Give Scotty a break.

It's been 4 games.

It's a completely different team from last year.

Plus we are 2-2.

I remember a time when the Sixers being 2-2 wasn't a comfort at all.

That time is long gone.

Id have thought Cortez was already in a little trouble.

Did the Wildcats have an unbelievable shooting night or what, cmon no one was going to beat the Cats last night, they were awesome.

When a team racks up 30 points in 10 minutes you know its going to be one of those nights.

Home team wins again.

The question is - can he coach? Jury out!

i thinks scotty is a great guy, put there is a lot of doubt on his coaching ability, why in the world the went with cortez is ridiculous, cortez and never shined/come close to his playing ability when he was at the hawks. First thing scott needs to do is get rid of cortez

also i think lemanis should be on his last legs as well, he has had amazing squads and really hasnt had success..i think he needs to watch himself

Cortez was a strange call obviously to do with money. Is it true NG's Dad is the team doctor to save money? I think the latter is a smart move only. Get a decent 2nd import!

As for NZ i think they aren't as good without Jones. They also have import problems. Drey will have his full coaching nous under the microscope this season. Being under the tutelage of Brett Brown would be a plus one would think!

& i think the Wilcats will be the real deal this season so dont panic 6er fans, they will smash a lot of sides!

Depends on what you call a "last chance".

They say there are only two types of coaches, those who are sacked, and those about to be sacked.

I would suggest calls for sacking are a little premature. The comp this season will be very tight and any away win will count. I believe you could count the away wins on one hand so far this season.

However, a 30 point loss (for whatever reason) is an embarassment and a good coach will turn this around and motivate his group. Two 30 point losses on the road signal danger signs, three 30 point losses on the road and then Scotty might pack his desk up himself.

Thanks for that Anon. I thought things were getting that tight in this league that Darren NG was going to double as shooting guard/club doctor. Would be great unless he himself went down.

i am not suggesting for one moment that any one be hung for getting beaten on the road.

i am suggesting that there seems to be a negative pattern developing at the sixers where it is ok to get FLOGGED on the road (a huge difference to going down fighting)

i know it is a different team to last year,but it looks a bit same same to me.

scotty and co have been talking the tough defence thing for the 2nd year now, and still no trace of it.

jack toft - as a coach
you are responsible for the team you put on the floor, every season,every game and every sub.
you are responsible for the attitude/fighting spirit(or lack of)in which they play with.

it is not ok to get beaten by 30 any time,it may happen but its not ok.

just as well it wasnt a 48 minute game

what i like about the 40 min game is it is putting every one under the microscope.....and about time!

Mark Tyndale and Mike Chapell are cheaper and better options than Groves.

I agree with what you say Skull! That's a good post!

You have to go back to the Darnell Mee & Kevin Brooks days to find the last Sixers team that was at least competitive on the road. It's been an issue for the club for best part of a decade and is something that appears to only be getting worse. Playing on the road is always tough but how many complete blowouts has the team endured on the road during the last 5 years? Too many!

And yet it continues despite changes in owners, coaches, imports and national players. Very frustrating.

So if it has been happening for 5 years regardless of owners, coaches, players etc then maybe everyone is underestimating how hard it is to win away?

If it has been happening that long how is it Groves fault, sorry to break this to you but Cooper and Ng where the only 2 that were any good last night.

ABC123, are you sure Chappel and Tyndale were cheaper options? I'd be EXTREMELY surprised if that were the case.

And Jay-Jay Manners, I think our road form was pretty decent in that year we won the championship in the post Darnell KB era!

Kinda interesting: Cortez's facebook picture is still of him with Sth Dragons teammates. Granted one of them is Matty Burston but time for a change I reckon.

Skull, in life, it doesn't matter what happens to you, how you react is important. The games was a shocker - how Scotty smacks the team into shape is important.

I would expect Scotty to rise to the occasion

It doesn';t take long for you guys to turn on your own team does it? It is pathetic. 2 and 2 and a bad loss on the road. See Woollongong beat New Zealand and go top and New Zealand fall behind Adelaide! I thought New Zealand were favourites to win the title, so I guess it time for them to sack their coach.

Cortez has been discussed many times. I'm not a fan but can appreciate what they are trying to achieve in running him and Gilchrist in the back court.

I feel Cortez should and always has played best as a swingman 2/3 with a bit of freedom, can he still play that role who knows, but maybe he needs a bit of freedom out there (the problem is we have young promising Brad Hill who deserves that role).


As for 2001-02 (post Darnell-KB) Championship the Sixers had 17 wins and 13 losses for the season.
On the road - 6 wins and 9 losses.

Losing on the road happens (and this season in the NBL quite a bit, is it only 3 away wins so far total?), I don't like the fact that a lot of sporting teams Not just NBL) are starting to accept it all to willingly. Where has the fighting spirit gone? To be blown out by 20+ is pretty poor but as mentioned it can happen as much. The biggest test is how well they bounce back not just agains the Tigers at home on Wednesday but the next time they hit the road!

I feel that Cortez Groves should sit at the end of the bench and not play at all.

X.... Cortez Groves facebook picture has absolutely nothing to do with his basketball ability, and its borderline creepy that you are THAT keen to cause controversy you'd bother looking at his page.

