Great win tonight by the guys.
After giving critical analysis to Phil's methods for the last four weeks after hard losses, I don't want to go into hiding now he has won. Already after turning the computer on long-time fans that have gone thru thick and thin have to come back and read nonsense like this:
"Heres hoping we can get on a roll and play well for the rest of the season and the fans can get back to supporting the team!!"
"its amazing after 1 win everyone jumps back to loving the team and theres no criticism..real supporters ride through bad times without trying to fire the coach and half the team"
Firstly I want to say how great it was to see some defence played out there tonight. We actually had hands to shooters for once, and controlled the boards and ran from it. Farley didn't just stand watching after someone gets onto his hip for the first time since 2004. Sutton, who I believed could have been used in both the Brisbane and Sydney losses to navigate the full court press, showed his value tonight, not turning the ball over once in 24 minutes of game-time. It's small stuff with youth, like the tap of the ball from behind while Newley is on a break which makes young players great to watch. Good to see Copeland hit some shots as well.
Now I would love Adelaide to get Maher back, and go one to make a run towards the lower half of the finals, and hopefully get to past the first round for once. Would love every minute of it. But let's not have one win get people carried away. This roster is still not a roster that can win a championship. Also this is still a roster only meant to last for one season as a stop-gap measure. Then what? We try to bring in top line talent while players don't want to play for Phil. We try to develop youth while Brad Hill is packing his bags with the same complaints as others before him. One win doesn't give anyway the right to tell others to shut up because they want to blindly ignore the fact that Phil isn't the right coach for this club anymore.
It is for the above reasons that I am supporting the club, as I can't stand to sit and be quiet while a once mighty club becomes a pale shade of its former self in a half empty stadium.
As for tonight, I was really disappointed with Trevor Gleeson. Adelaide plays the pick and roll how you expect under 14s to play it. The guard goes under the screen and the big doesn't show, leaving a wide-open shot. Gleeson didn't change his offence to run looks like this for Rillie, Newley etc at all. All we got was some tired Flex cuts totally playing into Adelaide's hands. Meanwhile it didn't occur to Gleeson to trap until the final quarter when Townsville was 25 points down. Credit to Phil at least we had Sutton a true point guard out there tonight to handle it but did he really need 4 weeks and 5 loses to figure this out when everyone knew heading into the Sydney game what was coming. Really have to question Gleeson's preparation based on this performance, this coming from a former NBA scout as well.
As for Copeland as well, of course he will give you glimpses like this every now and then, and it's good to see. But he won't be able to reproduce this every night at his age, and what is the point of playing him for such extended minutes eating up the minutes of the club's future prospect. Plus he still was jacking up ridiculous shots taking others out of the offensive rhythm. Our guards hardly play defence as it is, sure they are pumped to play more when they go up and down the court 4 straight times without anyone else touching the ball. The guy means well and tries hard but you can't justify his signing over Ingles tonight.
I know people are going to be angry over the negativity in the post, but rest assured I loved every minute of the game tonight, especially being locked up in the house all week with a virus. But it really irks me to see people acting smugly after one win on here calling anyone who likes to point out the obvious about the club they have loved so much for as long as they can walk "ignorant", "not real fans", "band wagoners" etc.
