing D1 without asking because crusaders have also got Eli Taylor back in the men's side. He suited up for youth league last weekend. So I'm not sure if he'll be able to suit up for NBL one or if he's got any interest in. So, but I guess watch this space for all the college kids coming back. And then we'll also have to keep an eye out for all the college kids due to go
00:38:19
Speaker
leave again, whether they'll be able to play and be on one of these finals or not. Yes, that is something that has been
00:38:27
Speaker
Caused some problems for teams last year, especially for Sutherland more in Youth League. So I think Sutherland finished either undefeated or with just maybe one or two losses in Youth League men. But by the time they got to semifinals, I think they lost three or four players had already had to leave for college. Obviously lost in the semifinals, which means they didn't get promoted to D1 Youth League after going so well throughout the regular season. Yeah, that's a real shame.
00:38:58
Speaker
It's kind of like, you take your chances. Do you still have the college kids come and play, win as many games as you possibly can, but then knowing that when it comes to the crunch of the season and finals time, they're not going to be here. It's probably best to put yourself in the position rather than never be there in the first place. Yeah, that's exactly right. Exactly right.
00:39:20
Speaker
And the thing that I'm noticing as well with Youth League, the more games I watch men and women's comp is that I really feel for the players who play Youth League and MBL1 because I feel like it is officiated so differently.
Officiating Challenges and Updates
00:39:35
Speaker
So you'll have the kids who are still playing Youth League, getting time in MBL1 and getting used to the pace and the physicality of MBL1. Go and transfer that back into Youth League and just getting called for every single foul. When you know
00:39:50
Speaker
As a player, a coach, a fan, that it's good defense, but in that context of Youth League, they're just getting pulled up for too many fouls, and I think that does our players such a disservice, so something's got to be done to bridge that gap, I think. Yes, it's definitely something, I mean, definitely a less physical game, Youth League, as you'd expect.
00:40:12
Speaker
Let the kids, let the kids play. Let the kids play. Sorry, I digress. We went on a bit of a tangent there, but I guess you can count that as gossip because we are now up to our news and gossip section of the episode. And the only thing that I really have to offer off here that I'll rattle off really quickly is that it looks like Brianna Mamoyne from Bruins is injured with a wrist injury. I saw her.
00:40:39
Speaker
in the replay on the bench with a wrist guard on her left wrist. So it looks like she's injured. No Michaela Dompkins for the inner worst balls this weekend. And I'm not too sure why. Um, hopefully she's okay. And hopefully, uh, everything's okay off court and injury wise as well. Um, as previously mentioned, the COE will have three games next round, one Saturday, one Sunday and one Tuesday.
00:41:05
Speaker
And the other big news that I have to share is that AJ Lawton, our beloved first ever crusaders, well, I think first ever, I think first ever import that the crusaders program has had. He was part of the championship winning team in 2019. He's all, he wanted to come back for so long, but as we know, COVID came and stopped the world in its tracks. But AJ is now back. He suited up against Norse in round 10.
00:41:34
Speaker
We love to have him back this time. He's brought his lovely family and his baby. And yes, so that is my biggest news of the week. But I imagine lucky that you have a few more aces, obviously, for our news and gossip section. I got a couple. First, I want to mention Lucas and Mackenzie Morgan from Norse. The young boys from the Norse team are both committed to colleges.
00:41:59
Speaker
So, Lucas is off to St. Cloud State, which is an NCAA D2 school in St. Cloud, Minnesota. And Mackenzie Morgan will be joining Noah Pagotto at West Texas A&M, which is also the same school that I think I've mentioned before that Bankstown's Hayden Blankley.
00:42:17
Speaker
went to. So, yeah, a couple of college signings and I won't give away a name, but expect to see a fairly sizable new name on the Sutherland roster, Sutherland men's roster in the coming days or weeks. Interesting. Very interesting. So, did you also say that Noah Pagotto was going to the same college as one of the Morgan boys? Yeah. So, Noah Pagotto is going to West Texas A&M with Mackenzie Morgan.
00:42:47
Speaker
Excellent. And Sutherland men have some big news to drop, so someone else is. They certainly do. I won't give away. Although I do want to, and talking of wrist injuries, or I did know, I don't know if anything came of it because he played on the rest of the game, but I did notice during the call that Lockie Hutcheson was shaking his hand out a bit during the game. So hopefully all's well there.
00:43:12
Speaker
If anyone wants to take a forensic look at the tape of the Sutherland game, by all means be my guest. We love it. We love someone going through things with a fine truth poem. Hit us up on the East Got Game Instagram account. And have you got any other news? Well, can you give us a bit of a quick rap about Michaela Pivich, who was just signed with Aubrey Wodonga Bandits because
00:43:37
Speaker
As we mentioned, you were the one that kind of let the cat out of the bag on Twitter before the official announcement. So that kind of indicates that you might know a thing or two about Michaela.
00:43:46
Speaker
Uh, yeah, could say I am a fairly sizable Michaela Pivak fan. Um, okay. So Michaela Pivak went to, played at Oregon State, um, listed at 5'10", but rebounds likes she is 6'10". Uh, actually owns Oregon State's career record for rebounds, despite being 5'10". Um, well, her list of things she did in her senior year awards is 14 items long.
00:44:17
Speaker
Um.
00:44:18
Speaker
Senior Class Award, First Team All-American. Honorable mention All-American from the Coaches Association, the Associated Press, and the Basketball Writers Association. Pac-12 All-Defense, All Pac-12 Team was on the ballot for the Wooden Award. Cheryl Miller Award, Top 10, which I believe is the best small forward in college basketball. Semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy Defensive Award and
00:44:49
Speaker
ended eighth in career scoring at Oregon State and fourth in career assists. So first in rebounds, eighth in scoring fourth in assists and academic all-American first team, just for good measure. So Mick, she can absolutely do it all. Was in the WNBA, I believe might've pulled out during the COVID impacted season.
00:45:20
Speaker
So just opted out as a lot of players did. So yes, in 2020, she opted out of the WNBA. She was draft. She was picked 25th overall by the Atlanta dream, but is spent, I think spent the last period playing in Spain before she played here.
