no wonder they're in such trouble..

with 'supposed' supporters on here sniping before even giving KB a chance..

shut your mouths, give your fingers a rest and ACTUALLY help your Club

pathetic pissant snipers..

Story in the paper up here today: "The Lions have pulled off the basketball coaching coup of the year with the appointment of former NBA and NBL player Kevin Brooks as mentor for their women's team".....

AJ and co are cunning cats and and talking to them last week getting KB in place was always part of the plan. Some things had to be put in place and situations changed in order for KB to take on the role. This is what has happened over the past couple of months.

This article is a far more accurate representation than 412643 and 412658. Seems there's lots of jealous people out there in the fact the Lions lurching from growth, to resource development and investment, to player and team output.

Just last year they had u14 boys and girls teams make U14 nationals, more kids than I recall have played OS on college scholarships (surely the best pathway for kids in this country given the abysmal state of basketball in Australia) they can't seem to take backwards step at the moment.

Still have a long way to go but from where they were just 4 yrs ago they're making some great inroads across the board.

BunyipGoodNews,
You are correct that the appointment of KB should be seen as a positive. The performance of the U14 teams has been outstanding and a credit to the coaches associated with those teams.

The number of kids playing overseas is good, but Lions continue to fail miserably as a club at district level. The decision to bring in "country kids" at the expense of local players has hurt the club badly at some levels. The U18 boys/U14 girls/U16 girls is testament to the damage done. Promising disgruntled players at one club a Div 1 spot is poor choice. Considering that they have now left the club and those local players that were shafted have gone as well is proof at how poor that choice was. While a decision to play the Yorkers U12 girls some seasons ago was a good choice at the time because there were no girls team in U12, the experiment has failed miserably with none of those girls playing at the club anymore and some following the coach to another club. Girls are still a problem at the club because of a lack of critical mass.

Shonky deals that only allow a certain person to brag to their coaching mates at other clubs how well the kids they coached are going OS actually hurts the club long term. Focussing on how many kids go to college is not helping the club. If those kids are good enough, they will go anyway. Bringing in state country kids that don't turn up to training, yet FIFO on Friday nights only really helps their aspirations, not benefit the club's W/L ratio in the long term.

There is no reason why the Lions should not be the dominant force at district level. For that to happen, forget about shonky dishonest deals to attract "the next best thing". Focus on developing the skills and teamwork of your players, then RETAIN those players by treating them respectfully and being competitive on court.

"AJ and co are cunning cats and and talking to them last week getting KB in place was always part of the plan. Some things had to be put in place and situations changed in order for KB to take on the role. This is what has happened over the past couple of months"
FFS, are you saying shonky deals in carparks?

My children have seen too many players pass through their junior teams. In eight seasons one of them has had over 70 players in the teams they have played in. Hardly a stable environment for success. Most aren't at the club anymore and half only played one or two seasons. Having such a high turnover must be really hard for coaches to be consistent.

Yes, the Lions have grown over the last 4 or 5 years, but make that growth sustainable. RECRUIT, RETAIN, RETIRE.

145, I laugh at people like you. You assume that the poster above is annoyed because their kid hasn't made the grade. Written like a coaching director with a crystal jaw.

Have you considered that they may be frustrated with the turnover of players?

Don't assume

I should add that as an outsider the thing that stands out when playing Centrals ( and other club) is that their teams vary greatly from year to year. When we play teams like Sturt and Forestville their teams are generally stable.

Agreed Lion Tamer. The Lions have too many kids come and go through their program. It's very frustrating for those who have been there for a while. Whenever a new blown-in comes in, it's pretty much "whateva". You know they play summer, might play winter, then usually that's it - gotta find someone else to teach them the Lion's Way. Whenever, a "State Country Player" comes down for winter season only, everyone gushes, but then they don't play all games, miss trainings and that upsets team balance.

145, there's no conspiracy. When you make comments like that it makes me think you are an insecure coach somewhere with poor people skills.

