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We had our first scrimmage of the new season this morning and as part of the trialling process I tried a let coach decide and an open line up to get a look at what the GE thought of our guards - and got stitched up, with our starters going on to play 48 minutes. Not sure what happened there, we've used it before, but for some reason this time the bench didn't rotate in those spots.
Which is a shame because until late in the game we stuck it right to a tough Turkish outfit, which shows that we're not far off the mark of the top sides in the world.

John Duffield had a great game until fatigue hit him late and old man Dawes played surprisingly well on his zimmer frame until senility took him and he started a fist fight with someone in the crowd just after half time and had to go and have a nap.
Ours bigs certainly were the strong part of the equation though.

We have another Scrimmage this week against Taiwan proposed to us which I'm happy to take and then we get into the real scrap for the Asian Cup with a game against Lebanon (Lubnan).

The Scrimmage against Taiwan ended up being against Venezuela after a mix up at the airport in what was our last workout before the Season 55 games really kick off.
We managed to snag the win in relatively solid fashion and a handful of players were able to pitch a case for selection in the opening round.
We rested a couple of guys who have been regulars in Houghton, Laga-aia and Dawes, while Grunter was still recovering from a throat injury after trying to keep up with the crowd when they launched into his now iconic "Koala in heat" chant that he receives any time he lights up the court.
This allowed a little extra game time for the lightly used Beau Davidson at SF and didn't he grab it with both hands, smashing home 37 points and pulling in 9 boards in a dominant display.
Hongjing and Duffield could barely keep the supply up to Davidson, even despite dishing 13 assists between them while Biglands produced a double double at PF and Bill stepped off the bench to go a point a minute at C. Often the reserve of the squad over the last 5-6 seasons, Bill is really pushing his case for more minutes in Season 55.
It was a tough inside squad that Venezuala brought to the match but we held up well and it looks like this might be our go to this season - particularly after going at 9% from the three-point line.
We have our first pool game of the Asian Cup this Monday at 7pm against Lebanon, who are themselves coming off the back of a 12-point win over Saudi Arabia.
More then ever we need managers with players in the squad managing their minutes week to week now. If you have a player on the fringe of selection or you have a guy who might break into the side in two to three seasons keep in touch - you never know when a door will open and we still have spaces in the squad.

Sorry team for the long space in updates, it’s been a hectic end to the year.
We picked up an important win last night over Woody’s Phillipines despite a slow start and a bunch of fouls.
It means - barring a slip up next week against Lebanon - we should have booked ourselves a place in the Asian Cup semi finals.
It’s nice to be back in the picture to play finals with a week to play.
The next big challenge is looking like being China in the semi. If we’re going to be a chance we need our managers keeping our game shape cherry ripe for that match - which is tough in play off season, I know, but two games of starting a week should land at around 65-70 minutes, which should keep most players in that nice game shape window. Varies from player to player, but let’s all do our best and see if we can make a final.

It's a shame we missed the GDP against Taiwan whilst they were vulnerable, but you've successfully run the gauntlet to get back into contention. Made both GM-Perpete and Woody miss a GDP themselves to get into 2nd without spending excess enthusiasm, so whatever happens against China, I'd say you've gotten the most out of this team.

Thanks Jay, as you’d know there’s a brains trust that chips in with advice, so I can’t take full credit. Missing that GDP against Taiwan certainly wasn’t ideal, but we’re at least alive in the contest late in the Cup, which is a nice feeling. China is obviously the big beast in the game, but we’ll give it a crack and see how we go. Just fingers crossed we have 10-12 guys in proficient that week!

Cheers Woody and great job on putting up a good fight until the end. With two or three minutes to go in each of our games tonight you were right in the hunt to snag that spot.

Semi finals, here we come!
Managers, you know what to do. Let's keep our minutes as close to 60 as we can this week if we can (I know, I know, play offs make it tricky) but here's hoping it all works out in our favour. We're going to need it against China.

Lubnan was very close from the upset ! Good luck in semis

Walter certainly earned the right to an upset by calling LI, but a couple of late turnovers went against them and that put Lebanon in late game foul mode when Australia were looking like the team that would foul before then.

Had we been the ones fouling, the fate of the group would've come down to how close we could keep the score, as we had the potential to advance on a loss as long as the Philippines vs Korea game stayed close (which it did). A real shame that we couldn't upset Taiwan too, as the group winner now gets Hong Kong coming off the back of a CT of their own to make the semi-finals.

You gave yourselves every chance, that’s for sure!