00:45:46
Speaker
So, yeah, certainly a very big signing for Aubrey Woodonga and certainly gives them a lot of options because she's so versatile and she rebounds that well at 5'10 in college and Pac-12 not short of very, very good college players. You know, she's coming up against, you know, Stanford, UCLA.
00:46:06
Speaker
Oregon, Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah, and USC and Cal. So all names of schools that most people would know and for very good reason. Pac-12, arguably the best women's college basketball conference there is. And as you can play anywhere from the two to the four for all River Donga, depending on how the cards fall for them.
00:46:32
Speaker
Wow, so MBL One East Women's Conference in its two years has seen the likes of Australian Opals and WNBA players, WNBA players. Like this is a pretty serious caliber league that now we're very blessed that we could go down to our local on a weekend and watch people who have been Olympians, played at World Cups, played in the WNBA. Like where else in the world
00:46:58
Speaker
Would you be able to do that? To think that, yeah, this, this is a second, this is a second division competition. And two years ago, it was essentially a third division because it was Warrata League. It was for all intents and purposes below NBL one, even if it wasn't officially. I was there, I was playing, I can, I can, and I mean, and it's,
00:47:27
Speaker
Teams like Aubrey Wodonga, it's full credit to them because when you have a team that goes and, I mean, they get Lauren Jackson because she, it's her hometown, but then they go out and get a unique Thompson. They get an Ayamada.
00:47:41
Speaker
Newcastle, you know, have Nicole Munger. It's when some teams go and get big name players, it forces the other teams to step up.
Impact of Star Players and League Growth
00:47:52
Speaker
And you see teams like Bankstown in their first season have gone and got Cappy Morrow, you know, who was not a big name, but they needed, they went and got imports because they knew they had to get some to compete. And a rising tide lifts all boats. Yeah, damn right.
00:48:08
Speaker
Um, it's just going to make the league stronger. It means like, um, I mean, even though we're saying on the NBA one show last episode, how Laura Hodges also a three time Olympian has returned.
00:48:19
Speaker
Imagine being a 17, 18 year old athlete who has aspirations of playing WNBL and now you get to go to training with an Olympic athlete. Even with someone that's played WNBL, it's just going to be for the greater good of the sport and the league, obviously, but the sport in general of having our younger athletes being able to compete with such caliber players. But seriously, I would love to know if possible, where else in the world you can just go down to your local
00:48:48
Speaker
Where for me, I've grown up playing for the lot, you know, it's been a part of my life for nearly 30 years, this terrible stadium. And now I can go and watch WNBA players and Olympic athletes in the semi-pro league. Like it's insane. We're so spoiled. It is. It's it. And the difference here is that it is association based, you know, it is the same association that, you know, not just like a representative training program, but local comp as well. It's all the same.
00:49:16
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. So lucky.
Interview with Bradley Matioli
00:49:18
Speaker
And I think with that positive note, let's take a break. Coming around the corner for you on Eastcott Game, we're going to have a very special guest, which I'm not too sure has kind of happened very much on a basketball podcast, this type of guest. And you understand that when the guest jumps on. But so we're going to have a very special guest, but also stay tuned for our All Star Fives because we'll be having that at the very end of the show.
00:49:45
Speaker
as well as some of the best games of round 11 to look out for. So we're going to take a break and we'll be back very soon. And we are back this week. We have a very special guest with us. He is one of the many familiar faces that you've seen across lots of basketball, New South Wales competitions and MBL one East.
00:50:06
Speaker
Many of you probably know, but maybe not know too much about. But it's very likely that our guest has attended one of your games in some capacity, whether you've liked it or not. But without them, we wouldn't have games in the first place.
00:50:20
Speaker
So this talented referee on the rise has been selected recently for lots of NBL won East matches, including the games against Indonesia that were held not too long ago. And I'm sure that they're due to be a regular face of the WNBL and NBL in years to come. So big welcome to Bradley Matioli. How are you? Thank you for the introduction. I'm well, how are you?
00:50:48
Speaker
Yeah, pretty good. Thanks. Pretty good. Uh, back recording after two weeks break. Uh, and it is nice to be back. Hey, Locky. It is wonderful to be back after. Yes. Two weeks off. Yeah. Um, so yeah, Brad, thanks. Do you prefer Brad or Bradley? Do you have a preference?
00:51:06
Speaker
Bradley will be just fine, but I'm flexible. Bradley, it's always best to ask, but thanks again for being a guest. It's probably not often that referees get to be guests on basketball podcasts. I think I can only think a few times here or there where I've heard a referee as a guest, unless it is a podcast, like I think it's called Behind the Whistle, which is just about referees. But yeah, so it's great to have you on.
00:51:34
Speaker
And just to start with, just tell us about where your journey with basketball and refereeing all started. We're going to have to take it back in time a little bit. I have been involved with basketball since I was about eight years old. And I started that in primary school, actually, I stand corrected. And
00:51:55
Speaker
Like any other kid, I was just playing domestic basketball at my local association with my friends from school. My dad was my coach, the ugly singlet outfits and just playing through the years. And I always thought of myself, I was going to be a player and wanted to be a player when I was going through my teenage years.
00:52:18
Speaker
And I realized when I was about 16, 17 years old that I was a short Italian white guy and my jumping abilities wasn't the same as some of my counterfeit players that I had to compete against. Ironically, some of them are on the NBA one league themselves. And that's when I'm refereeing decided to take over and
00:52:42
Speaker
From then on, it has been one of the best parts of my life and a big part of my journey up until this day. So how long have you been part of like the referee cohort for Barsport New South Wales and for NBL One East? I began refereeing when I was 11 years old and that was domestically as well.
00:53:05
Speaker
went through the ranks, green shirt, went through black and whites. And I started with being SW on junior rep games when I was about, yeah, 16 as well was about that same timeframe and got to go to junior rep finals, metro finals, state champs. And it was at that moment I realized this is actually a lot of fun and I'm very curious to see where this takes me. So after that, and I finished high school,
00:53:35
Speaker
went through national championships and I got onto a panel with the Waratah League in 2018 and I have been on the Waratah Championship League since then, when it then turned into MBL1, two years last year. I've been on the panel since then as well.
