He has stooped to an all time low with his tech foul late in the last quarter. The game was up for grabs at that stage, he cost us 5 points plus the momentum that saw the 36ers catch up to reach that point.

Clarke has to go!

That Tech foul was the final straw.

When I see a coach continually having to bark instructions from the sideline and motion moves to his players, I see a coach who cannot deliver a message.Don't remember seeing Phil Smythe doing a lot of talking from the sidelines.....
The players should know exactly what to do when its game-time.

Its a sad day for our club!

Just Marty for now. Let the new coach decide his staff. Radford is obviously as frustrated as the supporters & needs a better leader. He was part of a c/ship side 2 yrs ago so he can't be that bad. I'll say this again - Clarke is an asst in our national program. WTF!!!

I see absolutely no reason to keep Clarke!

Clark needs to go. He's really pissed me off today.

The tech foul was costly no doubt.

Why did he bench Diamond for so long in the final quarter? It was too late for him to get anything offensively going. Defensive and Hustle he could keep trying.

Marty gave up on us and the team tonight.

We need a better Chief than that.

Carfino has mentioned something brad hill put on twitter that would upset sixers fans.

What did he tweet and did it upset sixers fans?

The tech was on Radford. Does Marty get that last straw back? ;)

Go from unproven Clarke to unproven Green? Not sure that's the answer.

Might've noticed that Fearne was constantly on his feet calling instructions to his team also. Gordie calls out adjustments too, plus has the benefit of his two veteran/captain-types on court.

There are a handful of problems out there. The fact that the coach stands up and calls things out is not one I'd be too worried about. But I'd put a shortlist of coaches together if it was at all an option.

Brad Hill tweeted ' nice to win in Adelaide as i'm not used to it'. Very clever tongue in cheek stuff to rev up the imbecile that cut him!!

Because he did what again while he was here? Nothing but a passenger in the two games he has played here this year too. Biggest bust of talent in the Nbl for a decade.

Ok Isaac give us a list of who should be looked at and interim coach would probably need to be a cheap option
As unless money is so tight cannot the group surely must be reviewing options

Marty and co are now just the laughing stock of Adelaide! Johnson can't guard anyone and Warren is the biggest spud in Adelaide import history. Keep this up Leeanne Grantham and you also will be on the outer!!!!!

Still, as Brett Maher said in commentary, its a good thing to go back to your 'home' town and win and while Hill may not have been a huge contributor for Cairns in their 2 games here he's still come away with 2 wins hasn't he...

I spose a shortlist of coaches would have to include guys like Joyce, Stacker, Molloy, all have there flaws but are experienced and have all coached in the playoffs.

I think after 2 rookie coaches in Ninnis and Clarke we need to get an experienced coach. Who else is out there??

Out of those 3 id go with Stacker, he is currently at the AIS, so would have good connections with the top young talent, and always was good at getting good young guys to the crocs, is proven at NBL level, Townsville often over achieved with him as coach in my opinion, and he appeared to have a good relationship with guys like Brad Newley, who he recruited to the Crocs and would be my number 1 target if i was the 36ers, so would atleast be worth a phone call, even if he is happy to stay in Europe, cant hurt but try and Stacker making the phone call may help.

If Maher wants to coach I think this is a great time for him to call the club and say "let me at it" Give him the rest of the year, expectations will stay reasonably low. If he performs he can look at keeping the position last year, if he isnt any good then he can walk away having rescued the club from Clark and Radford.

I dont want Maher's name tainted and I think if he does want to coach then this is the safest way to do so.

Either way Get rid of Clark and Radford..long enough is bad enough

Argh, my head still hurts. As always, too many questions and too many answers. I can understand why previous head coaches prefer not to attend the games.

Marty was quoted before the game as stating the team still set individual goals and as an example highlighted Diamon Simpson "being the best rebounder in the league".I can't see how this can be achieved in 18 minutes of a game. But perhaps herein lies the problem, individuals don't win games pursuing individual goals, teams win games by working as a collective units to outplay opponents.

And while on the man, if Simpson is too fatigued when the game is to be won then just how valuable is he to the overall success of the team? If the coach chooses not to run him then something is afoot on the bench, especially when the defensive enforcer in Daniel Johnson is sucking hard and only 1 substitution is made in just over 6 minutes of a very tight last quarter.

