http://www.allstarcoaching.com.au/#!Selection-issues-continue-to-haunt-Opals/cn168/578c11cf0cf2779eabeeca28

He certainly makes a very valid point.

Very interesting, only BA could appoint a head coach and approve two assistant coaches for the often ranked no 2 women's team in the world, while running (?) a previously well regarded senior womens pro league, and finally end up with a coaching panel that ( minus one of four members) totally combined had coached absolutely zero WNBL teams, Zero national junior or senior womens teams, and probably seen only a few more.

And to do so on the basis of a residential postcode.

its sad, but only people who have actually attended a BA Board meeting in the last 15 years could really appreciate how totally non-shocking this actually is.

cannot argue with the points made by Stacker

"questionable selections of playing personal"

Unintentionally funny!

Wow. Can we hope that if the Opals underwhelm then heads will roll at BA?

And turning down a coach as good as Brian Agler? Jeez, I want to cry

Yes and Stacker just posts anonymously and pushes filthy gossip about others and just sounds like a bitter troll - no - wait - He doesn't :)

And "Anonymous" I didn't know you were back on the forum , or that it was actually you without your usual "Hiyas" . How are the new neighbours treating you ?

Thinking about the 'why now?' question.

I'm sure Ian is patriotic enough to want the Opals to do well.

Even if they do, I'm assuming he still wants to highlight BA's incompetence in the selection process. Success in Rio doesn't suddenly make everything all good.

If they do badly, then it will be easy for BA to hide their part and to point the finger solely at Joyce and the players. Joyce will probably be told to publicly fall on his sword if he wants another chance sometime; pointing the finger at BA will basically be coaching suicide.

The key thing as I see it is that Ian is highlighting the problems with BA politics and processes, regardless of the final results. And he's not feeling very positive about the likely result, no matter how hard the girls try. A poor showing is likely to mean major funding cuts for basketball, which Ian has been a passionate supporter of for years. None of us wants to see that!

Looks like Stacker hasnt got over his grudge with Joyce defeating him for that NBL Championship when Joyce coached the hawks against the Crocs . I dont understand the ? mark on Joyce, he won bronze at Worlds with a depleted squad, he has been head of COE in Canberra and has overseen the style and play that has seen the girls U17 squad became world champions and the u19 bronze .... Ref selection for team with Bat girl, she plays 5 position, Tolo and Liz are better ... Ref Bishop well she did nothing last season and struggles in WNBA she has been injury prone as well with blood clots

"Suzy has proven time and time again shes an amazing player, to miss her out of this squad shows just how bad Joyce is."

She's a 40% shooter in international basketball and has a worse than 1:2 assist-to-turnover ratio. That's hardly amazing.

Paul, you shoot about 15% from the field when it comes to articles about Brendan Joyce although you are still allowed to post.

Burton cramps any sort of spacing in the half court the Opals may have although that is 100% fine as she rebounded well in junk time 2 years ago.

Joyce made a great call with Lavey although the Burton thing is an air ball just like a lot of the stuff on fiba.com.

Not really a strong rebuttal of the rather obvious point that Batkovic isn't an amazing international player eyesshutopen.

Another quality rebuttal!

No, what I'll tell you is Batkovic can't play PF in Joyce's system, so she wasn't competing with Burton for a spot unless the Opals changed their game plan.

Should Batkovic have been picked over one of Cambage, Tolo or George to play C? Maybe.

In terms of PF, the Hodges-Burton combo were competing with a limited field. Bishop is a poor defender internationally and wouldn't be a scoring target ahead of Cambage, Taylor and Phillips.

Is Joyce right to pick a team to fit his system rather than picking the best individual offensive talent and finding a system to suit them? We'll know in a few weeks.

Paul, no rebuttal needed. It's obvious were your alliances are or you wouldn't be quoting just some random figures from the recent opals European tour without presenting all the facts.

At the end of the day you're welcome to your opinion just as the rest of us are to ours. No amount of your support for Joyce or his attempt to whitewash his biased decision will change my mind about him. In my opinion, he based his selections on favouritism! End of Story.

Telling us that we know nothing about the game and only he can see what value a player brings is rediculous and only confirms my opinion.

An example of trying to explain away his decision - Burton may not have done well in WNBL but is great on international scene - really? if she's that good internationally why are these internationals not breaking down doors trying to sign her up?

It's not even about what happens at Rio, its about what Joyce has done and how he has done it!
Another great write up by Boti Nagy http://botinagy.com/blog/father-knows-best/

^absolutely, Joyce is about Joyce and nothing else.
No one can work or wants to work with him, and how someone who had never had any dealings with women's basketball, or even showed any interest in it can manage to end up the head coach of our women's national team and program is just ridiculous.

