Al peekaboo Green.

What improvements has Al made to the club as a whole Big Willy?

Al loves Woodville family? Coached 12s last year and deserted them. Coached 18s this year and barely showed up, if he did was late and did once they started winning and then deserted them. Loves the Woodville family. He didn't get the contract he wanted mid season so put in motion to take down Benn. Loves Woodville. That article is a crock of shit.

40 people include his new board I bet so he can do what he wants. Like Torrens Valley and where are they now?

051, that is the sanest thing that has been written about this whole saga.

Gullible Woodville people are blinded by the fact that he's Al Green. Fact is most clubs wouldn't even consider him in the first place, even for a junior team.

Ask South what happened there. Ask experienced coaches what they secretly thing of Al Green the coach. Then the person.

"I don't feel it is ethical to try and recruit players for next year and beyond if you don’t know you are going to be in the position yourself," he said.

As an outsider it doesn't seem right that Al is asking for an extension when your a third of the way thru a season. It's done at the end of the season, period.

Was another team calling Al to coach? I don't see this happening to be honest, and I'm not having a go at Als coaching ability, it's 8 games into a season.

My question is to Al is does he think its ethical trying to recruit players for next year when you're favourites to win this year. Which players in this year team are you replacing?

And being part of the Clubs management isn't it his first priority to develop players from Juniors into the Seniors team?

I don't get it.

When did the revival start? From an outsiders point of view their teams appear as bad as they ever have!

Recruiting players into your ABL program is not a club revival! Nor does it show you can coach! Just shows that you can use your connections to recruit and win games.

I love a good 'one sided story'!

There boys are going ok don't rat on them completely. Girls yeah they are bad.

To the level of a 'revival' though?

Guess it just shows Al's ego and self importance as he would of fed all that to Boti. Probably ghost wrote it!

A well written article there....sponsored by Al green. What a load of crap! From the looks of it, Benn has implemented the long standing rule that the club doesn't give long term (more than 1 year) coaching contracts and Al hasn't got his way so has decided to take everyone down with him! Can I ask a couple of things...

1 - Why does Al now care so heavily about who is on the board? he is still only the interim VP after taking over from Kym clark who left for family reasons and Al was HIGHLY RELUCTANT to take on the position and was trying to get someone else to take over for him...

2 - Of these apparent 100 signatures, how many of these people were actually at the AGM when Benn was voted in by a very reasonable amount?? there would have been 50 people maximum in the room that day!

3 - How can the board be judged on there performance already? it has had control for less than a year and has spent most of that time fixing the mess that the previous board left by all accounts. surely there hasn't been enough time to actually make that judgement accurately.

Re reading the 'article' this comment says it all for me. "Green said problems first emerged when he sought a contract extension." Going back to my original comment, the club has never given more than a 1 year deal. so that to me smells of Ego, and not getting what I want so ill just take down the board to get my way!!

Now my own personal view and I feel im more than entitled to have one after almost 20 years of service to the club is that the people that have signed this petition are a contributing to making this club's instability after it has had nothing but positive signs (while still requiring more work i.e. girls program etc ill admit) with people working hard together from the last AGM and even before. You should all be ashamed if you have put your name to this crap as it should have been addressed at the end of the season....WHEN IT IS ALWAYS ADDRESSED!!!

Ill guarantee 1 thing each and every player that pulls on a woodville jersey is playing for there team mates, the logo on that jersey and the enjoyment of playing basketball, NOT FOR THE F*****G BOARD AND NOT FOR 1 MANS EGO!!!

GROW UP FOR THE SAKE FOR THE CLUB - PLEASE

Its abl basketball not the nba. Just wait till the end of the season al before u chase players. Have to re-sign part way through season in order to recruit players - what a load of rubbish!!!

Ok Southern - the bar has been set...

Not bad for a bloke who was getting more money himself than the CABL salary cap....

At no time has he cared for the club.
Shows up when it suits him, has done nothing to develop the boys program but more than willing to take credit for the work of people like Corey and others.
He has dont nothing for the girls program.
As somebody typed above, other than recruit players for the CABL teams what has he done???

He is manipulative, and is more than willing to stab the current board in the back to get what he wants, and what is even worse is that he did it to the last board too!!

When will people wake up and look through the curtains!!
He is a cancer that needs to be removed. All nice and shiney to your face, but behind your back he is the killer in the night.


Good to see Boti doing his normal great journalistic work, in Benn bashing (not that we dont all like a good Benn bashing). Other than reading how Benn is horrible and that Al loves Woodville, I got nothing out of that blog by Boti.

Does anyone think that giving one year deals for a head coach puts pressure on them to perform immediately which may be driving the desire to recruit. Would a longer term deal to a coach saying yes we see some initial pain but we want you to develop a team primarily from within rather than from outside.

He had one good year does that deserve a multi year extension? Had 2 sub .500 seasons prior to that. Did he deserve it?

Depends what the expectation was. Depends what the instructions were regarding playing juniors or go buy a premiership. Without knowing what the KPI's were it is a question which can't be answered

taking legal action against volunteers!! says a lot!
if he had just got on with the job and kept getting wins he would have got his extension

Yep we have heard one side of the story but not the other

* One good year and 2 sub-500 seasons prior to that?

