I just thought coaches turned up and coached without any thought of planning at all. Sarcasm

You made one correct saying in that whole piece. The talent pool is not as big as the other states.

"Times are a changing; Ron Burgandy had never heard of that saying"

SA's talent pool might not be as big as other states, but that is no reason to accept second best.

One has to look at our local competition to understand why we under achieve.

There are too many meaningless games, where the result is decided by quarter time.
They play too many games in a year, and only a small percentage of those games end up being close.

We need to create an more competative environment that reduces the number of meaningless games and increases the number of closely contested games.

How do we do this?

I think that one has to look outside the square to make the competition more evan.

Options may include:
Promotion / relegation?
amalgamation of some clubs?
Weaker clubs playing over age players?
create an elite div 1 league of say six clubs?
Play games against higher age groups?

I think one needs to break with some traditions and move forward.

Personally, I think all the metro coaches this year have either 1) achieved at this level before, or 2) earned their stripes in SA. I don't think each coach's credentials need to be listed off, but I'd say all have proven themselves to be worthy state coaches.

The same could be said for the U20 coaches selected in '07. I won't speak for the Country coaches, who are chosen independently & with whom I'm not as familiar.

One question you raised was whether the state coach should be involved with the age group they're coaching at a local level. I don't think this is necessary. In fact, in some regards, I actually think it's better they're not coaching a team in that age group. In 3 of the 4 teams this year, there's an assistant state coach who coaches a local team in that grade (and the other has an assistant who is/was involved with a club in their age group, albeit not as head coach). If the state coach is directly involved with a particular team from the age group they're coaching, I think they're left wide open to be accused of bias, attachment etc. Having assistants involved is ideal, because they're able to see the players week in, week out in game situations and can feed information to the head coach, but the final decision rests with the head coach. Thoughts may vary on this, but that's my opinion.

At the end of the day, these guys (and their assistants, for that matter) do this because it's something they really want to do. All of them put a ton of effort in to coaching these teams, from Feb/March, right up until July. They got criticism for failure and very little applause for triumph.

You posed a lot of questions in your post, and to be honest, I don't think the answer to any of them would point you towards finding better candidates for coaching our state teams. To add to that, I think you'd be surprised at how few applicants these positions actually attract. And I doubt you'd have found any more suitable applicants than those who were appointed in 2007.

That's just dealing with the coaches section of your post. With regards to us not having the talent and/or our competition not being strong enough, I think Afroman has at least partly covered our deficiencies in that area.

I can't disagree with much Afro and Addict have said other than I feel it goes further than player depth.
With the time sacrifices state coaches make no one is going to criticise their motivation to do the job but if you take the results from Gosford where they won only what they were expected to, the question remains should they have done better?
Country girls with their 2 or 3 first years could take heart from their running the tournament favourites, Vic metro, to within 4 points but that aside the results were predictable with the girls'teams probably finishing 5.6 or 7th. in a weak field.
Metro girls would seem to be in the most trouble having a team of all second years years leaving a totally inexperienced group to play in 2008.
The boys have had their fair share off flak on here so I'll let that one slide.
To anon who suggests you can't argue that any Div 1 coach would have got the same results, I'd say if you only beat the teams your pencilled in to beat, you'll always end up out of the four and it really doesn't matter if your 5th or bottom if you don't medal. If you look at the stats from the teams you'd quickly recognise some of our top Div 1 teams would beat them and in fact in the ACT's and NZ's case has.

Can't argue with that and its a great record.
There seems to be more of a plan in 18's though where they build for strong years and blood more first years.
On that, sad news that a first year did her ankle in the last training and had to pull out.
Would guess, looking at the team a top 8 finish would be good and set them up for next year.

anon 953. 3 million against 1 million counted for a 4 point win to the 3 million team, so I'd say the talent is here and we need to recognise it, improve on our methodology and expect to win.

SASI coach- Neil Gliddon (Sturt)
20's Men- Richard Hill (Eastern)
18's Men- Paul Mesecke (Sturt)Assistant Scott Butler (Sturt) 5 Sturt players...
16's Men- Liam Flynn (Sturt) Assistant Jarrod Clarke (Sturt)Four Sturt players...
Pattern perhaps or simply coincidence???

Of course it's a pattern - the most successful club at the district level is representing the state.

Imagine the uproar if clubs that arn't competitve at district, started representing our state!

how can a kid in u/18s come from vic. and get a gig at sasi the same week when there are plenty of kids playing 18/1s who have never been asked. (play for sturt)

Because if you are in any ITC program around Australia you are in the program.
If your parents move you will gain automatic entry.
This is fair enough don't you think icu?

Sounds fair to me.

"SASI coach- Neil Gliddon (Sturt)
20's Men- Richard Hill (Eastern)
18's Men- Paul Mesecke (Sturt)Assistant Scott Butler (Sturt) 5 Sturt players...
16's Men- Liam Flynn (Sturt) Assistant Jarrod Clarke (Sturt)Four Sturt players...
Pattern perhaps or simply coincidence???"

You made a massive mistake in this piece.

Neil Gliddon is not Sturt, his sons and daughter maybe but he is neutral. Also why did you not mention the other assistants from the other clubs. Also why did you not mention the girls side of the program.

U18 Girls Head Coach - Norwood
Assistant - Woodville and ??
U16 Head Girls Coach - North
Assistant - North and Sturt

U16 Boys Assistants - Sturt and Centrals
U18 Boys Assistants - Sturt and ??

U18 Boys Assistants - Sturt and South

U18 Girls Head Coach - Norwood
Assistant - Woodville and Norwood

Infighting now, how intersting !!!

Because I wasn't looking at women's as it doesn't interest me!
I'm sure if you look at the SASI website you will see the following quote..."Prior to joining SASI as a full-time coach Neil was involved in coaching and administration at club level in South Australia for over 20 years, all at the Sturt Basketball Club. During that period he had experience and sustained success in all junior age groups and also coached at senior level for several years. He is also an experienced Junior Coaching Director at club level, a position in some ways not dissimilar to his present role. He also coached a number of junior state teams."

20 years at Sturt Basketball club yet your trying to spin me BS that..."Neil Gliddon is not Sturt, his sons and daughter maybe but he is neutral." Come McCrackhead who are you trying to kid???

the bRad

Go ask him your self then. You seemed to have all the answers. Why not ask him which club he is involved with right now.

Of course he worked with players from most clubs, he's a SASI coach!!! That has to be the most ridiculous statement possible. Lol..
Hey anon, I played for West and Noarlunga but I bet you can't guess where my alliances lay???
I'll give you a hint...something to do with my name...

I didn't know your aliance was with Baylor University

Maybe if you have the communication skills of a Hell's Angel on a drinking spree, coaching successfully might elude you.With that in mind the women's coaching on the Metro side is tired and void of ideas.
18 's coach needs to change his game plan once a decade surely? Time for changes, has to be better.