Gossage: 'Don't blame Bryce, blame the Wildcats'

• Five-time NBL Most Valuable Player Bryce Cotton signed with the Adelaide 36ers
• Sports commentator Tim Gossage said on SEN WA Perth Wildcats "were asleep at the wheel"
• West Australian newspaper accused Cotton of being "The Lying King"

Respected Western Australian sports commentator Tim Gossage has stunningly revealed Perth Wildcats insiders believe the NBL club was "asleep at the wheel" in trying to re-sign five-time MVP Bryce Cotton after he announced he was leaving 10-time champions in March.

"What I know and what I hear are probably two very different things," Gossage said on the Scotty and Goss Show.

"I'm not as connected to the Wildcats as I once was but every person I've spoke to, including people in the inner sanctum of Perth, and on the outside of the Perth Wildcats, ex players ,whatever, they may be the whole shooting match, is the Wildcats were asleep at the wheel signing Bryce Cotton.

"This is what I heard, so I'm happy to take calls from Mark Arena, Danny Mills, anyone who wants to talk to us, but when Bryce Cotton quit we tried to get the Wildcats to come on to say hey 'you know what a sad moment', that no one would speak and I found that really strange."

Cotton, 32, played his last game for the Wildcats against Melbourne United on March 4, 2025 in a NBL25 Elimination Final. The Wildcats lost by a point 113-112.

Twenty-one days later Cotton was gone.

"The bottom line is, I have been told that there was a contract offered to Bryce Cotton but it was weeks after it was due to be offered," Gossage said.

"There were parts of the contract of his current deal that he had to fight for and felt that weren't being adhered to, they were late.

"I don't think he felt like he was consulted, when you're the best player to ever play in the competition, and you're not consulted about the resigning of a coach, whether he was gonna get a say in it or not but out of respect, when John Rillie signed a contract extension, Bryce found out through social media.

"(Wildcats owner) Mark Arena is spending a lot of money on the Perth Wildcats and their future but there are bits and pieces that everyone I talk to say that not his strength is crossing the T's and dotting the I's and as a basketball club this is on them.

"This is massive, this is not on Bryce Cotton and the West Australian newspaper to have the back page The Lying King based on that grab towards Ash Nelson and Channel 10 saying 'I'm not sure I'd go anywhere else', that's unfair and I don't like it.

"I don't like it calling someone a liar like that, it's really sad and I don't like it at all."

Cotton left the Wildcats to play for the Mets de Guaynabo in Puerto Rico once the Perth's season was over — the life of a professional basketballer.

"Bryce Cotton is absolutely, he's a free he is free to go anywhere he liked, could have gone to Asia could have gone to the NBA, owes Perth nothing does he absolutely nothing, and going to the Adelaide 36ers, hats off to Adelaide," Gossage added.

"It is on the Wildcats ownership and management, who got a scored 'asleep at the wheel', not signing the best player, give it him $2 million, whatever it may be to keep him here."

Gossage took aim at the vitriol — of course, on social media — directed at Cotton for signing with traditional rival Adelaide 36ers.

"Don't be angry with Bryce and when Bryce hadn't signed anywhere, so he says I'm leaving, and a month and a half, six weeks go by and we still don't know where he's playing, I'd have been picking up the phone and gone 'mate, what will it take you to change your mind? What will it take you to keep in Perth?'" Gossage added.

"This is on the Perth Wildcats ownership, this is a really sad time, not the fact that he's gone to Adelaide, that the Perth Wildcats have lost him to a rival club.

"Good luck to Adelaide he's gonna be massive in Adelaide. Good luck to Bryce he's doing it for his family, he's posted on social media and Instagram last night uh what's that word IFYKYK (if you know you know).

"Now I don't know if we need to know the whole story but I do think for people to blame Bryce Cotton and the West Australian to call him a liar, I'd be getting on the phone to Mark Arena and getting the real story."

Cotton has vowed to burn the commemorative poster the newspaper presented to him after setting the NBL scoring record with 59 against the New Zealand Breakers in December, 2024.

Gossage called on Arena to set the record straight, especially for Perth Wildcats fans hurting over losing their superstar.

"Someone has got to tell the real story why this happened sets up for a big grudge match when he comes back to the Red Army, how do you think they'll handle the Red Army," he said.

"I reckon you'll get a pocket of disdain but he is a legend, he's entitled to go to wherever he wants to go.

"When it all came out and that one he one when he didn't sign with the club and was going somewhere else, we didn't know it was gonna be Adelaide, we were talking about (Melbourne) United, thought it was gonna be overseas, if he'd gone overseas none of this would be happening right now

10 News Perth sports presenter Lachie Reid added to the weight of Gossage's insider revelations.

"It seems to be that there's been a bit of a, as we say in footy, a bit of a fumble by the the Wildcats management," Reid said.

"Let's go back say 18 months, when his (Cotton's) wife Rachel reacted to a post on social media in regards to how the Wildcats were playing and she was quite strong in criticism of John Rillie, the coach, and how he was coaching the team, then all of a sudden at the start of this season, John was resigned.

"Now I'm told that Bryce had no idea, in fact he wasn't even the first or second to be told about that, you would think not that you fall over yourselves for your star players but he's a very important piece to the Wildcats puzzle, so you would think that at some stage that uh management would go to Bryce and say 'hey look mate, we're thinking about resigning the coach, got any issues with it?'

"But that didn't happen and then I am told and I'd love to throw these questions at the management, but I am told that there were a few late deadlines for contract offers.

"There was a contract offered but I don't think it hit its deadline, now the the club may dispute that, that's all I've been told, so if that's the case then those types of issues would have really frustrated Bryce and at times you watched him play on the court, he was certainly frustrated as a Perth Wildcat in his last season.

"How he ended up back in the NBL remains to be seen and we'll we'll wait to hear from him, but I think there's been a fair few little scenarios that haven't really worked in the favour of Bryce and also don't show the management in a great light to be honest."