Tensions hit boiling point ahead of WNBL championship decider
Amid the fallout over a crucial clock bungle and concerns about rough treatment from Game II, the Flyers and Lynx are confident of winning the WNBL championship decider.
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The tension between Southside and Perth is palpable ahead of the WNBL season’s high drama conclusion.
Amid the fallout over a crucial clock bungle and concerns over rough treatment the combatants have meted out on each other, the Flyers and Lynx are both outwardly confident of emerging victorious in Sunday’s grand final decider in Melbourne.
Buoyed by the thrilling last-second game two win in Perth that squared the series 1-1, Southside captain Bec Cole believes the Flyers have returned home with a psychological advantage.
“They beat us at home and winning the first game is such a big confidence boost, so going over there and winning when we had everything to lose and they could have won the title at home is massive,” Cole said.
“We have huge confidence knowing we have championship experience on our team, girls who have been in this position before.
“Maybe they (Perth) might have some doubts and they’re coming back to play in front of our fans.
“We have all the confidence in the world and we feel like we’re the better team, now we need to go out and take action.”
Following game two, Southside was frustrated by the Lynx’s physical treatment but stopped short of addressing it with the WNBL in a conscious effort to focus on their ultimate goal.
Asked about the physicality between the two teams, Perth coach Ryan Petrik said he’d welcome a tighter whistle from the referees in game three — especially when star import Aari McDonald’s involved — given Southside’s size advantage and his team’s preference to run and gun.
“I don’t think any of the actions were untoward or dirty but, with the level of physicality and the lack of whistles, that’s how they’re going to play,” Petrik said.
“You go anywhere near Aari McDonald, unless you actually bring your saddle, ‘just keep playing’, it’s unreal.”
Petrik stressed the scorebench balls up that shaved some 13 seconds off the clock and triggered a WNBL investigation wasn’t to blame for the result.
But, despite his animated sideline protests at the time, Petrik said the referees ignored him.
“I’ve not carried on the whole night, so, for me to suddenly go berserk, surely some alarm bells should ring?” Petrik said.
“Everyone in the building knew, bar the three refs. The crowd was going berserk.
“They completely ignored me in the biggest game of the season. They wouldn’t even have a conversation.”
Petrik said even he was surprised how his players coped in the aftermath of a calamitous last 45 seconds of the game that ended with Flyers star Mercedes Russell burying the game-winning dagger at the buzzer — denying Perth a first WNBL title in over three decades.
“I expected to get to the airport and pick a whole bunch of bottom lips off the floor and try to get them up again, but they were fine,” he said.
“They (his players) know if we don’t get it right, we’re going to get beat, if we do get it right, Southside haven’t been able to touch us.
“That’s been my message to the girls: we’ve kicked their backside for three halfs now, they’ve kicked our backside for one.”
Petrik said captain Anneli Maley had moved on from a forgettable end to game two where she missed a pair of free throws, then a lay-up that would have put the Lynx in front.
“Post-game, we immediately got around her, but I got seated next to her on the plane to Melbourne and she was fine,” he said.
“I said to her ‘mate, do we need to talk at all?’ and she said ‘no’ and she was happy as Larry, good to go.”
There’s the finest of lines between pleasure and pain in basketball and Maley’s agony was matched by Russell’s ecstasy, thanks to the centre’s exquisite turnaround fade away that broke the deadlock for good.
“We’ve all got around her,” Cole said of her towering teammate.
“She had a turnover but then she got the block and then she got the game-winning shot and all that happened within 20-30 seconds.
“That just shows character. Slim, she’s amazing, we’re so lucky to have her.”
The Flyers had already moved 2500 tickets on Saturday night, with hope late general public walk ups would produce a sellout at Parkville’s ‘Flyers Fortress’.
WNBL GRAND FINAL GAME 3
Southside Flyers v Perth Lynx
Series tied at 1-1
Decider: Sunday, 1.30pm AEDT, Flyers Fortress, Melbourne Sports Centres, Parkville.
WNBL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES GOES NUCLEAR
The WNBL’s grand final decider has gone nuclear amid a league investigation into a clock debacle and private anger over Perth’s physical tactics, which left Lauren Jackson sporting a bloodshot and bruised eye and several Southside players nursing sore bodies and faces.
It sets up what promises to be a powder keg decider in Melbourne after the Flyers held off a rampaging Lynx in Perth, 97-95, thanks to a buzzer-beating gamewinner from star import Mercedes Russell that tied the best-of-three series at 1-1.
Jackson and the club have come to accept the rough treatment that comes with being a 196cm basketball legend in every game she plays but it’s understood the Flyers feel Perth’s physicality in game two overstepped the mark.
Of particular concern were two moments in the fourth quarter, one during the first minute when the 42-year-old took a blow to the face from Lynx star Anneli Maley and another when fellow giant Emily Potter cannoned into the four-time Olympian’s back after the whistle.
During the Flyers’ post game press conference Jackson said one of her sons started crying when she got hit.
Flyers Russell, Jasmine Dickey and Leilani Mitchell took blows to the face during the game and it’s understood the club, on Friday night after landing in Melbourne, was weighing up a discussion with the league over the issue.
WNBL boss Christy Collier-Hill, late on Friday, said no complaint had been lodged but acknowledged “it was a very, very physical game from both sides.”
“It didn’t, to me, look like any particular person was targeted more than anybody else, I would say, for both teams, it was just incredibly physical,” Collier-Hill said.
“Everyone wants to stop her (Jackson) but, knowing the Perth Lynx and (coach) Ryan (Petrik) and the girls that all play in there, it would be hard to imagine they would have gone out with deliberate intent to hurt.
“It was a highly intense game, highly physical game where everyone was literally throwing themselves around the place.”
The Flyers did not take a backward step — Perth’s battering ram import Aari McDonald spent as much time on the deck as she did making buckets as Southside kept a close check on the gun import.
On Thursday night, the Lynx were left fuming when, down by two after erasing almost all of a 15-point lead, the ball spilled out of court with 1.24 left but a further 13 seconds ticked away.
Time was eventually stopped — as the ball was inbounded and brought up the floor by Perth — before it ticked down to 1.11 and referees brought a halt to play.
It’s understood both benches attempted to bring the issue to the referees’ attention but pleas to add the time back fell on deaf ears. Despite Petrik’s animated protests, two more seconds were shaved off the clock and the game was restarted at 1.09.
Collier-Hill said the league had commenced an investigation into the issue to determine what went wrong in a bid to avoid a repeat and a report would be shared with both clubs before Sunday’s decider in Melbourne but the game two result would not change.
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