New brand etc and hence need on court results to back it up. Did not see enough and hence acted quickly to not lose any traction perhaps?

Next coach better be able to come in and quickly instil their game plan etc or it will be all for nothing,

Lolwat

And I thought supporters were over-inclined to freak out after one game.

Yeah, bring back Goorj and watch United go broke in record pace!

Long time Tiger member here, now United member

1. D-Mac will be better than Anstey, if his stint in 2011 is anything to go by.

2. Where's Bevo? Other than Goorjian and McLeod, I can't think of anyone better and last I heard he was out of a job.

Bevo is skills coaching in China last time he was in the news.

Massive over reaction if he got sacked for 1 game - unless there is more to it than we are lead to believe. Swapping out a coach is never a good move at anytime.

Anstey has been average at Coaching from the beginning so it should come as no surprise that the clubs owners pulled the pin after that horrible performance from a fairly stacked team against Cairns. At least now they can try and get their season on track before it's well and truly to late.

Rob was at the Wildcats game on Friday night

Hopefully D-Mac is better, but he is still unproven. What concerns me with D-Mac is that he has been right by Anstey's side from the start - so what really would change by putting him in charge?

I agree LC, D-Mac was involved with every bad call from the start it would seem being he has been Anstey's assistant Coach from day dot.
Unless D-Mac was the catalyst of his release by pointing out to the board how poorly he has actually performed and has been able to distance himself from the poor decision making?
Is D-Mac a temp replacement or has he got the gig permanently?

Temp for now but who knows with the management of Melb UTD? I still think of that name as a soccer team...

I applaud United's management, they certainly have a pair firstly with the name change and then pulling the pin while their is still time to right the ship for this season.

Im not surprised but at the same time i am surprised.

Surely some players must have raised some concerns about Anstey for United to take him out after one game.

And a new name now...Melbourne Separated!

The thing I was laughing about the most while Melbourne struggled with Cairns zone was the fact that Corletto played 17mins and only took 4 of the 34 3point shots that United put up yet made 2 of the 8 that they made. He's a veteran player with a reputation as a dead eye from range and has the titles to back it up, why continually let Barlow (1/5), Tomlinson (0/5) & McRae (2/8) toss up 15bricks between them?

When the Tall Blacks play the Boomers, you guys generally have a pretty good idea of who's putting the shot up, last time it was all Corey Webster and he was well defended as a result. That just made Vucinic have to run plays to get him the ball in the places he needed the ball and he got shots off and NZ scored points.
Vucinic's socks>Chris Anstey

Being as he has retired from the Tall Blacks NBL franchises could do much much worse than Nenad or Tab Baldwin as Head Coaches. Both have very very high basketball IQ's and the respect they get from guys who have played for them is incredible.

Both coaches would be good additions to the NBL too I reckon mystro.

Anstey biggest problem was is Wortho , the guy thinks he is the greatest player ever and looking at his minutes he must have demanded it, he has caused this dramatic event because of his friend ship with Chris. Chris is a nice guy but had no bastard in him did not lay down the law, or stand up for himself, sad again but thats sport one day a hero next day a has been, one thing for sure who ever gets the gig next must lay down the law to the captain, simple as that, bye Chris

Worthington put the most effort in for United against the Taipans imo.

He played 30mins, had 15points & 11 boards and managed all that in-between the continuous moaning to the refs. Busy man.

Just got the word from Wortho himself. Lindsay Gaze is back! Massive move by United!

Lindsay Gaze ? Can't figure out if that's legit or if your just trolling lol ;)

I think the fact he was back in the rooms, 3 seconds after the game ended, while the rest of the players huddled up at centre court, then paid their respects to the crowd showed he needed to go.
After a game like that, the coach needs to rally everyone together, get the focus back. Not just Bugger off.
He needed to go. Consistently has proven that he isn't a good enough coach.

isn't L.Gaze older than the game?

Wait it might not be true..

I assumed Anstey walked straight to the rooms because he couldn't be seen to get all emotional, which suggests he must have known he was gone at the end of the game.

No offence to the guy personally, but I reckon he was out of his depth and just needed more experience before taking the job on.

And they had Trev Gleeson!!

Losers....

Something big must have gone down behind the scenes.

Anstey's always been an opinionated, strong willed character. He may well have rubbed one or two important people the wrong way.

It reeks of an emotional over reaction. There were problems with Anstey’s coaching but overall he’s been OK- Tigers finished 3rd last season and most observers had them outside the 4. Also several individuals have improved greatly under his watch. Whether that’s due to his tutelage or just other reasons, who would know.