00:53:51
Speaker
Awesome, so you've got quite an extensive history with basketball as a whole. Obviously first started as a player and sticking with the referees. Now you did quickly mention there some of the players you grew up playing now play MBL one now. Are there any shout outs that you want to give or should we keep that in the vault?
00:54:10
Speaker
I'm happy to give one shout out just because his buzzer beater was definitely a spectacular and that was Wilcranston. Well, I don't think he may remember, but this was back way in high school days. If, um, back when I think he was in the country, we had a clash in high school days. Um, so if he, if he remembers QS to him, but I remember playing against him and he, um, wiped the floor of me.
00:54:40
Speaker
Well, to be fair, I think I didn't get beaten by anyone. He's probably one of the best players in the league. So I am not complaining. I'm just glad there was no film back then. So it's not up on YouTube or a highlight reel. Well, speaking of film, the
00:55:01
Speaker
difference in professionalism between what Warrata League was and what MBL1 is, where you have video for every game and you have three referees, whereas we used to have two for some games. How has the elevation MBL1 changed things for referees and I guess referee development in general? I would say it's been substantially beneficial for the referring fraternities of Holland being a subview or in MBL1 East.
00:55:28
Speaker
multiple factors such as the videoing as you mentioned has been huge because it's going to allow us to review our games very easily so we get access to the game film within a few hours after the game's been recorded and that allows us as a crew also individually that we can review our games just like the teams would review their own game film as well and we will go through everything from
00:55:52
Speaker
individual call selections or where we're moving on court. And then we also use that to then scout for and prepare ourselves for our next appointments that we have for next rounds as well. So I think that's been one of the biggest elements. And to moving from two to three referees, it makes the game so much easier when you have an extra set of eyes because the talent has significantly grown year on year and with two referees,
00:56:21
Speaker
It just became harder to referee everything with so much happening on court and so much more player freedom and ball movement, so much happening at once. So transitioning from two to three referees has been very significant for us as well, and just from making sure the game is as spectacular as it is right now.
00:56:40
Speaker
Cause yeah, I guess you mentioned the bit of a gap between, you know, the refereeing having to keep up with the talent of the athletes. What are some of the things you guys do other than looking at film to try and make sure that you're kind of keeping up to date with things and staying on par with the talent you have to kind of referee every week? It's a good question. So we do, there are so many different things from
00:57:08
Speaker
different development pathways, depending on where referees are. So just to name a few examples, for those that are on the national leagues, we will have our own development pathways with other fellow referees that will look over our games for us and provide us guidance. And then we will then provide guidance to younger officials, whether it's within our crews or with development programs that we have. So being in Baltimore, New South Wales, we have advanced referee
00:57:39
Speaker
programs as well as junior development programs that we run. And our target with all that is to create a pathway so that kids who are just starting out their journeys or there are 16, 18 year olds doing junior up games and they see us doing these MBL on games, that allows them to see there is a journey and a potential and a way for them to join us next to us on the court as well.
00:58:05
Speaker
So beyond film, beyond looking at resources out there, interpreting of the rule book, et cetera, and just using our resources in the community as a whole, we have multiple ways that we continue to develop our skills and our craft as referees. This sounds similar when you're creating a pathway for players and coaches, creating a pathway for referees as well in parallel, it sounds like. Would I be right in saying that?
00:58:35
Speaker
Absolutely. I know for me when I was trying to make through the player rankings to try and get to this level, my understanding at the time was junior reps hopefully get selected when you go trials for state teams and then from the opportunities to get selected, whether it's the COE program or you get selected to go to college or development programs of MBL teams or MBL1.
00:59:00
Speaker
We have a similar process with our refereeing as well, where you start off with juniors and you get identified early to do junior reps and get selection for finals and then the national pathway, so under 14 nationals through to under 20 nationals.
00:59:17
Speaker
And it just gives you exposure to 2PO, 3PO refereeing and refereeing some of the youngest and brightest stars in Australia. And to name a few, I got to referee on some national tournaments. I went to Luke Travers at under 18 nationals. My last year at under 20s, I got to referee Dyson Daniels before he went over to the NBA. And multiple current MBL players or college players as well.
00:59:47
Speaker
I got exposure to referee them at a young age before now joining on the NBA one and being on the national panel as well. So the pathways are very similar to what players get to go through, which is an awesome thing for us referees. Do you ever have like a bit of a fanboy moment when you're refereeing the likes of Dyson Daniels and such? And like, do you have to try and stay composed and not get too caught up in the excitement of it all?
01:00:15
Speaker
I don't know what it'd be like for other referees, but for me personally, because I guess they're so young, I don't see them as they're not very much as well known as they are now. You just hear about them. You're like, yeah, they're the best player here. They've got crazy talent. But for me as a referee, because I'm so focused on the game and the job I have to do.
01:00:38
Speaker
It won't be until after the game when I watch back and I appreciate seeing an alley-oop dunk in front of my eyes or an incredible play or step back into a jump shot. And then that's when I will appreciate those moments. I'm like, that just happened right in front of me. And I have one of the best seats in the house to watch that happen.
01:01:00
Speaker
I think Squin and I have a similar story. When we were commentating MBL1 East Women's Grand Final, the commentary bench was right next to Aubrey's bench. So we're trying to call the play and Lauren Jackson is standing there ready to check in, literally blocking our view. And we're just like, okay, this is happening.
01:01:21
Speaker
Yeah, it was wild. It's one of those moments where you kind of have to keep weirdly staring because you're like, are they right there? Am I seeing this right? You're so used to seeing people that you know so well in media and being fans of and idolize on TV screens and stuff. And then right next to you, you're like, oh, no, this is happening. They're right there.
01:01:45
Speaker
Now that you remind me, I will admit Lauren Jackson was the one player where, when I refereed her last year for the first time with Aubrey, I had that moment when she came up and talked to me to question the call and I was like, okay, I just talked to the goat of Australian basketball. Awesome. And she came to speak to me. I didn't even have to go to her. That was definitely one of those, I'll admit, that was definitely one of the moments.
