Go Sixers!

Last night I went to see the new look Sixers play the Melbourne Tigers in their first practice match of the season (by my count only four players remain from last year - Maher, Cooper, Hill and Ballinger).

We arrived at about 6.30pm for a 7pm tip off. It was so weird going to a Sixers game and only seeing a few hundred people there.


Before the game, they had a worst haircut competition, and this guy won.


We came into the match missing a few key players - new pg Aaron Bruce apparently hasn't arrived yet, neither has our second import.


We've got a new guy I'd never even heard of called Winitana. When I saw his darker skin, I assumed he was our new import, but Michella said "he looks more Maori than black". She was right. He's a NZ'er, which rules because it means he gets to play as an Aussie. Anyway he was our best player on the night. He seemed a bit undersized as a sg/sf (apparently he's listed at about 6 foot 4 1/2) but he was really aggressiv going after rebounds, had a nice three point shot, was aggresive on his drives, and even went for two pretty ridiculous tip dunk attempts.

The other key new guy, Schenser, was pretty good. Kind of like a slightly taller David Cooper who can play OK offense. There was one sequence where a Tiger player tried to lay it up and got blocked by Cooper, the loose ball went to one of his team mates, who tried to dunk and got blocked by both Cooper and Schenser. It's going to be tough scoring against those two inside, and with Ballinger we've got a pretty fearsome front line.

I wasn't completely sold on Holmes. It's nice to have him back and he seemed to play really well for South Melbourne last year, but I'd rank him pretty lower than Ballinger, Maher, Schenser, Winitana, and presumably import number 2, and maybe even Bruce from what I hear. When Jacob Holmes is your sixth or seventh best player though, that's a good sign for your team.

The Sixers did give up a lead in the last few minutes and lost the game, but nothing to worry about there really, Ninnis seemed to be trying out the new guys, Maher and Ballinger sat off most of the end of the game.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this team - on paper they seem pretty stacked, but will have to see how things actually work out when the season starts in a few weeks.