Aaron Ferme has done a excellent job of establishing a team and game plan that brings out the best from his roster. If only Clarke was capable of doing the same. Alias the more games I watch with Marty as head coach the less confidence I have in his ability to achieve this objective. But....we gotta keep faith because he's the coach.

Anon, I think those uniform mistakes are the responsibility of the manufacturer? Twice the Hawks have received uniforms with Forman as Foreman. A few of their players don't even have names on warm-up tops, etc. I saw someone somewhere compiling a list of uniform mistakes made around the league. Can't remember the last time the league had a common manufacturer that didn't make routine mistakes.

Ads, he has. On paper, guys like Brebner, Williams, etc are not standouts. They were also on the road and it was their second game for the round. Thing is, everyone talks about Stacker, Molloy, Westover and so on, but who would've been comfortable putting Fearne in charge originally? Came about when Cairns were all but dead - he might never have been given a chance otherwise.

I think Stacker is now happy at the AIS but you never know.

clarke = gawn

at seasons end he will be released

I agree isaac & Fearne is now talked about as the 'Wayne Bennett' of bball up here. They want him in this role for 20+ years. I was nervous with him at the start but love him now. Lemanis also needed time to get it right & good on the club for being patient!

Lemanis is a good positive guy & won the respect of blokes like Penney, Ronno, CJ etc as well as being passionate about NZ Bball.

Find one of these - it's not Clarke, not by a long shot!!!!

Isn't it funny how quick they sack a player or offical when things are not going right. But, the coach. I'm glad to see that they keep a guy who continuously thinks the top of the ladder is the bottom.
Maybe the club needs new management. I have nothing to complain about the players, indians are only as good as their chief.
Maybe Custer would still be alive if he was chief there

Ok didnt see the game at all and only going by box scores and the 'commentary' on here, but can someone explain why all the angst over Simpson sitting on the bench in the 4th quarter

From what Ive read the Sixers were down in the last with him on the bench but managed to claw back to level pegging before the tech foul which shortly after Simpson came back on. What did the group Clarke have on court actually do so wrong that Simpson would have fixed?

Sure Clarke is making some monumental errors this season but this seems to be one occasion when the rotation he had on the floor was actually working?

Are yer sure the tech was on Radford ?
The Advertiser talks about suicidial idociy from Clarke who reckons there was a 'misunderstanding of wot was said' on NBL.com
Maher sounds like a pretty good coach on TV.

Statman i agreed with u til i saw the game. Cairns got a couple of easy offensive rebounds due to being to short in the last. Simpson should have been subbed in or played the whole last qtr in place of Bartlett.

Why have him if u dont use him in the clutch?

Absolute stupidity & embarassing now!

When he was subbed out in the third, we were down eight points. While he was off the court and until the horrible sequence after 66-66, we had caught up those eight points.

All that crap went down with 3:44 to play in the game. Before that, the combo was working to whatever extent.

Not sure how fans can rip a coach for apparently taking off players whenever they get on a role, but then want to mess with a combination that was working until that point.

Their bigs didn't score in that patch until Simpson was subbed back in. Before that, it was Grabau, Wilson, Warren I think.

The tech was the absolute killer. We had pulled level and probably had some momentum at that point. Four point play is one thing, but that extra possession added five points that broke the game. I think it's pretty fair to take shots at whoever brought that about.

Had the chance to meet and talk with one of the players at a private social event recently and from what i can tell the players dont have confidence in the coaching staff (well at least this player who is one of the starting 5)

Stephen "NO" Weigh AKA MR 33min Per Game (injured or not) being teachers pet isnt going down too well either.

Seems all is not rosy behind closed doors :(

dir

Put in Al Green as an interim coach and see how he does if hes no good the we can sign Stacker or Molloy at seasons end
.

I agree with the idea but don't know enough about Als coaching to say if he should be interim coach but anyone with NBL ball knowledge to inject something back to team and supporters.

it was definitely radford who got the tech because when it was called the ref pointed not at marty but at radford on the bench he was the one who kept on screaming after they were warned to stop

With regards to uniforms, Im still waiting for my Blaze members shirt to arrive. The manufacturer stuffed up the original delivery (incorrect sizes supplied) and havnt been able to fix the problem yet!

