WSBL Power Rankings

SBL Slam Blog – Who is that handsome man?

Headphones on (inside joke, but yes I did press play) and enjoying some Courtney Barnett.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So first things first, as promised on the radio show. Here is a pic of Craig Edwards in closed shoes, sporting a bow tie and the South Fremantle Hall of Fame medal which I hear on good authority he is now using as a key ring. Could someone please get this man a plus one!

 

I’ve taken a week off from writing (thanks to Cecins for carrying the load) but the last entry I made was a breakdown of the many players and where they started their junior careers. I received a couple of emails correcting what club I assigned players, specifically Austin Bruton who played at Hawks before East Perth Eagles and Tegan Walker who played a season of WABL at Stirling as a youngster before moving to Hawks.

I did get time to chat with Fleur McIntyre and that was fun as always. What a fantastic ambassador for WSBL and Cockburn Cougars. If you haven’t listened to it please do, if you know her or have been involved in the league in the last 15 years (20 years, haha, sorry Fleur couldn’t resist) I think it’s worth the time. Tomorrow I hope to upload a conversation with Andy Stewart, should be interesting with everything happening Perth Lynx plus the WA State Teams due to travel next week.

I thought it was time to review my Power Rankings for the last time this regular season. To be clear these aren’t my predictions for standings at the end of the regular season they are my ranking of teams based on form as of this week. Another way of looking at it is it’s what I would consider likelihood of winning the championship at the end of the season.

  1. Rockingham Flames15W-1L, +2 Positions – I have to put them at the top of the tree. They have an excellent record to date and will cruise through the next two weeks, there are three tougher road games to finish the season for them (Suns, Magic, Tigers) but all this will do is get them finely tuned for the finals. Magic will be a payback game after their only loss coming to them earlier in the season, and surprisingly could still lose the minor premiership with a loss to Tigers on the final round by 5 points or more. The number one offence to go with a top four defence. They choose to play small most nights but teams haven’t been able to expose this because of the versatility of Fletcher and Buckley.
  2. Willetton Tigers15W-2L, +1 Position – The Tigers also leap frog up a spot into second place. Have beaten Wolves twice this season and played Flames very tight on the road so they have every right to see themselves as a strong chance of being grand final winners. Wallbutton is missing in the finals with Tall Ferns Oceania duties but as long as it’s only the first round it won’t matter. The best defence in the league which is built around their strengths, protecting the paint at all costs and making you shoot contested from the perimeter. I was curious to see how Malpass’s form would hold up after three seasons away but she is their most reliable guard by far.
  3. Joondalup Wolves14W-4L, -2 Positions - Round of applause for me please (Brad Kidner) for not calling them Wanneroo. I think I’ll fully embrace the name change when they get their new venue. In buzzer beaters I said yes to Slammers being my biggest disappointment of the season at 6-9. I got that one wrong, the Wolves are. I picked them first in the preseason, kept them first in my last power rankings and yet they haven’t beaten any of the other top three teams and have actually dropped to fourth on the standings at the moment. A big match tomorrow night against the Mandurah Magic, if they drop that as well you have to slide them down to fourth. All the talent is there and I would love to see them attack on defence and flow on offence more than they do currently but still have heaps of time to get it together. They only need to put it together for 28 days in August and they’ll have another championship.
  4. Mandurah Magic12W-3L - Third on the ladder but fourth on my list. Tough run home ahead of them with Wolves, Tigers and Flames to play in the four rounds. In fact if they don’t get one of those games and lose to Suns by 14+ on the final weekend they could even drop to fifth.  For the record I don’t see that as likely, it seems more possible they will make a statement and win one of the games to teams above them on the ladder. Allow the second fewest points per game in the league, but I still see them as too one dimensional offensively to win a the semi-finals series. Nobody in their line-up shoots the three ball at 25% or better and Casey Milo has to shoulder a massive responsibility creating (League MVP?).
  5. Kalamunda Eastern Suns11W-6L - After a killer schedule to start the season the import arrived and the schedule lightened off for them dramatically through the middle of the season. They were never as good as their ten game win streak but remain the last of the teams that on the right night could beat any of the teams above them if they play well. Evidenced by the upset of Tigers and two point defeat to Flames in Rockingham. Import point guard Lemberger has an injury at the moment, but they will need her back on the court before finals to progress beyond the first round.

