Basketball On The Internet.

WELCOME to the Round 1 wrap of the NBL with our new weekly feature, "What We Learnt", now the dust has settled over it and we have a better idea of what Season 2025-26 holds. The first huge question though is can the 36ers hold Montrezl Harrell, a late withdrawal from their team against Panathinaikos yesterday?

The whispers I'm hearing is Montrezl's stint in China after the last NBL season did not end well and it is possible he does not have the FIBA-required clearance to resume playing in our competition.

Surely not. After all the kudos 36ers management received for securing Bryce Cotton and Zylan Cheatham, can it have overlooked him being cleared?

Well, perhaps we're reading too much into his absence from the Adelaide team against Panathinaikos, or the fact the club rushed recently sacked South East Melbourne import Vrenz Bleijenberg in as his replacement.

But, and with no offence intended to the talented 208cm big man, why would you grab someone already cut by a team which outperformed yours last season?

If Harrell is outta here, and his post today on X (below) is intriguing to say the least, then surely Bleijenberg isn't the answer. (Not unless the question is "Can you name a Belgian basketball player?")

The popular Harrell's departure wouldn't just mess up a lot of fans but also a lot of pundits and folks taking odds on a 36ers' championship

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So in Round 1, what did we learn?

Adelaide: Dejan Vasiljevic and Bryce Cotton will comfortably co-exist, often taking the pressure off each other. Zylan Cheatham was a great pick up in a selfless import role. He'll sacrifice and do whatever the team needs to win and Isaac Humphries also showed better energy and recovery. But once Panathinaikos was rolling, coach Mike Wells looked as helpless to stop the avalanche as he did when South East bundled them out of the playoffs after turning around a record 21-point deficit last season.

Brisbane: Would have surprised many with its road win over New Zealand but then, it was only the Breakers. And it was only nine points. Towering Tyrell Harrison made a monumental difference and Casey Prather was at his very best. Javon Freeman-Liberty was impressive, Alex Ducas and Sam McDaniel also efficient. Rookie coach Stu Lash appeared to run his team by committee, giving assistants Greg Vanderjagt and Darryl McDonald plenty of leeway. Be interesting to see how long that lasts and how well it works.

Cairns: Losing Sam Waardenburg to ankle surgery and not having him back until about December, and playing without a quality lead point guard, meant the Taipans were on a hiding to nothing. And they suffered a humiliating hiding at South East. There are more in store, the Snakes needing to bank a few early wins regardless, or they risk being too far behind by the back end of the season. Jack McVeigh, Admiral Scholfield and Reyne Smith need a lot more help.

Illawarra: Played the FIBA Intercontinental Cup without Davo Hickey, JaQuori McLaughlin looking every inch a back-up PG on a good team. This is a good team, losing narrowly to the Brazil champs and the NBA G-League outfit before crushing Japan's champs and doing it with mostly their no-name players. But there was an over-reliance on Tyler Harvey to keep the scoreboard ticking which could prove worrying against our elite teams.

Melbourne: Picked United to win it all and saw nothing in Round 1 to make me believe otherwise. Rich with talent, skilled, cohesive, deep, organised and well-coached, they managed to get the job done in Hobart, then embarrassed New Zealand in Melbourne. Perfect start to another campaign and they still have Chris Goulding to come back giving them, with Milton Doyle's endgame abilities, two guys who can beat you off their own. And what about Jesse Edwards, a big with athleticism and nouse? Who says they need Ben Simmons?

New Zealand: Best thing the Breakers could do is give Parker Jackson-Cartwright however many weeks off he needs to get his ribs right because they're losing anyway. Coach Peteri Koponen's subbing was impossible to follow, his sudden love for returning Kiwis Reuben Te Rangi, Izayah Le'Afa and Rob Loe impossible to understand, his misuse of imports Izaiah Brockington and Rob Baker - who does have too strong a romance going with the 3-point arc - impossible to reconcile. In two words, a championship for this crew and how they're being run is Mission Impossible.