Anon, they might not be able to reject a defect if they need a singlet (even if a colour is wrong) to suit up the player! One of the "Foreman" errors had that singlet arrive up in Queensland before a road game - not enough time to get it fixed on a game day or day before.

It is all a bit average though. Needs finer attention to detail.


Back on coaching, I'm surprised there haven't been more clamouring for Smyth to return. Realistically, every known option has some reason you wouldn't rush to pick them up. e.g., weren't renewed for a reason, or couldn't get it done at past teams. On one hand, I think you could expect that Stacker/Joyce/etc bracket to do better than Marty, but on the other you want to forge ahead with confidence, not flounder for another year.

Seemed that the finger pointing was at Clarke who was talking to the ref for a long while.
Whether invective began to fly from Radford , I couldn't see or hear that.
Sounds like they'll be sayin that the ref misunderstood what was said.
Our players go at it pretty hard here for a week (other than Weigh ) and that was stupid from the coaches to do that.

be thankful you aint an afl st kilda member
spelt 'fortius quo fidelius' as 'furtius quo rdelius' on the scarf you had to purchase.

Stat/Issac, it is difficult to argue against facts using hypotheticals however at the time I considered Johnson's performance for much of the game as being relatively lacklustre (my perception only).

Both Crosswhite and Johnson looked stuffed halfway through the last and throwing a fresh Simpson at Crosswhite might have completely nullified his influence. Sure Johnson finished with 13 points but I recall 4 or 5 of those points come after the '9 point play' when the outcome was done.

Inserting Simpson for Johnson earlier in the last might have brought fresh energy into a tiring combo and in particular created more opportunities for our shooters to get open looks or at least draw more fouls out of a tired Cairns outfit. On reflection though, Weigh did appear to be playing the post quite well.

We'll never know and I can continue to hypothesise all I like, it won't change the result.

I don't think that would be just your opinion. It was not a great game by DJ and yes, a few of those late opportunities were once things were out of reach.

But whatever was going on, the team were catching up during that period.

Finishing the third, it was Warren (in for Daly), Bartlett, Herbert, Weigh, Johnson. Creek was in for about 30 seconds of Herbert's time.

Same group started the fourth. Ng came in for Bartlett. Then Bartlett back in for Ng once the scores were at 66-66.

The Taipans used a few players in that same time: Wilson, Williams, Grabau, Loughton, Crosswhite, Warren, Dowdell.

I was a huge fan of the Clarke appointment and was probably one of the few people left on here who would have kept him until the end of this season. Not now after yesterdays game.

Sometime during the fourth quarter, when the Sixers were making a strong comeback and before the technical foul debacle I was asked do you think they will win from here? Straight away I answered no. No, not out of cynicism, not out of doubt of the ability I believe the team has and not out of some alterior motive of a coaching change that I did not previously hold. I answered no because of history and repetition of mistakes. We'd seen it all before and most likely would see it again, a defensive break down, a substitution/ or lack of that would make no sense or in last nights example a needless technical foul that cost us the game.

The team isn't going to get anywhere under Clarke, we might get the odd win here and there but we aren't ever going to be in a position to challenge for a title as the team is currently constructed. Sure we could give him next season, let him reload the roster, but what chance is there of immediate success with an adjustment period necessary or the need for a new 'three year' plan.

The squad has a good mix of youth and experience, talent distributed across to be able to cover all positions, good depth, and some very very good individual players such as Johnson, Weigh, Simpson and Warren even if they all aren't performing at the moment.

I would love to see Phil Smyth take over for the rest of this season. A more relaxed attitude towards training, a calmer demeanor in games, more trust in players natural ability and to not have them so worried about making mistakes, a real respect between past and present players towards him.

