Yothu,

Firstly we welcome all feedback from everyone, including yours, although as ytour post was full of 'hearsay', 'fictional references' and emotive language it overshadowed any genuine points you may have had.

Let me take some of the 'highlights' of your comedy routine and put some facts behind them:

'Talking to a few parents at Sturt and the word is that some coaches are being discrimmative against young players because of their size or lack of potential...'

- This is called the 'selection process' which all clubs have, including North and Forestville. If you have been living under a rock since the creation of divions in basketball, players are graded into the division that is appropriate to their actual playing ability and attitude, as well as their potential and size. Sometimes a child will be told that they aren't physically capable to play in a higher division...its unfortunate but the nature of basketball (However I would struggle to believe any child with some height would be stopped from playing because they are too tall...unless they were not able to get run because of physical limitations). It happens at all clubs, not just Sturt.

'Sturt wonder why they have senior players wanting to go somewhere else, their young players going to other clubs'

- Our club, like all clubs, has trouble retaining players in U/20s. Most kids are giving the game away because of study/work commitments or they have discovered a social life. In a lot of cases they come back and play when these commitments are finished, which shows they are not disillusioned with the club, just unable to fit in the demands of district basketball in their life. They certainly are not leaving because they feel they have been 'discarded' because of a 'lack of potential' or being 'too tall'.

'develop your own players and stop poaching from other clubs'

- We never poach players from other clubs. EVER! Players contact us to come over to the club, and in most cases are knocked back...in my time as JDC the ratio of 'knock backs' to acceptances is 3 - 1 conservatively. And some of those kids have been some of the best players in the age group from other clubs. Yothu your statement is false and a lie. We develop our own players, and do a very good job of it, and if we have a 'gap' that we need to fill in an age group then we either recruit from Aussie Hoops, School based comps or from the country (or as a last resort from other clubs but ONLY IF THEY CONTACT US FIRST!).

'instead of putting kids down or laughing behind their backs'

What evidence do you have of this occurring? I have been to all team trainings and games from the start of the year and have seen no evidence of this. How many have you been to, or are you just relying on second hand information again?? Yet another case of lies to tarnish the reputations of a lot of good people, who give up their time to teach players the skills of the game. They certainly don't deserve it from someone who cowardly hides behind an alias and doesn't put their own reputation up for scrutiny.

'or the coach themselves are taking it out on their young team because they have no game themselves'

The first statement you have made that actually has some truth...yes us Sturt coaches have no game! Although I am sure an imposing starting five of Butler, Flynn, Harvey , Clarke and Big bad Ben Gliddon anchoring the middle would have the 36ers shaking in their boots!... I am sure we don't yell any louder at our teams because our jump shots are deplorable (except for Hump who can drill them form the car park!).

'get out and enjoy it Sturt that's why north and Forestville are so good now because they enjoy it'

I can assure the players at Sturt enjoy their basketball just as much as any other club players. I agree, it is fantastic the success that the Eagles and the Rockets have had and are having, but I am sure the reason behind their triumphs is that they 'enjoy the game' more then Sturt kids. What a ridiculous statement!

We have dedicated coaches (in all divisions) at our clubs, non of which deserve the kind of 'snipering' from you on this forum. If you have any feedback that has any factual basis, by all means contact me on [email protected]

Yothu,

I have spoken to some parents who think that you are a clueless fool who has a habit of lying. That you infact have no game yourself and feel the need to have a go at another club because you cant beat them on the court.

The fact that you accuse a club with 3 current Olympians of not developing their own players is rediculous. In fact Sturt have had more players 'poached' into other clubs senior teams than any other club.

And I think you should look at the premiership tables. Currently Sturt have 34 teams in the top 4 and 15 teams on top of their respective divisions. More than any other club.

To Liam and Secret Sabre, well said.

