Press Conference at 1pm.

Does that mean Scotty Ninnis will be coaching against the 36ers Wednesday night??? That would be interesting

Press conference to be held latter today by the South Dragons,

Sacking unconfirmed at this stage,

Source: SEN radio (so take that as you like)

It seems that all the hype pre-season was simply that.... HYPE!

I wonder if the likes of Ingles and Holmes are still happy with the decision to move east. Mark Price the great savior! Big name doesn't mean big success!!!!

wow, there is an owner who does not mess around!

Will be an expensive pay out if he is sacked, surely something else has happened. I mean they are a brand new franchise and have never played together give them a chance.

Knackers, they started 0-5, had already sacked an import, may have been unhappy with another import, etc. Not exactly a complete surprise - what coaching credentials does Price have?

Still a gutsy move.

Not sure re Holmes as he likes to win and do well himself, but Ingles wouldn't be unhappy - look at the minutes he is getting in his first year - amazing opportunity.

3 week in and 2 imports and 1 coach GONE.

Culture in Victoria for that second franchise.

IMO the South Dragons just don't play any defense in the second half of games, during games they looked focused and played good solid basketball at both ends of the court but would crumble in the second half of game. Was it simply a fitness thing or did a Shane heal lead revolt against Mark Price lead to a non showing of respect to play hard for the coach?

Barry Barnes to take over, did anyone else see him in the crowd last night at the derby?

Its only been 5 weeks come on give the guy a chance.
They are a new team with a bunch of players who havent played together for very long i think its a bit quick to do something like that

Its only been 5 weeks come on give the guy a chance.
They are a new team with a bunch of players who havent played together for very long i think its a bit quick to do something like that

The source is SEN, so most likely the press conference is to announce something completely different.

SEN is an ABSOLUTE JOKE.

Should have heard it during AFL trade week.

If its true I bet some people are glad Cowan didnt buy the Sixers ;)

On SEN Cowan & Heal to front the media in 5 minutes.

Price has resigned and it looks like he'll be replaced by.....wait for it.....SHANE HEAL!

As if Shane Heal is coach.

your kidding - and I thought you were joking Bonz!

How rich is Cowan.....can he afford to clone 4 more Heals so the supercoach doesnt have to worry about subs?

It's official....Shane Heal is now coach of the Dragons!

The board asked for Price's resignation last Friday...he handed it in this morning.

SEN discussing it live now with a reporter at the press conference - apparently they asked Price for his resignation last week - and he coaced last night knowing he was gone!

http://www.sen.com.au/index.php?sectionID=5398&pageID=5402

Yeah, what's the bet Heal played a major part in it?

someone check prices back.....i'm sure there is a big Shane Heal footprint in it.

I'm still suprised, they are just in the league for headlines

Far out....

Too soon for mine.

Have to say that is really bizarre its not as if they've had years together. I would not have thought Price to be a novice at this game must be a lets play the Shane Heal way........Maybe the bad back in NZ was disciplinary?????

The question is really whether Price jumped or was he pushed?

I'm thinking pushed.

Biz, according to what I heard on SEN he was asked to resign last week - and only gave his resignation today - so IMO that is very much pushed

Boti will have a field day.

Pushed????? I just hope they slowed the car down before they chucked him out underneath a passing but

Yeah, but I guess what I'm saying Stat is what it more of a push from Heal than the Board itself?

Could Ingles have had any input considering he is living in Cowans pocket?

I think we need to look a bit further into the future. Could this have been planned from the start? With Heal having such huge role in the selection of players etc.

The speculation begins.

Just comfirmed Fuller has been sacked too!

http://sen1116.conexim.com.au/sen1116_16.asx

i suppose thats the big question Biz - id think that Heal would have played a very big part in proceedings.

Geez I cant stand him!

Heals talking on SEN now..

The only thing that still remains is that shane heal still thinks he is bigger than basketball in australia and now they have given him a way to try and prove it.

really hope he falls flat on his face, should be fun getting into him this week though, I reckon he might yell back at us.

Lets do it bizz

Seals are going to have a field day on wednesday.

Now maybe Ninnis will coach the sixers considering he misses out on the job for Shane?

Scott handeled all the negotiation of player contracts and coaching in the pre season

and then he misses out for someone with no coaching experience or very little coaching experience.