As far as the W/L ratio, the club might have gone from 20/80 to 30/70, but it's nowhere near 50/50, and a long way off of 80/20

great work lion but what you overlook is the simple reason the country kids have come into the lions girls program over the last few years is there was no girls program ie. no 12 div 1 girls at all when the yorkers turned up 4 years ago . The problem has been the lack of development since then ,particularly when the yorkers girls moved up to 14's , lions could not field a div 1 u12 girls team and consequently lost a lot of what was gained. hopefully with an u 10 program underway this will change and stop knocking the country kids who have turned up to play ball and only have to meet the clubs requirements for trainings etc. It is the club at fault here not the kids. Passionate bball people like AJ have and will continue to improve what is happening at gawler but it will take time and i am sure lions are on an upward trend whilst other higher profile clubs are not

Bruce,

The accuracy of Lion in the above comments, and others he has made under other names, is overwhelming. I'm sure there's video footage of the STARplex carpark shows many shady deals, guarantees and contracts exchanged with all these parents of young 14 and 15 olds in other clubs and country associations. These videos have been captured, retained and still sit alongside Zapruder film that shows the 2nd shooter in the Kennedy Assassination.

Obviously whoever was in charge out there has poor communication and people skills and so Lion demonstrates his superior people and communication skills by attacking a club, serviced by volunteers, in a public forum.

Lion forgets the fact that maybe some country kids just want to play ball. They want to play in the highest level they could and they chose the Lions to do this. They might have seen the club as a good positive, environment to play in. Maybe people like the Lion made it a negative environment for them and the coaches involved so they took their talents to Marden. Maybe the local kids capable of playing at a div 1 level wanted to be able to compete on Friday nights and not get hammered with kids that just weren't able to play at that level.

In the meantime from what I can see while they filled in the gaps at the top U16 and older they worked hard on the boys side to develop their u12s and u14s and now seeing the results of that.

In the words of Will Farrell in Anchorman - "stay classy Lion".

I know this is "off subject", but I would have to agree with some of Lions comments. There have been positives and negatives in the last few years.

There is an example of a country player who is Div 3 at best, getting a Div 1 spot as his sister is a top Div 1 player.

There are 78 boys who have left the programme in the last 3 years during AJ's reign. Generally a number of players were written off at a young age (mainly "shorter" guards etc). Some statistically had the least turnovers bringing the ball down the court and the best defence.

Many of these boys had good skills and are now disillusioned with basketball.

Seen a number of games down there where opposition teams win by mainly two things, turnovers bringing the ball down the court under a press and inferior outside shooting.

Looks like they are now addressing this recently. Have had a pretty good committee and should be successful in future.

BTW - I know it's not Div 1, but ex Centrals player David Humphries as a Freshman was the highest scorer in his College Conference and Allstar 5 in the US. Had a couple of injuries at age 18 in his only year in ABL, but had potential after being the overall top scorer in the Div 1 School Nationals when he was at Trinity.

archer

confusing and contradictory statements but what the hell i will bite -

'shady deals and contracts to 14 & 15 yo' what a joke ! I know nothing like that was going on in the girls program you must be getting centrals confused with the 'best club' in adelaide
At the end of the day a lack development of the girls program saw many leave who were happy out at gawler- if any 'deals' were being done they might have stayed !!

Anon

Yes 78, I have access to a list of names compiled by a previous committee member , as I said, there are many good people now in the Club and the area is one of the most rapidly expanding in the State so growth should be expected. I stated there have been positives, but also IMO and others negatives regarding loss of local players during this period.

Also it's great to see Ricky Simpson now back in the fold.

Rhythm, I coach boys so I've been following the Lions for a few years.... out of interest how many teams did the club have in div 1/2 in summer 2009?

How many total players back in summer 2009?

Does your friend have any numbers of win/loss records or number of kids from the club taking part in SAIS/Country stuff back then?

From an outsider perspective the club was defunct/broke/playerless more or less with no hope and opportunities for the players in 2009, which could explain the turnover - not much fun getting beaten by 20+ points each week or not even having a div 1 or 2 team in your age group to strive for. They had too few div 1 and 2 teams, players started too late and teams were getting pumped. Doesn't seem to be the case now.

I've seen the facilities out there, amazed by the resources they are putting into basketball with the school. I've been coaching for a fair few years and now the club seems to be a viable, competitive option for kids and families across the North for the first time ever. On the quiet, I've been telling my friends they should move out that way to get their kids involved in the School/Club experience out there....

Rhythm Willie, are you there?

Yes, you are correct in many of your points, things have improved considerably since 3 years ago, but the exodus is somewhat reflected in the current U18's results.

Actually rechecked, there's more than 78 boys passed through, I know a number of the families personally.

The effort being put into under 10's up and the Lions weekly programme at Starplex is now showing the benefits of getting better coaching at a younger age.

IMO the exodus was also to do with the quality of coaching at that point in time in some grades and that many kids were "written off" at too young an age.

Anon, I know you are meticulous with your stats, but 96 boys gone, Is that correct? Probably deserves it's own thread.