Possibly the first time I've seen A:TO ratio used to justify the non-selection of a post player.
Worse than 1:2? Yikes. That puts her in the same territory as known wastes of space like Liz Cambage and Lauren Jackson.
Talk about a desperation stat to cherry pick.
At the same time, I'm actually no big fan of Batkovic internationally either, I have to admit. Like Bishop, she can beat up on WNBL opponents but is far less effective once the standard of opponents increases. She also blows layups at an embarrassing rate for a big.

It was pretty clear to me once there was only a handful of cuts left to make that the remaining squad was too top-heavy and one of Batkovic, George & Tolo had to miss out. The positive I take from it all is that Tolo was deemed healthy enough to secure her spot.

I pointed out she shoots at 40% and doesn't create for others in response to someone suggesting she was amazing, not to justify non-selection Luuuuc, sad to see you provide such a thoughtless response.

Have I said anywhere that Batkovic shouldn't be selected? The point of my article is she wasn't in competition with Burton, she is a C in the Opals' current system and was hence competing with Cambage, Tolo and George.

If you think Joyce should change the system to fit the players (ie play bigger, slower PFs) make the case for it. Remember doing that didn't work in 2010 or 2012.

What's sad about this whole discussion is no one presents any sort of international basketball analysis to support their argument.

My position is what Joyce has done has worked well so far and he has the right to keep following that recipe. He will live and die by the results, just as previous coaches have.

"Paul, no rebuttal needed. It's obvious were your alliances are or you wouldn't be quoting just some random figures from the recent opals European tour without presenting all the facts."

What stats from the recent tour did I quote Titan? I don't believe I have used any.

Clearly Lauren Jackson was not an amazing player either, given her A:TO record in Olympic competition. Hell, it's a wonder she ever got another invite after her near 1:3 ratio in Athens. Penny Taylor among the other notoriously non-amazing players of that year. But forget them. It is of course Suzy's job to "create for others", not theirs.

Seriously, you're calling *my* post thoughtless?
LOL. I was merely pointing out that you had for some reason cherry-picked a random irrelevant stat to include in your post. The thoughtless thing for me to have done would have been to let it slide.

How has it worked so far..?...what outstanding success has Joyce had.?.....the tournaments they have played they have not gone out and slaughtered all opponents, and those opponents not one have been a full strength team, yes perhaps the opals have not been either, but you cannot hang Joyce's hat on any such success as yet.

They actually had a larger average winning margin than the USA at the WCs, winning by an average of just under 30. There wasn't a single result in single figures. So far the only tournament game the Opals have lost under Joyyce has been to the USA.

Yes the biggest tests are to come in Rio, but the style they are playing has been very successful to date.

Thoughtless Luuuc, because you immediately assumed I was using that to justify non-selection, when I have not said she shouldn't be picked. You read what you wanted to read based on what you thought I was arguing.

All I pointed out was Batkovic isn't an amazing international player, she's been a solid reserve, and there's certainly nothing wrong with being that.

For the record, Jackson averaged 23p at 54% in Athens to Suzy's 7p at 42%. They played very different roles on the team, making comparisons between the two largely irrelevant. It's like comparing Jerome Randle and Brendan Teys.

I think Boti summed it all up.
We who love the game accept his choices but are disappointed in the way Suzie was led along and not sent off with dignity.
Someone of her stature and with her past service to Australian basketball deserved better.
POOR FORM and Brendan should not have let it happen.
His lack of understanding of the outrage is a product of his arrogance.

actually this from Boti says quite a bit re FOJ as well
"To infer Ian Stacker, Australia's 22-and-under gold medal winning coach from that FIBA World Championship and a 10-year NBL veteran, or Hall of Fame bound Michele Timms, past Opals captains such as Lauren Jackson and Robyn Maher - all among those team selection critics - might "think they understand the game but they don’t" only does Joyce a disservice."

http://www.botinagy.com/blog/father-knows-best/

I wonder how many get the "father knows best" shot ?

I hope the team does very well, but all this smacks of the same old - same old - I remember talking with Sporn in the years that it seemed she would never be selected by Robbie "I know best" Cadee. It took a monumental failure for BA to finally let Maher be appointed.

"The team Joyce has taken to represent us all is the one he wants and recalling the manner in which his young team dismantled everyone at the 2014 FIBA World Championship in Turkey and how much fun they were to watch, reinforces he has every right to choose pieces that best fit his style.

We're all banking on a similar performance in Rio."

I thought this bit from Boti summed it up best. The results will determine Joyce's fate and how he is judged as an Opals coach, his job and Lemanis' are to produce Olympic results, so now we get to see if all the prep work they have done was on the right track.