- Preliminary final last year and top of the table this year at the time of getting terminated. I haven't heard anything about a player revolt or anything of that nature. In fact, to the contrary I have heard that the players are behind Al.

* Getting more money than the entire ABL cap?

- What money Al was on is something between Al and the Board. So the comment about the money must be coming pretty close to home.


* Shows up when it suits him?

- We are talking about the termination of the ABA Mens Head Coach position. Did he miss trainings or games? I haven't heard anything like this from the Board. In fact the members haven't heard anything from the Board.

* Doesn't show up enough to U12 or U18 trainings?

What does this have to do with termination of the ABA Mens Head Coach Position? At all clubs there would be people who work harder and more tirelessly than the ABA Coach but that doesn't mean the ABA Coach should be terminated.

* Boti Nagy is biased and his blog is rubbish

- What is biased about the blog? It doesn't contain any personal attack against Benn.

All I took from the blog was that Al asked for a contract extension. His reasons were recruitment related but that might be a polite way of saying that "I do not trust those in power who may have another agenda". What Al's motives were are a matter for him and the Board's reasons for not accepting are a matter for them.

A contractual dispute resulted between Al and Benn which has resulted in conflict.

The Board chose to terminate Al and a considerable amount of members do not support that decision as evidenced by 100 members signing a petition in 2 days!

At the end of the day if anyone thinks that a player or coach is in the ABA for money they are crazy. There is no money in the ABA!

Members are allowed to have a view and a say. They will either support Benn or they will support Al.

Arguing members don't have a right to have a say or shouldn't sign a petition is the same as arguing that they should blindly support the Board just because they are the Board.

Such arguments in support of Boards/Governments have been argued against for years (study the life of Nelson Mandela if you believe that just because a Government says it is right doesn't mean it is right).

Rather than sling mud at Al or Benn (by posters obviously with a vested interest because seriously, with all due respect, do many people care enough about ABA let alone ABA politics enought to post on this topic) lets let the Woodville members decide whether they are happy with the Board's decision or not.

Obviously you have a vested interest too if your theories are correct. More spin from Al camp.

That is the entire point. I would say 99 percent of persons who post in this topic have a vested interest. Does anyone else care?

Where is the spin?

Considering Al admitted in Boti's blog he started a takeover of board think he's not saying what needs to be said to get support?

You say Al's motives are a matter for him and the board yet you hypothesise the players are behind him and actually quote him "I do not trust those in power who may have another agenda".

Now I don't know if the players are behind him or not but if I were a player I wouldn't want my coach demanding an extension if his reason was he needs to recruit better players. Would you?

If what Boti has reported is true and Al asked for a contract extension - which the Board correctly denied. For Al to quit on his team, his club and then try and organise some sort of coup against the Board is not right on any level of life.

Totally agree that no one should deny any member the right to vote, bit rich you bringing in my main man Nelson Mandela when another person is acting like a Dictator like Idi Amin!

Al didn't quit, he was fired

Didn't quote Al at all re his motives. I just said that it is possible that Al's quoted motives re recruiting players might be him just being polite. Boti's latest blog today provides a less subtle version behind Al's 'possible' motives.

Al quit on his team and his club? Spin from the "Benn camp"? Pot kettle black?

Like I said, rather than get into Al versus Benn on Hoops, lets let the members decide. Who is acting like the dictator out of the two can be decided by the members democratically.

Boti is a wanker!!

When nodding heads were set up to support a specific group so that group had the numbers the only thing that could go wrong was if one of the nodding heads started to believe he was more than a nodding head and started to exercise his power. What is happening at the moment has more to do with who's ego is the biggest and precious little about coaching or leadership. Perhaps both should go and some money spent on what's left of the junior girls program and some direction given to the women's program where despite modest improvement their CABL team sits on its regular win/loss ratio. Lastly a code of ethics is sorely needed in the club with regards player/ coach standards

You ok Isaac

Both of them should walk away, clearly don't have the club at heart even though they say they do

I see boti has put another puff piece on his crap blog today attacking Benn! He obviously feels sorry for Al as he has been sent packing from many clubs himself!

Or West warrior magicville torrens valley?

Seriously people. Al and Ben have their flaws, everyone does! We are all flawed human beings but both guys are overall good blokes and I hope they can get together and work this out for the good of Woodville.

BTW isn't Ben a Torrens Valley guy anyway?

I have neither a view in favour or not of Al Green - I've never met the bloke. But from my perspective, as a Member of the Woodville Basketball club, it is about understanding what is going on at my club. Hiding under the veil of legality (e.g. 'confidentiality), and sending a delayed message to members ( at least a week after the firing of Al Green) accompanied by a clear statement of 'no-reply' in the email message, leads one to the conclusion that the Committee is not interested in engaging with its members to determine priorities and actions that affect the success of Woodville Warriors.

The request to meet with the Committee (i.e, the Board) was made by members - who yes, did vote for Ben, but for the purposes of the Board providing some 'reasoning' behind its decision. Is it about the 'contractual' arrangements or not? As members, we seek 'transparency' in decision making that is all - nothing more and nothing less.