Similarities between the United Coolen/Kosmina situation are glaring, but the success that followed isn't a guarantee. Because of this I would rule out Maher as a replacement. I would rather if he was given the coaching job that it was from the start of a season so he could get his own squad and start fresh. There are to many "ifs"

I don't doubt he could get more passion from the players in playing for the Sixers but if they continue to falter who's to say he would want to come back, or have a interim coaching losing record count against him when it comes to the interview process. The other negative is lack of coaching experience which many fans/posters claim to be a major fault of Clarke's ie the 'this is the pros now not the AIS', well at least he had success coaching there.

Sorry I accidentally pressed post beforehand, but to briefly continue, insert Smyth, see if he can't instill some more pride in playing for the Sixers and playing a bit more carefree which I think is the main arguments for a Maher appointment. If he has success see where the team can go, if he can't look at someone new again at the start of next season much like the Crows going from Craig/Bickley/Sanderson.

At the least it should reinvigorate players and supporters, assuming he would take the job.

Two local coaches who might be long shots - Simons from Forestville and Butler from Sturt. Not really NBL experienced though. Simons has had a strong run with Forestville.

Sapwell is a great people-person who could be useful in a role, brings NBL experience as a player and has at least coached before.

I'd be worried that the league has passed Smyth by.

Yep, I agree that it's time to change! What frustrates me most is the constant bad timing of subs! When someone is doing something good or on a roll, I wish they'd just forget their damn rotations and leave players on when they are hot!! It has happened all too much with many of the players, notably with Ng and Simpson.

Why Simpson sat out nearly that entire last qtr baffles me... the crowd around us at the time was far from impressed also.

The coaching staff failes to respect 'hot' players.

Very, very frustrating!!!

The rotation system rather than the heat system has pissed me off many times this season.

Many players are feeling it and making shots such as Ng or Simpson. Then they are being subbed instead of being allowed to keep going to carry some momentum. Very frustrating.

We need a new leader and coach please.

I wouldn't mind Phil or Al as interim's for the rest of this season. Both would gain increased media attention for us and crowds would fill again.

The tech was the last straw for me and many others... the fans want a new coach who will rotate his players correctly, use Darren Ng when he is on court by setting plays for his pure shooting, get the imports in the thick of the game and "Expect them to deliver", stop treating Mitch Creek like he's the bees nees and make him earn his minutes by scoring more, so I hope that either Ninnis (who didn't have the talent or imports that Marty has got) or even Brett Maher who pointed out exactly what was wrong with the 36ers all through the TV replay last night, at least in quire if he would for rest of this season at least. If that fails chase an NBL assistant or give Mark Radford the reigns for rest of the season without Clarke breathing down his neck so we know if he is cut out for it. On a positive note well done to Stephen Weigh for going aggressive to the basket and putting some score on the board by not always forcing it against a double or triple team, much better effort tonight. Marty you are a good coach at junior/AIS development level, but as most of us can see now the fans gave you a shot but you are not cutout to be an NBL senior coach, Go 36ers please listen to the fans!!! PS If Smyth is interested in interim coaching like Kosmina in A league, back it in as I with many fans will start attending the games again!!!

Anonymous, you act like we were down 15 going into the last quarter. We were down 4. That is two baskets! The players that were on were playing well BUT Simpson is one of the best players in the league and deserves to be out there.

No other team would have such a talented player sitting on the bench. I can just see the Orlando Magic coach now saying "I'm sorry Dwight Howard I just can't put you on as a couple of bench players have clawed our team back from 4 points in this final period! Ill put you on with about 2 minutes to go"

It was a low percentage strategy by the coach and another example why he has been so unsuccessful as a coach.

The five that started the last quarter were Warren, Bartlett, Herbert, Weigh and Johnson. We were down 4. Cairns had Wilson, Williams, Warren, Crosswhite, Loughton. Basically both teams were running 3 guards. With these lineups on we scored 4pts to their 4pts.

8:18 We subbed Ng on for Bartlett. Made a 2-0 run with this lineup.

7:16 Grabau came on for them for Williams. We scored 7 to their 5 with this lineup.

4:25 Bartlett then came back on, they went on a 9-0 run and you know the rest of the story.

In the 6:16 that occured before "that" moment here's Weigh and Johnson's contributions.