01:02:16
Speaker
And, uh, so you mentioned, you know, great referee development pathway. And Lockie, you have, uh, got a great question for Brad in relation to expansion as well. If he goes his way. Yeah. So I was just thinking.
01:02:32
Speaker
as we've gone from two referees to three referees for every game, and we've also gone from 10 to 12 to 16 teams, is there a need for the pool for MBL1 East referees to expand? I guess what is the development pathway focused on that? That's a good question. So in terms of the three, moving from two to three peer refereeing, I don't exactly remember when the transition was made. I think that was definitely
01:03:01
Speaker
For when I joined the Waratah League slash MBL1 East League back in 2018, we were already doing Frippio. So I know the transition occurred prior to when I joined and the development to help us get progress from beginners to advanced officiating skills has been there to allow us to continue to grow. So for me, I would have been a junior
01:03:30
Speaker
And my biggest responsibility was just to look after what was in front of me to now I would, I'm helping the others and trying to be, um, a mentor for those referees who were in the same position as me coming through to ranks now. And it's, I would say in terms of the air referee expansion question, um, I actually have never really thought about that. So that's a good question.
01:03:56
Speaker
I don't believe that we need more referees per se, but I agree that if more teams continue to come into the league, we would need more referees to ensure that referees who are on the panel at the moment aren't doing so many games across the weekend because some referees myself include we might have two or three games in two days.
01:04:19
Speaker
And if you add that up over the course of 18 weeks of the season, it can just be a physical and mental toll for all of us. So as the game continues to grow, if the teams also continue to expand, then without a doubt, we will continue to work on recruiting and developing young referees so that we can actually look after the games appropriately and not experience burnout.
01:04:45
Speaker
per se. So you mentioned you did Saturday and then obviously you're down at Sutherland on Sunday. So how many games did you do this past weekend? I have three games, one on Saturday afternoon and then yes I was at Sutherland with you for the men's and women's games.
01:04:58
Speaker
Well, that's a lot in the sense that you not only you, you know, similar to the players and coaches, you've got to travel as well. If you've got a double header or a triple header in a weekend, you still got to add the fatigue of traveling. And then I imagine by the time you get to the third game of refereeing, the physicality is one thing having to keep up with the pace of play. But I would imagine mentally you'd be so fatigued by game three, right? Oh, it definitely can be.
01:05:27
Speaker
And I think that's one of the biggest things a lot of people don't see or potentially as a preconception of referees just rock up and referee with the amount of games that we do.
01:05:41
Speaker
teaching referees about their fitness levels and ensuring that they're physically fit and capable to do just one game but let alone multiple games across the weekend and strategies and tactics to make sure that we are mentally fresh and not experiencing that burnout because the mental factor can be massive in our decision making and accuracy in our call selections across the game. 100% and even the simple things of
01:06:10
Speaker
For myself, traveling to Maitland is about two and a half hour drive to then referee one or potentially two games. It's definitely, there's more to it than just rocking up and refereeing a game of asshole, that's for sure.
01:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, and I think if you're able to, it sounds like there's a level of mental fitness as well, you know, as you get older as a player, more and more becomes a mental game, whether it's outsmarting your opponent, staying mentally tough, all that kind of thing. But for yourself as a referee, how do you prepare to be mentally fit to referee that many games in a weekend? And are you able to share some of the strategies that you use to keep yourself focused? So
01:06:54
Speaker
The biggest thing for a referee is our overall fitness, which is the same for players. I work in actually health and fitness, so I help a lot of referees in New South Wales with this element and studies pretty much show that our mental capacity and our decision making can be more accurate with the greater fitness that we are. There are plenty of studies which correlate to that. So one of the biggest elements is that we do is we're all training regularly.
01:07:24
Speaker
in a gym. Every referee is very different with how they train but all the referees do some form of strength and conditioning training to keep themselves physically fit for the games because then that also has a correlation with our mental fitness as well. So that's one of the biggest elements and I think the next element is teaching the importance of sleep because that also has a massive effect with how we can perform on game day.
01:07:53
Speaker
Even simple things such as water intake. If you are dehydrated, our mental capacity can drop by five to 10%, which can then have a massive impact over the course of the 40 minutes of the game. So what I've learned myself and now I try and teach other referees is all those little elements that can have a huge impact for us in our performance.
01:08:21
Speaker
Yeah, getting your electrolytes in, having your pregame meal, having your snack in between. It's exactly like how a player should be preparing for game day. Pretty much. We're very much the same. One of the biggest things that we've been trying to create in our community is that we are athletes as well, just like the players are. And that's been one of the biggest things that we've been trying to
01:08:49
Speaker
instill in the minds of all, uh, all the referees is that when, if the referees, oh, sorry, the players training and their day came themselves to their games, uh, we can do the same and we should be doing the same. That's awesome. Hopefully lots of athletes in NBL1 East will now listen to this interview and, uh, gain a little bit more insight into what it's like for you guys. Absolutely.
01:09:16
Speaker
And you mentioned, you know, you do obviously a little bit of mentoring and you also touched on some of the ways that you can mentor some upcoming referees, you know, off court too. But what does the mentoring kind of look like in someone with your experience and your position now? And do you feel like it keeps you more accountable when you're in that position of mentoring younger referees? 100% it does. I feel very fortunate that I've been able to
01:09:47
Speaker
being given multiple opportunities across my journey and
01:09:54
Speaker
We've all these opportunities. I've gained so much insight and so much knowledge from all of that. So being able to go to different national championships and now getting exposure into the national leagues, being on WMBL and recently just becoming a development with the MBL. So having so much wealth of knowledge and access to all these referees, I really want to try and help younger referees.
01:10:21
Speaker
give them some knowledge and insight so they can fulfill their dreams and be able to experience a journey similar to what I've been able to experience myself. So one of the best ways I do that is through our ARP program. So we have 21 referees on the program and I am the manager that looks after all of them. So take them through all different elements from refereeing craft to then our health and fitness.
