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Random dribbling: Rankings #1
TweetTOWNSVILLE's first home game of the NBL season on Sunday will see one of the league's greatest characters bid farewell one final time and roll off into the Swamp sunset.
100% Croc, the league's first true character-driven mascot, hangs up his scales and claws to hand the air-rifle to a baby Croc.
With Perth's visit, 100% Croc will draw the curtain on 20 years as the league's longest continuous serving mascot.
Performing on Sunday of course means he will have suited for all 21 seasons Townsville has enjoyed in the NBL, quite an extraordinary achievement in terms of consistency of entertainment.
The Croc has never differentiated between fans, kids or celebrities, engaging one and all, and, if I recall correctly, it's probably appropriate his send-off will come against Perth.
There was quite some controversy with the Croc and some thrusting motions behind a Wildcat last season, even copping him an official slap on the gloves.
There were assertions the thrust may have been slightly, um, inappropriate but I interviewed 100% Croc for my weekly column in The Advertiser and he assured me it was nothing suggestive.
"That's not how I roll," the Croc told me at the time. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."
In those early years of the Townsville Suns, 100% Croc may just have been the best thing about a trip to a Townsville game. He will greatly be missed.
CANNOT speak highly enough of Brett Maher's work on the Network Ten TV game between the 36ers and Tigers on Sunday.
He was insightful, informed, articulate and humorous when the occasion warranted.
He even channelled the great Bill Palmer there for one brief moment.
Palmer in the 80s introduced Channel 7's NBA coverage and on one occasion, lost for words to describe a particularly imaginative floater of a shot, he invented one of his own, calling it a flying "frapdoodle".
That "flying frapdoodle" saying has had a 30-year lifespan now, even though Palmer only used it once. (John Casey take note!) Clearly, it's not endless repetition which makes a saying, but just its cleverness quotient and novelty.
To my point.
When Jason Cadee flipped up a scoop shot of some draw-a-foul description, then for those of us who grew up with Palmer, Maher appeared to be channelling the great man when he described it as a "flippsy-doodle".
Of course, for a generation who grew up with The Simpsons, Maher was channelling Ned Flanders.
IMPRESSED too with the efforts of Tom Wilson and Matt Smith for NBL.TV with their Cairns-Townsville call.
Great first-up effort and will get better as will the NBL.TV cover. Yes, there were teething issues with the coverage and yes, it does need a game clock or shot clock, or both.
But pretty sure such issues will be addressed. In the meantime, it was great to hear new voices, new ideas, different insights.
BEEF of the Week: OK, I don't get why the NBL and WNBL instituted the rule to have the visiting team always wearing white.
Of course I understand that you want the contrast, that's obvious.
But it also means you have your home team in whatever its color is - blue uniform, red, black - at EVERY home game and EVERY visiting team is in white!
For a start, I don't get that either. The Tigers wore a pretty decent-looking yellow strip at the PSST which was far more representative of the club's colors than white.
The 36ers wore an alternate light strip of gold back in their 2002 championship season and no-one had trouble differentiating it from West Sydney's light blue.
I am not a stickler for copying the NBA but they do appear to have it right that, except in special circumstances, the HOME team wears the light uniform and, therefore, every team which comes into town looks different.
Much rather see the Wildcats in Adelaide in red, or the Taipans in orange, than both of them in white, along with everyone else.
With the somewhat truncated imagination in use in the uniform designs, almost every team in white looks identical. So was that the Hawks here last game, or the Wildcats?
Why couldn't the 36ers play in gold at home, with visiting teams in their colored strip? Or the Kings in gold at home and, on the road, in their traditional purple?
I may be alone in this, but it just makes more sense to me. I'd rather see the Crocs in green here than white.
The same applies in the women.
Bulleen at Dandenong last round looked the same as Bendigo in Adelaide. I don't get it.
AROUND the NBL, my weekly newspaper column, is up at adelaidenow.com.au if you are interested. Here's the link.
RANKINGS after Round 1 have blown away from my preseason predictions, as you might expect.
Before a shot was fired in anger - or bliss for that matter - this is how I had the clubs rated.
NBL: 1 New Zealand, 2 Perth, 3 Adelaide, 4 Wollongong, 5 Cairns, 6 Townsville, 7 Melbourne, 8 Sydney.
NOW ... PREVIOUS
8 ... 8 KINGS - Encouraging start but nothing to suggest a higher finish
7 ... 7 TIGERS - Faded out against 36ers and now with more key men injured
6 ... 5 TAIPANS - Beat the Crocs but have a lot of unanswered questions
5 ... 6 CROCS - Yes, lost and listless but imports will spark all, including PC
4 ... 1 BREAKERS - Ouch. How embarrassing. And in front of all those Kiwis too
3 ... 4 HAWKS - Did enough to beat Kings at home and were down two regulars
2 ... 3 36ERS - Impressive home performance but bigger test this round
1 ... 2 WILDCATS - Schooled Breakers in NZ, very strong message delivered
WNBL: 1 Bulleen, 2 Dandenong, 3 Canberra, 4 Adelaide, 5 Townsville, 6 Bendigo, 7 Sydney, 8 West Coast, 9 Logan.
NOW ... PREVIOUS
9 ... 8 WAVES - Had to beat Bendigo, at home, in Spirit's second game in 24 hours. Failed
8 ... 9 THUNDER - Up a spot after pushing Townsville to the limit on the road
7 ... 7 FLAMES - Lost at home to open season but will improve with new import
6 ... 5 FIRE - Just got over the line, the free throw line, through Jess Foley
5 ... 4 LIGHTNING - Down a spot after blowing home opener against Bendigo
4 ... 1 BOOMERS - Going to struggle through season's first third til injury list shrinks
3 ... 3 CAPITALS - Road win without LJ and now she is in. Look out
2 ... 6 SPIRIT - Biggest rankings rise after sizzling doomsday-double road show
1 ... 2 RANGERS - Slapped away Bulleen and about to get better with O'Hea
CONGRATULATIONS to Bendigo guard Kristi Harrower on the WNBL Player of the Week honors.
Completely deserved, there was Kristi, then daylight to the next-best weekend effort.
Hats off to Spirit coach Bernie Harrower too for two well-constructed and executed road victories, a huge underpinning for the season ahead.
THIS NBL round, Wollongong to upset Cairns, Breakers to sneak home against Adelaide, Sydney to stave off a depleted Melbourne, and Perth to be too together to drop at Townsville.
At WNBL venues, the Caps to beat Townsville if LJ plays, Bulleen to inflict Bendigo's first loss, Sydney to beat West Coast, Dandenong over the Spirit, Adelaide to stop Sydney and Canberra to take Logan.
BIG FOOT, Sasquatch and the Abominable Snowman walk into a bar.
The barman looks up from where he is cleaning glasses, stares at them and says: "What is this? Some kind of joke?"