Perth: Loaded and laden with talented players, coach John Rillie will need to steadily work them into some sort of cohesive unit because when the game was on the line against Tasmania, the Jackies were organised, the Wildcats were not. Usually reliable Dylan Windler stank it up for 35 minutes and the coach was the only one who didn't appear to notice. Ben Henshall and Kristian Doolittle also were down and Mason Jones hadn't realised he could dominate this league until too late. Least he should know now.

South East Melbourne: Addition by subtraction? They cut Vrenz Bleijenberg and looked a million dollars in routing Cairns. King Josh had his troops fired up and firing all over the floor, import John Brown III - surely there's been more than two John Browns before him? - thoroughly harassed the Snakes out of their skins. Yes, the rout was over a debilitated Cairns team but that allowed, it was the emphatic manner of the Phoenix's triumph which impressed the most. If you had them out of your top six calculations, think again.

Sydney: Looked 100 per cent better than at the Blitz, running Partizan to a close finish, Kendric Davis changing the on-court dynamic. This team will go as far as Jaylin Galloway can take them because you know what you're getting from Davis, Delly, Xavier and Soares. Kouat Noi brings his long range but Bul Kuol seems unable to recognise he is his own worst enemy. Stop fouling and stop bitching maybe? So it falls back on Asia Cup MVP Galloway to step up to a new dimension. Passing up a 3-point shot for the tie in the final seconds against Partizan was a giant step backwards.

Tasmania: Yes, Bryce Hamilton is an MVP contender, David Johnson is quality and Tyger Campbell has more to offer, as has Josh Bannan, who at times was trying just too hard. Relax and enjoy yourself JB. Will Magnay is a monster and Scott Roth then can turn to Majok Deng and Anthony Drmic - two title winners - and effervescent new faces Nick Marshall and Ben Ayre. It took Milton Doyle heroics for United to beat them and then in the endgame in Perth, they showed their composure to grind away the Wildcats. Definitely heading for the top four.

Umpires: Oh please, enough with the arm waving BS warning for defenders when handing a player about to inbound the ball from the sideline or baseline regarding "breaking the plane." Instead of CONSTANTLY thinking players MUST be reminded NOT to break the imaginary plane of the lines, maybe refs could focus on all those times a player steps out of bounds these days. Maybe warn "you're close to out" because that happens way more often than players "breaking the plane". PS Did you see how the Euroleague ref handled flopping? Kendric Davis flung himself on the floor and copped one straight away, no warning. Time to trial that here?

TV: For the love of Naismith, can the directors behind our television coverage NEVER EVER go to replays DURING LIVE ACTION. How hard is that to understand? Or maybe not show us the latest batch of influencers sitting in prime seats DURING LIVE ACTION. We don't care. Really, we don't. It's not good TV to miss what's happening on the floor because we have to flash the AAMI replay sign a thousand times a game.

CALLERS: New season. New insights? New descriptions? No, same old "we've got a ballgame" cliches, and "got his hand caught in the cookie jar" BS. Guys (and gals) when you repeatedly say that stuff, do you not think the viewers heard you the first time, or last week, or the week before? Be imaginative. Come up with something fresh. And NOT your playing career highlights, in-jokes or Jack Heverin treating almost every colour man as some sort of cheapskate always seeking freebies. Such a relief to hear John Casey, a true pro, back on the call in Round 1.

GENERAL: It didn't happen in Round 1 but you know it's coming. Someone will have a nose bleed or spill two drops of blood on the court and we will immediately have officials in long rubber gloves and high-viz jackets rushing everywhere with their buckets of disinfectant and detergent, and ushers urging the 5,000 in attendance into hazmat suits until the danger is averted. For crying out loud, it's not 1991 anymore. Yeah. That was when Magic Johnson said he had attained the HIV virus. 1991. So in 2025-26, can we just wipe it up and get on with the game?