01:10:51
Speaker
And not going into details of how the program works, but teaching them elements of the refereeing craft, whether it's our call selection, so we do game reviews together and clip reviews, or going through where we are standing on court in our mechanics so that can help our decision making. And then teaching them basic elements of how to go to a gym and do strength and conditioning or
01:11:16
Speaker
how to train so we don't get injured, and how do we stay fit across the season though they 18 weeks plus finals. How do we eat properly? Teaching them a lot of those aspects that I did not have access to when I was younger and I had to learn on my own. That's been one of the really awesome things I get to do currently this year, which I really, really do enjoy.
01:11:44
Speaker
Getting to teach the little ones. We're calling the little ones. So you're now a, you said development for MBL. Um, what are your future aspirations as a referee? And I guess, do you also have with all the work you're doing at the moment, is there any aspirations to be a referee educator in general?
01:12:12
Speaker
So in terms of my future aspirations, one of my biggest goals is to acquire my fever badge. So hopefully in the next couple years, selection for MBL and be fully enlisted onto the panel. And then from their work towards getting my fever as one of my biggest goals, I would love to do is just go travel the world and go to a fever international tournament.
01:12:40
Speaker
any tournament would be amazing. The ultimate dream is either the World Cup or the Olympics. That would be an absolute dream of mine, which I'm trying to, which I'm working towards. So that's definitely like a five, 10 year plan.
01:12:57
Speaker
I 100% love the idea of being an educator during that journey as well. Working in health and fitness, I very much am a coach for a living and I get a great kick and a massive enjoyment in helping other referees to develop themselves and seeing them have success definitely just makes me happy and gives me a smile.
01:13:19
Speaker
So anyway, I guess, um, you go lucky. Was that sorry? You go lucky. Sorry. I was saying, um, I just remember I had someone say, if you're a coach, you can coach 30 people. If you're a coach educator, you can coach 30 people who each can coach 30 people. I guess for you, it's the same. You can referee three games a week or you can teach
01:13:43
Speaker
20 people who can each ref 30 games a week. That's three games a week. And that's 60 games a week. Absolutely. I love that, actually. That's a really cool quote. And that's what we're trying to do is to
01:13:57
Speaker
Educate as many of our younger referees to hopefully get them onto MBL1 soon. An interesting start. I think the official number is we've had 11 new referees have their first MBL1 games this season so far, which has been really awesome to see. For them, particularly for myself, seeing them when they first started refereeing under 12s or under 14 junior reps and now they're joining me on court with the MBL1 games has been quite an awesome experience.
01:14:26
Speaker
That's, yeah, that's really, really cool that we've had 11 debuts. I feel like it's something that we should start celebrating as well a little bit more often, just as much as we, you know, I'm going to keep referring to this, but just as much as we keep celebrating, you know, someone from Youth League making their
01:14:43
Speaker
MBL one debut like on court or a new coach or something. There's definitely space to start celebrating those things like a referee making the MBL one debut because it's still as you said, in the pathway of their development, right? I couldn't agree with you more.
Referee Exposure and Development
01:15:01
Speaker
I know
01:15:03
Speaker
that has started to become a little bit of a trend, which I love to see. And for me, I do think the biggest way it started is probably through the NBA, where you're starting to see so many of those referee pages and social media come out. So you're seeing the faces of the referees and who's doing games and getting selected onto panel. And that has slowly started to filter into elsewhere. So seeing videos on viewer league referees, and now the NBA's
01:15:33
Speaker
starting to get more notice of referees as well here in Australia. So I very much agree, like I would love to be able to see more recognition for referees.
01:15:43
Speaker
Maybe you can start the trend. You can start the trend. There is that there is that podcast called Behind the Whistle, which is about basketball referees. And in a recent post on their Instagram, your mate, I only laugh because I laugh at myself saying your mate, but your mate, Michael Beavers has been tagged in the post for having 99 whistles at 22,000 a game. Now I'm not too sure why.
01:16:13
Speaker
Um, that matters like white, like, you know, we're all, especially, you know, me and Lockie, we love, we love some stats. We love getting analytical. I just thought it was really interesting that there was this post comparing three different referees in NBL one North. One being your mate, Michael Beavers with 99 whistles. They put in quotes, a world record. Um, why does that matter? Why does the number of whistles matter?
01:16:39
Speaker
I do not know the context behind that post as I will not comment. I will need to find that post before I say anything else. I will send it to you personally because I saw it and I thought it was a little bit funny and I also didn't realise that Michael Beavers was in North because I
01:17:00
Speaker
saw him doing WMBL for Sydney not too long ago. And I was like, he's obviously not referring at Terrigal, but he's not referring East at all. So that makes sense. Actually, I will, I will happily mention to him, we
01:17:17
Speaker
So he is still part of East amongst myself and a few of us on our national panel. We get the very awesome opportunities to get to travel to different states to referee as well. So I've been very fortunate. I got the opportunity to go down to MBL on South a few weeks ago to referee down there. And I will be, I've got more travels in the pipeline coming up as well to other states, hopefully so.
01:17:46
Speaker
where that's one of the biggest benefits of some of these opportunities I've been given is to referee beyond MBO and East and get to experience some of the other leagues as well. Oh, that makes sense. Like, because I noticed you went to Melbourne recently. So that's really cool that you got to go and referee in South. So how does South compare to East?
01:18:08
Speaker
Well, it's definitely a lot colder down there. That's the first thing I'm happy to mention. No, thank you. Queensland next time, thank you. I'll take East or North any day of the week when it comes to weather perspective. But in terms of the game quality itself, it's very...