Good call changing the people running Facebook considering children were invited to SGM and one if the saviours started a 'not for Facebook' type conversation which got out of hand. Bad Benn for trying to stop that type of behaviour.

Warrior seriously open your eyes and actually see what has happened over the last few months. Get out of your comfort zone, stop looking at Al's past achievements in awe and go talk to some people that know the entire story. trust me you may learn something.

Warrior, you are so naïve it is scary. Maybe find out the real story before shooting off on here. The inner circle know what really went on. Clearly you are on the outside looking in.

No matter which camp won, the club was going to lose through self serving behaviour being rewarded and encouraged.

Warrior...we are not all the same person. I posted once calling you naïve. I have no idea who the other posters are.

An IP check by Isaac could confirm this.

Nice try though.

Give it up, you are fighting a losing battle. Now if you don't mind, can you stop trying to drive a wedge between those of us who actually love our club rather than those of you who are just out for themselves?

CHanging name to Al Blue

Isnt Benn secretary, abl coach, u23 coach, JDO and president ? that's five votes right there lol.

Just means 49% know and 51% don't want to know. Continued downhill racing for the warriors amid the egos and self absorbed.

Maybe you should get off here and all go throw chairs at each other!!

Who says Al is there next year?

Maybe Woodville can merge with a club with better administration!!

I'm not sure how much he controls of the communication channels between the board to the members but I looked on the website and noticed the information about the meeting is gone, almost looks like it didn't even happen although no other past articles get deleted, make up your own mind what that says

Bigger problem at woodville is with their women's coach

Nooooooo good

Name and shame the coaches that have bailed in the kids

Just putting it out there, but Benn mentioned legal fees - you do realise that Al was sueing the club.
The bloke who apparently loves the club, was sueing them for pretty much everything the club had.
Why would he not want to mention that?????

Im just baffled anybody would want to support somebody trying to pretty much make a club go belly up financially (taking the club and board members to court) - how can people support a selfish financially minded individual rather than support your club???
People may go to a club because he is there, but he will take the money and do nothing (eg the under 12 boys he coached when they were winning, but as soon as they started losing he was no where to be seen).

Can't you all see the big picture? Woodville have got to get over this thing they have with drama and realize that the recent rise in success ironically started when Al got to the club. Sure the girls didn't get much at first from it but as the men's ABA coach his responsibility wasn't the girls program.
Yes, Benn has done heaps to help the women's and girls program's and that's something which nobody can or should deny, however, from what I've heard from independent sources is that more people have left the club because of him than because of Al. Just ask West Adelaide's youth league program.
From my point of view it's borderline insanity to get rid of your clubs biggest draw card who has done his job to the point of building a team who should and rightfully are in the hunt for a title.
In my opinion the board has done the club a dis-service by even opening the club to this and I hope Al wins this law suit and that the club and parents at the club wake up and realize that woodville has firstly been a place where anyone who wanted to belong to something special could find a home there. Now it's all about the W's and the board not about the kids and the love of the game.

Sounds to me it's all about a selfish yank that lines his pocket and talks the talk but doesn't actually do much developing! And the blind mice that follow

Don't worry it happens at other clubs to

The issues at Woodville run much deeper than that. The focus has been on the wrong coach and the failure of due diligence by the committee. BSA need to be involved and set in place practices that need to be adhered to by coaches.

Warrior complaining about the club spending money on legal fees is hilarious - they wouldn't have to spend that money if there weren't legal issues being thrown at the club!

Coaches leaving mid season obviously don't care at all about Woodville - I'd go so far to say that the W's are better off without such people at the club.

You cannot have a coach who was removed from coaching juniors at another club as a senior coach especially when that coach starts a relationship with one of his players ten or more years younger than himself and expect other coaches/people/players to stay at the club.

What a bunch of muppets

coaches leaving mid-season has nothing to do with love of the club because everyone there bleeds green and gold, woodville WAS a family. It's a loud and clear message to the board.

The club needs to recognize that something is wrong and has been for a long time. when was the last time the club went through a year without drama? and if you want to look at why the club isn't as strong as it should be look at the decade or close to where the girls program went from good to bad to terrible. it didn't start with Al or Benn but long long before that. Al was the start of a healing process which has now been ruined and if Woodville and Western merge they will lose everything countless people have worked for.

I am not from WOodville. However, any coach that leaves there team midseason over something that is totally unrelated to the kids they coach is simply putting themselves before the kids. It's not about you coaches, it's about the kids. Coach out the year, don't leave them in the lurch. If you still choose to leave then Woodville is better off without you!

Rubbish - TRUE Woodville coaches would still be there, workin hard for the CLUB for what's important - the kids they are teaching the game to. The selfish would quit. Good riddance, and good luck Woodville.

There can be no moving forward until Benn departs, there will be no improvement until Benn departs and in the interim Benn needs to give up all coaching roles

If he cant find a secretary I think you maybe need to look in the mirror, look at the above posts and that might help explain why it is hard to find volunteers to invest 100s of hours as Ben does for no reward other than random, anonymous comments and sniping here.

^ Thanks killa