Get on the next flight to Perth and throw whatever you can at Bevo. If not D-Mac should do well, if his 2011 stint is anything to go by.

Wasn't Lindsay Gaze coaching when Jesus was playing power forward for Jerusalem?

Right move for the franchise.

Bad news for the other clubs because now United are going to be good, with Anstey they would have struggled to make the 4.

Legend has it that Lindsay Gaze and James Naismith are one and the same person.


Regardless of who is coaching, I don't believe handling the dynamics and personalities within that team is going to be easy. There's a lot of egos there.

On another note, why does Tomlinson shoot so much. It appears that he thinks he is a better shooter than what he really is.

Mitchell will assist McDonald in the interim.

Boti says Joyce and Goorjian are on the shortlist.

Out of interest, the ladder the past two seasons when Anstey was coach:

Perth 43-15
New Zealand 35-21
Melbourne 27-29
Adelaide 26-30
Wollongong 26-30
Sydney 24-32
Cairns 23-23
Townsville 20-36

Tab Baldwin as Mystro mentioned would be a great option.

Marquee in name only. Good Aussie player, but no better than the many in that category in the NBL, which he would have been for his career without a European passport.

So Paul, are you saying his coaching record was 27:29? What was his coaching record?

I think his record was 28-32 once you factor in playoffs and Sunday's game.

To be honest i didnt really notice Kickett out there as i had the volume down.Joyce wont leave Opals gig, Goorijan to pricey so that leaves Bevo or Al.Not a big field of candidates.

Hope Bevo gets the nod

For the record Anstey had a school boys game in Eltham almost straight after the United game. I don't think this helped with media and any decisions that were made after the game.

Isaac- are you saying Simon Mitchell will assit DMac?

Anon, that's what I wrote, yes. Unless there is another Mitchell and you're clarifying.

SEABL has good coaches why not Perry, Hill, Biwer etc

James Naismith invented basketball and then asked L Gaze to teach him how to play it.

"'Many' NBL bigs wouldn't average 10 & 4 shooting 51% from the field and 44% on 3pts in 20mpg in Spain's top-tier ACB league!"

If you looked at this more closely you would see in that half season he put up decent numbers against NBL level teams in Spain but struggled against better teams.

He is a good player, but no better than Knight, Pledger, Nevill, Loughton, Tragardh, Worthington, Petrie, Vukona and Redhage.

You can look at the record and stats as much as you like Paul but you can also watch how dysfunctional teams are under Anstey. Thought it right from the get go. Poor coach with an even poorer attitude that rubs off on many of his players.Quite happy to see him go.

Like the idea of Vucinic mystro. Would be great to see a new face but one with proven ability in the NBL. I thought he has a Euro gig outside his Tall Blacks job.

I wasn't making a case for or against, just presenting numbers. Another number is the Tigers were the only team to sweep Gordie McLeod and Wollongong last season.

My personal view is his teams played some excellent halfcourt D, at times executed very well in the halfcourt offensively, but Anstey really struggled to make adjustments in-game.

He wasn't a poor coach, but he didn't stand out as a great one either. His style of play was a bit different to what we're used to in the NBL, but that doesn't make it wrong.

Settle down Isaac - merely clarifying in case there is another Mitchell I'm not aware of. Why so aggressive and defensive?

Damn!! I was looking forward to seeing how much anstey would sabotage United's chances this season with his ineptitude. Now they have become more of a threat even with the floor wiper in charge. If they snag bevo it would be massive especially with the offensive weapons in that team. But can he implement a defensive work ethic into this team like he did with perth

Anstey's main issue was his half court offenses were stagnant and lacking . When his team was shut down there was no plan B. Plan A- get the ball to Goulding. Plan B missing.

His teams were strong defensively. And he instilled confidence in Tomlinson, Goulding and Walker especially. Wortho didn't need it.

Anyway, it's..... #Rangatime!

lacking cohesion*

The offences were stagnant compared to what we are used to, but if you watch a lot of offences around the world they are pretty stagnant but work well because they have purpose.

As you said, the problem was the lack of adjustments when Plan A wasn't working. Last year's team seemed to come into games well prepared, and did well to finish third, but to win a championship you need a coach who can think on the run.

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by having "purpose".

Seems to me that offenses rely on good movement. Stagnant- ie: Still and no helpful movement, is a bad thing. The gold standard is the Spurs, who constantly move and pass seamlessly. Almost robotic.

All offenses ultimately end with executing good passes and good shots, but it’s the team movement that creates the shots. And even offenses that rely on one on one play, they still have good movement in the sense that the other guys know where they are supposed to be on the court and their position on the court facilitates or allows the one on one play by the guy with the ball. Is that what you mean by “purpose”?