01:18:26
Speaker
I think the biggest thing would say is just the in terms of the style of play in this the two games I had down south there was a lot more of a flow to it so a lot more just free-flowing offense and it changed the way I had to see in referee the game because the way they were playing down there it was a lot less um you'd have a lot less fouls but you had a lot more decisions in terms of
01:18:56
Speaker
All right, does this play have an effect, or if it's a legal contact and it has an effect on the play or not? Versus here in East, there's a lot more structure to it, but there's a lot more physicality, particularly with off-ball. So we need to ensure that we, with all of the action that happens off-ball, that we are able to maintain that the game's played in the correct way. So I find that the physicality here in East,
01:19:26
Speaker
is a lot more noticeable and therefore we have a lot more foul selections versus where in south the
01:19:33
Speaker
it's very much a different style where a lot more flow can occur. So it was very, for me, I think the biggest way it was evident with is just so many more of the open jump shots that we have, a lot more threes for the two games, very small sample size, but the two games I had down South, there were so much more shots being created on the outside versus I feel like here in East, you have a lot more shots. You have shots from the outside, but there's so much more action inside the key way.
01:20:02
Speaker
So where I would prepare myself, how I refereed a game and what I'm looking and seeing is very different between the two states. So you mentioned the Lauren Jackson moment earlier, but what is, what is your actual most memorable moment as a referee to this point? Um,
01:20:32
Speaker
I would definitely have to say, um, so I'll have to say there's a couple. I don't think I could pick one. Um, and I guess they're all just have subtly unique, uh, uh, meaning to it. So the,
01:20:49
Speaker
First one for me was my first ever tournament I went away for outside of New South Wales. I got to go to Country Cup down in Albury in 2015. And just doing my first game down there with someone I've never met before from a different state, reference a team from Victoria. And that whole experience was just one of the most memorable moments for me. It felt like to me it was my first big taste of something beyond Junior reps.
01:21:19
Speaker
So that was definitely a significant moment in my journey for me. Two other moments include under 18 nationals that I got to attend in 2018. I got to referee the gold men's game and I had so much talent with
01:21:39
Speaker
I won't be able to remember the names off the top of my head, but we had about three or so development, MBL players, my eyesight corrected, MBL players from Queensland playing up against Western Australia, which had Luke Travers, Jackson, I think, his name was, and he's moved down to play for AFL and a swag of the book. They had about three or four MBL players as well.
01:22:06
Speaker
future MBL players and everyone that played in a tournament were in the grandstands in Geelong. So it was about four or five hundred people packed out watching this on the 18 men's game and for me that was one of my most surreal, oh my god I'm actually a part of this moment. It was definitely one of the best experiences and the last one because of the unique circumstance that it was was my first ever WMBL game
01:22:32
Speaker
because that was in the first, uh, it was during the lockdown season and it was the flames first home game. Also one of the early, uh, games sort of flames just coming out of the second lockdown. So we had no crowd. We had limited to like 30, 50 people. And it, it wasn't the typical experience because of all those COVID protocols, but it just created one very memorable moment of, of
01:23:00
Speaker
small crowd from my first WMBL game, but it was one of the most awesome experiences for me. I can't nail it down the window. Don't worry, that's like trying to ask me my favorite player, be here all night. Exactly. Or lucky what your favorite jersey is as well.
01:23:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's just impossible. That's impossible. Even just basketball jersey, that would be hard. I'm guessing I shouldn't ask that question then. Once we get a bit off topic. That's a whole other episode, I think, Bradley. Oh, God. I've got a few. I have a few as well. Don't worry. What jerseys do you have that are hanging up in your wardrobe? Like, are they local or are they NBA?
01:23:50
Speaker
One local one for me is my last playing jersey with my high school. So I went to St. Pius in Chatswood and I got to play in the first span. So I have that jersey hanging up. And two of my favorite NBA jerseys I also have is
01:24:05
Speaker
Classic Kobe Bryant, 24. He was always my idol as a, when I was younger as a player, loved Kobe to death. And then not so much due to the player, but more so due to just how cool the jersey is, is a, oh, it was a retro Dikembe Matumbo Atlanta Hawks jersey when he got the old, with the old Eagle Hawk on the front. Oh, wow. I found that in America and I fell in love with it.
01:24:35
Speaker
Understandably too. How long have you had that? That was definitely a Jersey I repel bought during the summer. You should have bought two in case you wreck the first one and you've got a backup. I did not think of that. I feel like Locky's a bigger diehard at Jersey fancy. You might have to teach me a few things to look after it.
01:24:59
Speaker
No, you're low when it comes to jerseys, unless they're very special.
Life and Interests of Bradley Matty
01:25:05
Speaker
Fair enough. So you've talked about your extensive career and involvement with MBO1 East and alike as a referee, but who is Bradley Mattioli when he's not refereeing?
01:25:28
Speaker
Best way I can describe it is I am just a friendly, friendly, happy guy all the time. One of the biggest things in, from a lot of people I got to hang around with, particularly working in health and fitness is I am a coach that never stops smiling. And I feel like that's a nice way that describes me off the court. Just always a happy guy that tries to live in the moment and also just always wants to help people. So it's part of my journey.
01:25:59
Speaker
being, when I was younger, a little bit overweight and then facing a lot of mental battles and a little bit of bullying over the years, that has massively influenced the direction of where I wanted to, what I want to do with my career, which is helping, helping others with the same thing. So I have my own online business, which I run and I try and help referees as well as just young people in their twenties with their fitness level, fitness and mental
01:26:30
Speaker
their mindset, I should say, not mental mindset. So that's very much me outside the refereeing world. That sounds really positive. How long have you been doing that for? Just over a year now. So I used to be an accountant working, got a degree from Macquarie Uni and I was working in the accounting world until I realised that this path, this journey was not for me. And that was right before COVID. When I
01:27:00
Speaker
I left that lifestyle working the six to eight in the city and picked up working in the fitness world and my passion has been with CrossFit. So it was very much working in gyms until COVID hit and
01:27:18
Speaker
not being able to work in the gyms and not being able to do anything during those lockdown periods made me realise there's got to be another way I can help people besides gym life. And that's when the internet and the online world, I discovered it and it's taken off for me ever since then.
01:27:36
Speaker
That's awesome. Well done. And, uh, do you currently still work in a CrossFit gym now, or is it all purely online? Like you can use this opportunity to give your business a plug, by the way. Oh, you're too kind. Um, yeah, so I, my,
01:28:02
Speaker
My business is literally my name, Bradley, Matty, all the coaching or Brad, Matt coach as on most of my social media platforms. I do work for a few other, uh, CrossFit gyms who I very much love dearly, one being CrossFit wellbeing and CrossFit Chatswood.