TRYING TO MAKE UP THE FINALS NUMBERS…

  1. Cockburn Cougars7W-11L, +3 Positions – Have won me over a little more and are big movers upwards; they sit eighth currently but have a soft schedule home that could see them move as high as 6th. Even if they were 7th I’d rather be coaching them than Hawks in the first round. Of the rest of the teams I like them the best because of team balance. They have the best scorer outside of the top five teams in Smith, a ball handler in Priestley, and an inside scorer / rebounder in Loberg. Unfortunately they lack depth outside of this and are too small to push any of them teams above them in these rankings.
  2. Perry Lakes Hawks7W-9L, -1 Position – They have returned to improved form in the last fortnight after a rough six game losing streak. They hung tough with Wolves and beat Lightning without Jeffers, then welcomed her back and almost upset Suns at Ray Owen. Coach Jackson has made some adjustments to their defensive system that seems to help, but they have trouble at times manoeuvring the ball around the court to the talls in favourable positions because of their guard quality. Kate Anthony appears to be on the bench and was fantastic last season before the injury; can anybody tell me why she doesn’t play at all?
  3. East Perth Eagles5W-11L, +4 Positions – The biggest climbers since I last did this and well deserved, I don’t know if I underestimated them or if they have just improved that much. Either way a thumbs up to Coach Narelle and the job she has done this season. They have outplayed every team below them in the last month, if they can squeak out a win against Suns and Slammers have a losing weekend they could be in the 8 in a few days. How easily they disposed of Redbacks last weekend surprised me without Steph Jones playing.
  4. Southwest Slammers6W-9L, -1 Position – A crucial weekend coming against Hawks and Cougars, lose both and they could be sitting ninth on Monday, win both and they are in the frame for sixth and all but shut the door on the Eagles post season hopes. All of this comes on the back of Darren Austin ending his reign, the instability can’t be good but they have two good imports with a couple of strong locals so I still like their chances of being there first weekend of play-offs.

NO CHANCE OF FINALS FOR…

 

  1. Perth Redbacks3W-13L, -2 Positions – I think I got a little carried away with the good news story and how much fun a dramatically improved Redbacks would be to follow. They need to retain Gabby x 2 and Jess Jakens, plus make some big additions in the offseason to continue to move up. They need an import / WNBL quality big and shooter to round out their roster.
  2. Stirling Senators3W-13L – Also just don’t have the talent to compete with the top group. They can be dangerous though and are a little hard to tip, had very close losses to Suns and Slammers but phoned it in against Eagles which you would think was the most gettable game. I seat them below Redbacks because their last six games include Magic, Flames, Suns and Tigers. None of them are winnable so that leaves them opportunities against Redbacks and Hawks for a maximum five wins of the season.
  3. Lakeside Lightning1W-17L, -2 Positions – Down on talent and they’ve had a very tough run with injuries including losing import Christian Shelter, replacement Megan Craig and recently Amanda Pether to another ACL injury. Good luck with the recovery Mandy! Puts an end to the talent v system / coaching debate forever when you compare them from last year to this year. For the record I like what they do and think Darren Nash is excellent, don’t be surprised if they are very relevant again in 2016.

That’s it from me, hope you enjoy, the games I will follow with great interest this weekend are Wolves @ Magic, Hawks @ Slammers and Slammers @ Cougars. I think all three of these will have some input into how the standing will look at the end of the season.

Thanks,

CM

craigmansfield@me.com

Follow me on Twitter @CMansfield34

SBL Slam’: Airing Monday Evenings 9-10 pm on 98five Sonshine FM

http://www.98five.com/shows/other-shows/sblslam/

Photo by Helen Theoharakis (Hoop Shots)




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