Fate Mocks the Injury-Plagued Wildcats

by noelrr
09/06/2012

Fate appears to be particularly unkind to the Parramatta Wildcats senior men's team in this year's Waratah Championship League (WCL) competition. Not only are the Wildcats already playing under-manned each week, with a string of injury problems afflicting the squad, their opponents for this week's Round Eleven game (Bankstown Bruins) have bolstered their line-up once again with the return of former Gold Coast Blaze and now Adelaide 36er's NBL point guard Jason Cadee. The slightly-built Cadee has only played four games for the Bruins this year but significantly, three of those games have been for wins and in fact, the Bankstown team's only wins this season. The Wildcats unfortunately feature among the Bruins scant number of victims, falling 100-84 in Round Five at the Condell Park Basketball Stadium. Cadee simply destroyed the Wildcats on that occasion, finishing the game with 34 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals in an all-star performance. Many teams breathed a sigh of relief when Cadee disappeared after just his second game of the season. However, as fate would have it, the young guard returned to Sydney for last weekend's action and top-scored with 28 points for the Bruins in their narrow 86-81 loss to the higher-ranked Central Coast Crusaders. Cadee is averaging 28 points per game and whilst he has once again strengthened the Bruins squad, Parramatta's misfortunes continue to grow. Four of the Wildcats squad are currently playing in an international tournament in China with the Australian Chinese Basketball Association and the early news from the tour is all bad, with centre Goran Veg re-injuring his ribs in the opening game of the series. Parramatta head coach Merve Tait will be crossing his fingers and toes over the remainder of the week, hoping his already-injured players Veg and Mark Musgrave both avoid further injury troubles on tour and are fit to suit up against the Bruins on June 16. The action starts at 1pm on Saturday, with the sixth-placed Wildcats State League men playing the first-placed Bruins, followed at 3pm by the ninth-placed Wildcats WCL women (0-8) playing the first-placed Lady Bruins (7-1). The main game of the night between the eleventh-placed Wildcats men (3-8) and ninth-placed Bruins (3-7) will follow at 5pm.

PHOTO: Jed Atherton scores against the Bruins earlier this year - photo by Noel Rowsell

Report Post