HAI GUYS, I NEED A JOB RIGHT NOW AND I'M ONE OF THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS:

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200801/r217037_846258.jpg

Alas Humpa, Victor is playing in Israel at the moment ;)

"X.... Cortez Groves facebook picture has absolutely nothing to do with his basketball ability, and its borderline creepy that you are THAT keen to cause controversy you'd bother looking at his page."

Sorry, think you're taking my comment the wrong way. I added Cortez just for a laugh to see what he's like. I've actually been the one defending Tez on many occasions on here and by no means am I trying to stir up controversy. And obviously it's not a reflection of his basketball ability. Just found it interesting that he hasn't updated it with a pic of his new teammates and was wondering how he's fitting in. I for one hope he can perform to the standard we know he's capable of and am not about to jump down his throat after 2 bad games. He could be a real x-factor for us this season and I hope he picks his game up. Disregard my original comment if you don't think it means anything.

2-2 is not impressive when both wins were at home and both losses on the road. It hardly conjures up confidence in winning any games on the road. Its especially unimpressive when you consider the margins of the win and loss games. People should stop making excuses for the team saying they are a different team from last year and need time to settle. They have only played 4 games but have been training almost every day for the last 3 months together. To me that's plenty of time to settle. No excuses for injuries either because most teams at present have some injury woes. The season is only young, but the dangers have already been recognised. Action is needed right now to turn this around.

Not many teams are winning games on the road this year, but 30 points is very rough even if they were just hitting all their shots. Cairns suffered something similar in their first game and bounced back OK. Can't take the Tigers too lightly.

Bit rough though looking for Scottys head this early but certainly have capitulated on road really badly last 2 years.
But with team chosen we are always going to struggle to big strong aggressive teams especially in away games.
There is a old saying " You get what you pay for "
EG Did not want to spend good money to get Bevo.when we had chance.
He certainly is a class above most NBL coaches.
He gets his team to produce no matter how ordinary of a team he has or changes to teams.
Which of course have to say all teams had huge changes this season so no excuses on that one and please not the old " six Weeks" again.
Secondly Groves was always the wrong player for this team and no form .
If had to buy cheap then would have been better give a unknown a go .
Anyway hope we can fire up to give Tigers a hiding at home whilst they are down

I think Groves, in form, is the right player for the team. He's looked athletic in the home games I've seen, trying the right things, just missing the bucket too often.

Isaac, I've noticed the same thing with Groves. He keeps getting to the basket no problem, but inexplicably keeps missing shots that look very makeable!

He generally has handled the ball well when spelling Gilchrist at the point and also missed out on a couple of assists in the first half against Perth because our butter fingers forwards couldn't catch the ball!

The main things I am concerned about though are that Groves appears to duplicate what Hill's role should be offensively, tends to over-dribble in trying to create at times and attempts so few jumpshots that I'm beginning to wonder if he can shoot from the outside at all!

I'm not ready to call for his head yet, but I might start calling him "The Enigma", because I just can't figure out how he isn't having a bigger impact on the scoreboard!

Good point about duplicating what Hill brings (though maybe not the back-up PG stuff).

Yeah, Groves is far and away a better backup point than Hill and Ng hasn't really shown the composure and vision needed there either. So its pretty obvious why the Sixers loaded up on imports in the backcourt!

Everyone reacts differently to pressure. Throw guys like Robert Rose and Willie Farley in front of a rabid Dome crowd, and they rise to the occassion.

Throw other guys like Mark Tyndale or Mike Chappell into the pressure cooker of expectation, and it gets the better of their athletic ability and natural talent.

To me, that's what it looked like Cortez Groves was enduring against Townsville. A guy with pressure to perform, thrown a life line by an organisation that expects results from its imports putting more pressure on himself to perform.

He seemed to force shots in an attempt to get in the groove, which only tightened him up more when they didn't drop.

I may be off the mark, but that's how it appeared to this fan; a guy with ability trying too hard to carve a roll into a squad. 'Tez can play. He just needs to remember he wasn't brought in to score 30ppg - he was brought in to compliment a guard rotation in other ways.

Hopefully he settles in and finds his niche in the rotation sooner rather than later. Personally, I'd prefer Ng or Hill to start, depending on the opposition.

It's easy to say wait for the right shots, but in 40 minute games and deep benches, your scoring average will hardly look any better. From the two home games we've seen, I thought Cortez only forced one shot (towards the end of the Crocs game) and he's otherwise been fine.

As I said, just my opinion. Then again, I'm not huge on the dribble-drive offence either, so I may be biased.

Loco engineers the conversation so as to create another opportunity to mention Robert Rose... why am I not surprised? :P

I'm up to three Rose singlets hanging on the walls at home - dug up another one out of the blue from an old Torrens Valley mate :p Only the South-East jersey eludes me...

Damn, wish I had one Loco!

At the risk of side-tracking further...

I have a six pack sitting on the fridge - still unopened and in the original plastic - of West End Draught with the Sixers on the side of the can after winning the 99 (?) Championship.

I'm amazed I never downed them in a drunken / coma enducing stupor. Duff beer for me...Duff beer for you...

Duff beer I have...lol. Unopened, suprised really..

Me too, I still have an unopened can of Sixers Camel Piss. I think I drank the others and saved one for posterity... or maybe I just couldn't stomach any more Duff!

Those were good days. I look back now and realise how lucky we were to have a lineup like that. They'd still kill most teams the NBL had to offer in the past decade.

Not sure id theyd kill them, but they would certainly be one of the top teams. Depth might be an issue these days, but not that big an issue.

In any other week I'd argue with you anon.