Weigh- 4pts, 2 turnovers
Johnson- 2pts, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 foul

Would Johnson and Simpson been a better combo at the PF and C spots? Should we have run Warren, Herbert/Ng, Weigh, Simpson and Johnson?

We outrebounded them 6-4, but gave up 3 offensive boards. Would Simpson have denied some of those? Lots of questions. All I know is you have your best players on the floor in the clutch unless they've been totally awful, are injured or in foul trouble. Simpson had been playing fine. Cairns kept Warren on despite his quiet game and he won the game for them in 1 play.

Chris Warren's last quarter numbers up until Warren's 3......

0/2 threes
0/1 twos
1 turnover
1 foul

I'd have liked to have seen a Herbert, Ng/Creek, Weigh,Simpson,Johnson lineup at some point, especially down the stretch.

Creek lazy? I must be watching a different guy. Diving on the floor, playing tight D. Creek and Herbert are our best two defenders in the backcourt.

forcey, Diamon's stats in the last nine minutes he played in the game across the second half: 4 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block. His second quarter: 1/3 FG. 3 rebounds, turnover.

Not a whole lot more dominant really. Each of those players' numbers look small if you break it down. His stats were efficient as usual, but I didn't think it was one of his better games and I could see that we were making the runs going small. Two +8 runs without Simpson up until the tech and it was the tech that killed them.

Would like to know why Radford screamed at Simpson like a naughty child when he subbed out? He didnt appear to have done much wrong.

Why doesn't Radford just become a stand-up comic.

I've been a season ticket holder since 1985(saw the GREAT MD play his 1st game here), and my perception is that the most sucessful coaches, eg Ken Cole, have been the motivators, not the technically correct ones.
The ability to promote LOCAL players and let them back their own judgement on court to me is priceless.The most sucessful 36er teams have had a good number of S.A. lads in the team, but now we don't give them a contract and send them off to be sucessful interstate.
So the suggestion that Al Green and Rupert Sapwell be considered for the job would sit well with me, as they understand the league, something that Marty Clark doesn't appear to.
If things are not changed, I wouldn't renew my tickets next year because all we get now is crap, heartless b/ball.

I would love Smyth to return as coach. He would make it fun again & he would be fresh!

Maher as his assistant - BRING IT ON!!!

was only a matter before Clarke/Radford were tech fouled.

No doubt someone will say it is the refs fault

tropical booze, I couldn't agree more. Smyth and Maher are the heart and soul of the successful years.

I don't envy any of the owners of the club right now. What an unbearable position to be in to lack the finances to replace the coach and at the same time feel the enormous pressure placed on them by the fans, the sponsors and the media to sack the coach. Doesn't matter what the choose to do, its going to hurt.

Watched the replay tonight and I could see why we went small with Weigh at the 4. This was the best I have seen him play this season, because he was working his way into the key and using his height to score over his man finally. This is how he should be playing, not jacking up threes most of the time!

Having said that, I thought DJ was looking tired halfway through that last quarter and Simpson needed to be brought in for him. He made a couple of "I'm exhausted and on autopilot" defensive errors where he showed on the ball-screen too early and the ball-handler just had an open run to the basket. Those two plays resulted in an open layup and the and-1 three that Warren scored.

If Simpson had come in with about 6-8 mins to go, DJ could have had a blow for 2-3 mins and then returned to close it out with Simpson.

Another one that got away. I'm praying that Rabbit can find some confidence, because he has lost the plot in the past few weeks. He's gone from a knock-down shooter to a guy that's too scared to take his shot at times. The Sixers need him to snap out of it or we aren't going to win any more games this season.

Better watch out for the Gong too. Ubaka should help them quite a bit and they're only one game behind us now. There'll be no coming back for Marty if he wins the wooden spoon this year.

Clarke is rude ... to the refs ...
Seems they told Leeanne that the Tech was on a player
not them.

Boti seems to basicly say that Radford was guilty of getting the Tech but the coaches are not willing to put there hand up for it so they are blaming the players on the bench.

Wouldnt the ref have told Clarke what the Tech was for?

Clarke was having plenty to say , Radford called out,
maybe a player said somethin also.

