Wildcats smarting after loss

PERTH Wildcats captain Damian Martin said his team must have a solid review of Friday night’s shock loss to the Cairns Taipans before they can move on to today’s clash against Melbourne United.

The Wildcats suffered their biggest ever loss at Perth Arena as the Taipans handed them a 23-point thumping.

It was the Cats’ first loss of the season and Cairns’ first win. Martin said he didn’t expect his teammates to sleep too well before getting on the plane to Melbourne.

“Regardless of how I word it, we lost by 23 points at home and that doesn’t sit well with anyone,” he said. “Guys won’t sleep well; they’ll replay pretty much every possession over in their head.

“You can’t just move on and start focusing on Melbourne. We’ll review this then start focusing on Melbourne. If guys sleep well tonight and aren’t angry, upset and frustrated, then we do have the wrong guys. But I don’t think guys will move on from this quickly and I hope we can take that frustration out on Melbourne in a disciplined and Wildcats way, which is with high intensity, unselfish and playing for each other.”

Perth trailed Cairns by just four points at halftime, but were blown away in the second half. Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson said teams won’t win too many games when they give up 100 points.

“Our defence hasn’t been up to scratch, even in the first two games. Teams have been coming here and shooting at a high percentage, feeling comfortable and when they get their tails up, like (Cameron) Oliver (22 points) did, it feeds through to the rest of the team,” Gleeson said.