01:28:17
Speaker
So very much work in the heart of Sydney and you can find me and my message across all of them, whether it's Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, slowly just building myself up and the information and services I have across all those platforms. Brad, my coach.
01:28:38
Speaker
And then do you get between all of your refereeing and referee development and your Brad Mack coach stuff, do you have much other downtime, you know, just to chill out for a little bit? Like, you know, do you paint by numbers? Do you watch movies in your spare time? What's the downtime? There's got to be time to like, one time down as well.
01:29:00
Speaker
couldn't agree more. Well, speaking of the topic for about mental capacity, I think having downtime away from basketball is absolutely one of the best ways during off season that the referees can do to reset themselves. So like, I'm a very active, outgoing guy. I describe myself as an extrovert. So I love to go out and do adventurous activities, whether it's going for hikes or very much my family and I, we're very big into water skiing. So
01:29:28
Speaker
We love to go on the water with our boat during the summer and tear stuff up, which is awesome, whether it's my family or friends. I very much am the type of guy that can't sit down, so my mental reset is coming from doing other activities that involve anything outside of our school, I can say.
01:29:54
Speaker
And Lockie, you are, no, this is probably the only other water skier. Like Lockie's the one water skier guy that I actually know. And now Bradley is the second water skier guy. So you guys can do more. My family's massively into water skiing. I'm not as much, but my dad was a multiple national champion as the driver for the crew.
01:30:17
Speaker
Oh, no, I didn't. Bridge to bridge. Yeah. Bridge to bridge. Yeah. Um, holds the nought to one 40 horsepower record for bridge to bridge. That is awesome. That is awesome. I got a hunch. Not many people might know what that is, but I do. That's wide.
01:30:37
Speaker
So if Bradley, if we identify some young people, whether they're referees or not, that may benefit from some Brad Mac coaching, what's the best way to refer them to your service? Is it through your social media accounts? Yes. My social media accounts or via my website, bradmaccoach.com. And you will find all the links to all the different services I have available.
01:31:04
Speaker
Awesome. And do you primarily work with people in the early 20s? Because you know, people like us in their 30s need help too sometimes. I've helped people of, and when it comes to coaching, from a fitness perspective, I help people of all ages. I have experienced, thanks to my CrossFit coaching, I've helped people be able to
01:31:30
Speaker
squat and get up and down stairs or sit up off the couch for people up into their 70s.
01:31:37
Speaker
as well as helping everyone mid 30s or 40s from just facing basic issues, whether it's recovering from injuries, wanting to play domestically for sports or basketball. I have experience in all those worlds. So I can help anyone from all ages. But because I'm just in my mid 20s myself, I also try to help people similar to my age.
01:32:04
Speaker
Lifting experience goes a long way. So very excited for your new business adventure. And we'll definitely keep it in mind for people that we think will be suitable for your program. We'll send them send them your links. But just the last question, this is a bit of a curveball question. I like to sometimes ask people whether it's on a Scott game or shooting the breeze. But what is the biggest misconception about Bradley Mattioli?
01:32:33
Speaker
I think that people often be like, oh yeah, Bradley's like this. And you're like, no, I'm not actually at all. You've completely, completely misread that. Oh, you have put me on the spot just in time. We can circle back. We can circle back. That's really, that's an interesting one.
01:32:57
Speaker
No, I think we might have to circle back. I can't think of anything off the top of my head. The other one that comes to mind is you can probably appreciate it. I would not ever call myself the Godfather. So for the listeners out there, I was doing a game up at Central Coast where Jacinta and her fellow commentator...
01:33:18
Speaker
Yeah, they were commentating my game and they were announcing the referees for the game. And then I got a shout out Bradley, the Godfather. And let's just say that has definitely rung. I have definitely heard it from my fellow compatriots and I've been having a lot of Godfather memes as a result of that. Yeah.
01:33:42
Speaker
So glad that we are making such a positive impact on the league with our nicknames this season. We'll have to come up with more for your fellow referees because we've got plenty of player nicknames, but we need to come up with more. But you know what?
Nickname Culture and All-Star 5 Discussion
01:33:57
Speaker
I feel like that between the likes of yourself and Andrew and Crystal, who are some of our favorite referees to work with on game day.
01:34:05
Speaker
And makes that kind of rapport building and nickname giving a bit easier. Whereas sometimes I've met other referees this season who are a little bit more reserved, and we don't have that interaction. So we don't have that build that, like opportunity or relationship to throw out nicknames like the Godfather. So
01:34:26
Speaker
I'm personally a big fan of Nicknames, I'll happily say that. For me, the one, the biggest one that I've always known has been good old Razor Ray in AFL refereeing world. And whenever you hear the term Razor on the field, you just know who that person is. So I've always been a big fan of Nicknames. And then thanks to you guys, and now I know Garen and James were
01:34:51
Speaker
on Norse basketball with their commentary throughout a few nicknames against me as well. So if you give nicknames to other referees, so it's not just me, I will happily appreciate that. Alright, we'll start working on it. Are you lucky? I think we will definitely.
01:35:16
Speaker
Well stick around Bradley because we're just about to finish our e-scot game episode. We're going to round it off with our All-Star 5 for round 10 and now I feel like I've been talking a bit too much so I'm going to throw straight to Lockie to give us the men's All-Star 5 for round 10 up first. So take it away Lockie.
01:35:35
Speaker
All right. Well, I just want to throw out a couple of honourable mentions. Noah Pagotto had big 29 and 16 against Comets and then well with 13 and five against COE. Pat Fraser, 29 and four against Maitland and he had 18 and three against COE. And then in the dead set unlucky stakes, Will Cranston-Lown with 19
01:36:02
Speaker
points, four rebounds, four assists, and two steals. And the game winner, the buzzer beater against Hornsby, and 20 points, three rebounds, six assists, and two steals against Aubrey Widonga. But with 13 games, there were at least as long as your armor plays that you could have named this week.