Yothu, your ridiculous criticism of Sturt is anything but constructive.
If you want to help, I suggest you encourage Sturt members to raise issues with their coaching directors, rather than make accusations in a public forum.

I'm sure you have very little idea about Forestville's improvements in recent times - believe me, it has more to do than just having fun and giving everyone a go. I'm sure Sturt, North and Forestville aspire to create a fun environment for all their players, but that the success of these clubs has more to do with the hard work of their coaches and coaching directors.

And until you can spell Forestville correctly, your support is not welcome!

These kind of snipes at hard working club people isn't worth the time.

If u look at yothus previous comments (some have been deleted) it puts it into perspective.

load of polly waffle - we have welcomed many new players.

Sturt is no different from any other club except we have more players / teams

evry club always has issues - in fact sturt deal with treating people better than several other clubs i have been involved with

to the best of my knowledge morale amongst parents, players and club is honkey dorey

sounds like yothu has a jealousy problem - let's have some more sound evidence of your grizzle

Yothu, Forestville now poach more than Sturt so I really wouldn't say that they have got better because they are having fun!

And i think you are a joke for what you have said. Just out of curiousity what club are you from?

Been at Sturt for nearly 5 years

Had quite a few kids come and play for my teams

they have all come because they have a belief they will be better served at the club and I, for one, feel a tremendous responsibility towards people when they do this.

I have never poached one and to my knowledge it does not occur despite the rumours that many people perpetuate.

In terms of happiness, come and look at one of my training sessions, particularly the stuff Bob Morcom does, and you can make a judgement for yourself.

As a parent of a player who moved clubs I can say it was her decision and she has never been happier even though her previous club was also very good. At her training sessions all I see are happy faces working hard and coaches working to improve their players.

I did enjoy your post Yothu, I haven't had a laugh like that since last training session.

right on W.B.

While I don't agree with what Yothu has said at all I have heard from a sturt parent that I know that they are cutting down team numbers and players are going to be asked to find somewhere else??? Any truth to this?

the girls are "full" for summer - bar u10s, I suppose it may depend on coaches and exact amount players available to generate a new team.

ie 4 interested players will not be enough for a new team.

how some div 4/5 players go if div 1/2 country players come in for winter - i do not know

Sturt will do the best with what they have

sometimes quality instead of quanity

I meant existing players are going to be asked to find somewhere else.

it would only be beginners at div 4/5 level

it's a domino effect (no not pizza !) - div 1s go to 8 instead of 10 etc so the flow will go down the grades

Troublesome players may be pushed out if numbers are tight - or odd amount of players - if any are advised "no room at the inn" i would imagine it would only be a very small amount - as the club tries it's hardest to accomodate

one issue is sturt regularly attracts div 1 type of players - having to be moved into div 1/2 squads - pushing some down

we will have room for a couple of Under 12 girls as we will add one more team in Div 3 so there may be some shuffling up and down as some kids improve

Alf,

All CURRENT players are always entitled to their spot at the club. No CURRENT players would be asked to leave the club...there is absolutely no truth to that. We have nominated the same amount if not more teams in the BASA comp over the past couple of years to handle all the kids we have at the club, non have been turned away if they are CURRENT players.

We are certainly now at a point where our teams are very full so we are very selective in taking any NEW players to the club.

Any NEW players to the club must be able to make an 'impact at Div 1 or 2 level in a position that we do not have covered currently'.

We do this so that:

a) our existing players dont have an outside player recuited 'over the top of them' in a position that they currently fill

b) So that team numbers never exceed 9 players so that everyone gets adequate court time (ideally they would have 7 or 8 which is the case in many teams).

If they dont fall into this category we offer them a spot in our Domestic Comp (run in cunjunction with our good friends at the Eagles) until a spot becomes available in a district team.

Thanks for the question.

Nice one Yothu. Way to start a topic and get smacked back to the curb, by not only sturt people, but forestville too. You've gone awfully quiet, or just afraid you'll dazzle us with your wits again!