(This is LV, and the last post)

Anon, I don't think it was aggressive.

Unless there is another Mitchell and you're clarifying.

Yes, I picked you LV! By purpose I mean only moving the ball to certain spots where you want it to be, then making the defence react to a situation where there is a mismatch or a need for rotations.

That's very common in Europe, where a lot of offences are based around the high pick-and-roll and then how the defence reacts to cover it.

The positive of that style is it's harder for the defence to make a player do something they're not capable of, for example deny the passing lanes when Owen Odigie has it and make him beat you.

The downside is when the on-ball - or whatever your main defence shifter is - isn't working then you become bogged down and have to rely on one-on-one play against a set defence.

I like teams that have both aspects, ala Wollongong under Gordie.

Interesting observations.

How do you think #Rangatime would go in Melbourne, Paul?

I seem to remember Bevo likes to pressure and run, and doesn't mind spreading the floor to open up the 3 ball opportunities. Both of those will suit United's roster.

They shot so many long, contested twos and threes under Anstey though. It's something that isn't going to win you too many ball games. Yeah, the record wasn't terrible, but think about it in terms of the roster spend. That's something that falls back on the coach.

In terms of the intangibles: Anstey didn't seem like a great leader. He was always blaming officials and never being accountable for losses, and then that rubbed off on his players.

And is everyone forgetting the absolutely appalling way he wormed into that job?

The problem with his pick and roll scheme was that there were no wrinkles: most just got broken down into a dead play with the ballhandler trying to make something out of nothing, and the bigs very rarely actually rolled off the pick (no surprise when Anstey is your coach: the big fella has never rolled to the rim in his life). It was just pick and pop, pick and pop; or pick and lazy roll where the big didn't get the ball.

No misdirection, no wrinkles, just predictable, lazy basketball without a grander vision (bad floor spacing due to lack of reliable shooters didn't help there either).

If you're going to play like that, you'd want to make sure your defense was elite, and Melbourne's wasn't.

gotta laugh at DMac's interview on SEN - how can you turn it around - "uhhh I think I have to get them to play harder"

coach of the year material right there...


Don't think he's known for his intellect some how

Well, they do need to play harder, that's the obvious starting point.

Anstey's wasn't pick-and-roll system, last season his was more about making defences decide how they cover Goulding and then making reads based on that. I liked that part of it, but the lack of adjustments hurt them at times.

I don't think he had a great roster until this season, the last two years were middle-of-the-road and produced those results. Part of that was inheriting a basket case, another part was Anstey's poor import selection (Braswell, Farrakhan) which hurt him.

Always sad when things don't go well and a coach steps aside like this, especially early in the season, but it does give the franchise a chance to regroup and plenty of time to get it right before the season gets away from them.

I did notice some seriously underwelming body language from the players as they left the court at half time last Sunday, I must say!

While this decision is surprisingly sudden, it is not really surprising...

Good luck to Chris Anstee in the future and good luck to United in getting their chemistry together.

Can't wait for the weekend.

If they can land Beveridge they could become a legit title contender with the athletes on this team. Would be interesting to see how McRae responds to a tougher coach who depends he be a team player.

They're a legit contender as it is, Paul

U reckon a lot of people are forgetting how much Dennis brings to the table.

I reckon*

I think a lot of the body language was not only Anstey but that they had just been smacked up by Cairns and had no idea it was coming. The reffing and Cairns style are not what they have prepared for as many other teams will find out and Adelaide already has. It does not fit with last years mantra from the NBL to run fast transition ball which the team has been put together to give.

Not a Tigger and definitely not a United fan but actually felt sorry for them. They really had no idea about what they were doing wrong or right and what the ref expected.

I'm not sure if they're a legitimate contender without a good coach.

there is no point sugar coating it Paul,
Anstey is a terrible with NO offense.

It made games hard to watch.. the final game Against Adelaide last year was horrible. Players just jacking terrible shots up, and that was the same on Sunday vs Cairns.

I Look forward to the new coach coming in

Regardless of the coach, they'd have some sort of structure in place by December and I reckon they have the talent to go from there. As you say, in-game adjustments are almost non-existant with Anstey which would be a problem against the better teams

Don't agree Sammy. Wollongong have had games like that but no one accuses Gordie McLeod of not having any offence.

Blaming the refs for Sunday's capitulation is laughable.

His team won a championship the last time the league had an officiating crackdown in 2010, so I think he'll be alright.

Yes to Bevo.