01:36:22
Speaker
But we'll kick it off with Ben Henshaw from the center of excellence leading his team to a 106-100 win with 34 points, six rebounds, seven assists and three steals against Delawara and followed it up with Henosa at 16 points against Hornsby earlier in the weekend.
01:36:42
Speaker
In that very same game, the Illawarra Center of Excellence game, Timmy Conrad turning back the clock with 35 points, nine rebounds and five assists against COE. He also had 14 points, four rebounds and three assists in a win over Comet.
01:36:58
Speaker
Lachlan Hutcheson from Sutherland had 22 points in both games this weekend. Also had seven rebounds, five assists and a steal against Hills and nine rebounds, six assists and five steals against Comets of Sutherland launched two fourth quarter comebacks.
01:37:17
Speaker
Big Glenn Morrison, the Brindabella Beacon from Canberra, 33 points and nine rebounds in a massive win for the Canberra Gunners. That is absolutely huge for their season. And then the man who got it done in a big way on two occasions this weekend, Miles Cherry from Newcastle, 27 points and 20 rebounds against Bankstown.
01:37:38
Speaker
just an easy 25 points and 16 rebounds against the Aubrey Wodonga Bandits. But of course, as always, we'll have the top scorers, top rebounders, top assists out on the socials. Can I share a quick fun fact about Miles Cherry? Yes, go for it. Oh, actually, I may have accidentally deleted it after I did
01:38:07
Speaker
NBA One show today. But essentially, I don't have the numbers now off the top of my head, but I think he shot from memory about 189 shots this season and he's only taken 11 shots of that 189 outside the key. That is impressive. Everything sounds about right. Yeah, every 11 shots. And when they played Crusaders just two weeks ago, it was only six
01:38:35
Speaker
Six shots outside the key going into that round eight game. Like they got, I mean, look, he knows what he's good at and he sticks to it and he is very good at it. So no judgment at all. Stick to your bread and butter. It's obviously working for him. If he keeps averaging a double double and isn't he like leading rebounds in the league now? You'd have to be close to it if he's not. Between him and Beastie and I'm going off my memory now. I've been out of it too, too many weeks. I can't remember.
01:39:06
Speaker
I have a name I could think of as Lewis Holley. Lewis Holley does still have the lead. So Holley's top, then Cherry, Morrison and Beasty is fourth. Far out. Imagine playing jungle ball with those three at a practice session. Do you guys know what that drill is? I'll tell you off air. Anyway. You might have to.
01:39:31
Speaker
Um, all right. So I was tasked with the women's, uh, all star five. So some usual suspects this week for round 10. So, uh, starting with Violet Capri Moro from Bankstown, she had 35 points and 10 rebounds with four steals versus Newcastle. And, uh, to be honest, considering Newcastle, I think are the second, uh, most efficient defensive team at the moment.
01:39:59
Speaker
That's a pretty good effort to have 35 and 10. And then I also had Lizzie Tonks for this round. She had 31 points and six assists against inner west bulls shooting at a very good 63%. And then I also had Emma Mahade from the bandits who had 27 points and five rebounds versus again, a very good Newcastle team. And she averaged 23.5 points and 5.5 rebounds for the entire round.
01:40:28
Speaker
And then the final two, our resident opals of MBL1 East. We have Shyla Hill, who had 41 points and seven assists at 50% against Sutherland Sharks. And for the round 10, she averaged 34 points and 8.5 rebounds. And finally, we have Loz Nicholson, who was just doing absolutely everything this weekend. She had 43 points versus Comets, shooting at 65%. None of them were three pointers.
01:40:58
Speaker
So all of them were awesome two pointers, whether in the paint or off a pick and roll. But she also had a 17 from 19 from the free throw line. And they're the types of free throw stats that I like very much. But on a Saturday, she had a triple double against the Hills Hornets with 22 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and four steals just for good measure. So that was my very, very good all-star five for round 10.
01:41:29
Speaker
Any thoughts or feelings of our All Star Five for Round 10, Bradley Matioli?
01:41:36
Speaker
I can't complain with the list. Some of those names, like just hearing Miles Cherry on the 20 and 20, that is impressive. And on the women's side, I was very fortunate to be on that Comets vs. Sutherland women's game. So watching Shyla and Lauren battle it out, getting to reflect on that after, that was quite an awesome game to be a part of both of them in the 40s.
01:42:05
Speaker
They play very well. We were just saying as well when we recorded the first half of this episode, how lucky we are to say go down to our local and see this talent like every week. Like where else in the world does that happen? Not too often. It doesn't happen. I felt very being able to be assigned to that game and the way it and it lived up for both
01:42:33
Speaker
all four of the WML players that were playing, Vanessa, Fabro, Shyla, and Lauren, all of them playing very well. And plus some of the other extras that filled in big roles as well. That was just an awesome game of basketball. Awesome. So catch it all on the MBL One app on your phone or on your desktop or your laptop or your tablet or wherever else you can access the internet and that Apple website.
01:43:01
Speaker
But otherwise, that is us for this week. Locky and Bradley, thank you very much for joining us again, Bradley, to being a guest. And Locky, I feel like we have redeemed ourselves for taking two weeks off. I certainly think we have. Yes, Quinn, certainly.
01:43:20
Speaker
Hopefully some of the people who have been suffering without us for the last two weeks will get their fill with our giant episode for round 10. But it was a giant round, so it deserves a giant episode. But yeah, thanks again, Bradley, for joining us and giving us the insights. And we're looking forward to where your career takes us, where your career takes you, not us, because we're not the referees. But it would be cool if you could
01:43:49
Speaker
Let's aim, you said five, 10 years. Let's aim for three. Love to see you at the Women's World Cup in Germany in three years' time. Let's aim for that, all right? That's it. I'm putting that on the board. I'm going to put it out right on my big whiteboard at home. I'll do that. Excellent. Brilliant. But thank you very much for having me. I'll have been listening to you guys' podcast since you guys first came out. It's been awesome. So keep up the good work.
01:44:19
Speaker
Awesome. Thanks heaps for listening. Thanks for the support and everyone else we will catch you next week to cover round 11. But otherwise it is bye for now.