Since when has any of this bunch of so called coaches taken the blame for anything that has happened to this club other than screwing it over. At least Phil took some blame and was honest Ninnis was to busy with other things to worry about the club.So the answer is lets get over this year and HOPE to christ we have a club next year. Better still have a team

Considering the way the coaches re-acted to the Tech it must have been Clarke or Radford.
They would have at least talked to the player otherwise and they didn't say anything while I was watching them.

The team really needs a change to kick start the players and fans.

Bring in an experienced coach for the rest of the season or longer if they are good enough (ie Stacker).

1 or 2 good Qs are not enough, can't rememeber the last time they played well for all 4 Qs.

I thought Ninnis was better at taking responsibility than Smyth. He did need to be shifted on though.

If the playing group is losing confidence in the coaches, the top thing on the don't-do list is surely throwing them under the bus for the tech, probably even if it was one of them.

Best case, you suggest that everyone could shoulder some responsibility for that horrific passage: the foul on the shot, anyone who queried the ref beyond what was reasonable, an angry bench, etc. Or Marty saying "Look, it wasn't me that got whistled at that point, but I have to take ultimate responsibility for keeping my assistants and players in order. The timing was incredibly unfortunate and I'm very frustrated at the timing because the guys had played themselves back from a deficit to have every chance of winning."

I saw Radford call Clarke back from arguing with the ref , over in Perth , but clearly ,there's frustration now. Things are broken up out there.

Ok...Boti always has an agenda behind his articles. For the conspiracy theorists out there try this one on for size...
1. Sixers want Clarke gone but cannot afford the payout
2. Sixers want B.Maher in but no position for him currently
3. Can't move the head coach so put the blow torch on the assistant.
4. Find the excuse to move Radford on telling head coach that a B.Maher will be filling the role. Clarke no longer has the choice of his assistant.
5. This may prompt Clarke to walk which would negate a payout.
6. If he doesn't walk, at least B.Maher is there to offer some sensible advice and gets a grounding for the head role after next year.

This is not far fetched at all and to me is the most logical solution in this debacle. Think about it!!

I guess the only problem there is that noone has ever heard Maher indicate the slightest bit of interest in coaching

Perhaps it was the same "can't catch, can't throw" cameraman from the cricket that yelled out at the ref!!

Europa63, a nice conspiracy theory, but haven't we said that Marty needs to wear a tin foil hat?

Hold the boat just one moment.

Does someone ned to travel to ZImbabwe a la John Saffron style to see a witch doctor to put a curse on the coaches?

You were good at the start here , but lately your behaviour is inappropriate , even if the headcoach argues with the refs for most of the game.
So , goodbye Mr Radford ... I'd prefer someone here more befitting.

ah Jack , you can always trust him about the Winnie Blues.

Radford that got the tech , not Marty.

Move on people we have a game to win tomorrow night.

The biggest issue with RADFORD is his head is bigger than his body. Radford you are an assistant coach NOT head coach so learn how to be Clarke's little bitch and dont upset other teams players refs most of all fans . its not the 1st 2nd or even 3rd time this seems to happen more than it should.Behave

Stat, you don't need to explicitly state that you will be a coach.

I've percieved Brett to be a proud and loyal club man who would be concerned about the club remaind relevant. Brett publicly stating that he has no confidence in the coach damages public perception of the organisation, regardless of whether he's echoing the sentiment of much of the fan base.

I imagine Brett would instead state he'll do whatever he can that will best help the club, which could imply "I'll coach if Management decided it was time to remove Marty".

*remaining*

clearly you don't know Brett

Some of us were sitting at the airport laughing at you fools in Adelaide posting on this forum about your coaches.We were just wondering how many of you have coached at a high level or in fact coached at all. Issac this is your set up and you offer lots of opinion have you ever coached men at a senior level? You seem to be critical a lot of Smyth yet his record with Adelaide in his 11 seasons is this best of any club over that period.Ninnis is obviously a friend as you give him some protection and Clarke you are mixed in how your critical of him.Yet some of the fools post on here leave you way behind it does show though you are not the educated fans you read more like the less researched fools.Perhaps you need to look else where as to why your coaches are good or bad clearly you people put it all on the coach without finding out why its happening or happened.Will trade you Robillard for Smyth or Ninnis right now