Sixers will smash the Dragons. Will Drmic be playing in the 5 spot... or Jacob? Hahah.

Heal was the one that decided to sack Fuller.

Heal is in for it!!

Would not surprise me in the least if this was planned from the start. Not the losing games, although it does make for a handy excuse when asking your head coach to resign.

As if Heal was going to come out of retirement just to play out of the goodness of his heart and wallet.

I smell a conspiracy!

Good move if the guy can't coach that roster to a win.

I'm not one of the Heal-haters on here either. Would've had a big say in things, but suggesting that Ingles was in Cowan's ear is a bit much.

You'd think that Heal will front the media and provide a lot of on-court leadership, while Ninnis will handle the bench coaching for the most part. Could well work.

does conspiracy smell like cooked cheese???? If so than I can smell one too..........

Conspiracy? No, dont think so. I know everyone likes one though.

Mark Price was believed to be the best man for the job. The season has started, and well, now in the boards mind he isn't.

Theyre would be other 'off court' problems we would not be privy to.

player/coach for the time being...

it isn't a conspiracy because a professional sporting team and in no way would they disrespect Mark price like that.
The fact is that mark price and shane heal may have not got along well and somthing had to give. shane being the person that he is, a highly respected, talented, media savvy person and along with his basketball brain, they would have thought he was the logical choice to stay and Price who wasn't doing much had to go.
With heal coaching you would think the dragons would play with a lot more passions and grunt.

I think maybe scoot ninnis could feel a bit hard done by, i'm sure he will be pulling the strings and Heal will just be the face of the team but Ninnis deserves a head coaching role.

What a joke! No ex-NBA affiliate looking to coach will come down here for a long time now! Way to go Dragon's! Trying to be so professional but forget the fact that Price was the best thing for the start of a new franchise!
Wooden Spooners for sure!

dammit Fuller sacked?? I just used my two trades this week for my sportal team... still have Fuller at C, ah well 1 player down for me, looks like I'll cement my arse near the bottom somewhere.

Should have known to come here for info first... doesnt say it anywhere else yet (and his value went up!). hooray for hoops, boo for everywhere else.

:(

Oh please smash them this week, 36ers.

Hopefully it's not like the AFL where a club wil fire up after a coach is sacked.

Shane Heal = St kilda and Grant Thomas

Was just about to post that. Worth noting:

Former Cairns coach Guy Molloy will join the Dragons as an assistant under Heal.

Heh, I love the title of that foxsports article... I knew they were going to use some variation of "the price is wrong".

For mine, there must have been heaps more to it than just four losses (the meeting was last week). You give a coach more of a chance than that if he is doing everything else well.

He must not have had players on side.

Explains some of Heals actions yesterday - not sure if anyone lese watched the time outs, but Heal was trying to organise plays, talking all over what Ninnis and Price had to say.

Yes I noticed that bozza. Taking over when they were explaining what to do to try and break the press...

All MArk Price did in timeouts was tell the team to hang tough, fight hard and then finished with uncontrolled bouts of clapping.

At least Ninnis and Heal had something constructive to say. Maybe Price is great on the training track and not cut out for game day decision making?

Boti has just emailed me to say that Molloy will be assistant and Ninnis will be second assistant.

The players reaction or lack there of to Price was interesting.

"Defence and rebounding, this is OUR game guys !"

Silence.....

Maybe time to get Ninnis back to Adelaide ?

Give him a written promise of being head coach next year and he may be prepared to assist this season.

That makes you wonder how long ninny will stick around. That is a big no confidence vote from the owners & heal.

WOW .. huge news.

Im guessing that they worked out that Price wasnt the motivator that they thought he was, and Heal isnt healthy enough to play so they got the publicity and ran with it.

* Heal will take a back seat on playing time and justify it with being a coach too.

If Ninnis doesnt call in to Talking Hoops and enlighten us on all this i'd be very disappointed.

I really feel for Ninnis - he deserves better

Unfortunately I can't see any spare space for Ninnis back home here at the Sixers (remember we just added KB), unless they sack Phil, but Phil is like our version of Sheedy to Essendon - nothing will change - and I am not sure wether this is a good or bad thing.

If Scott wants to be in the league for a while he is best to stay out of the top role.

He is not ready just yet to be a (long term) NBL coach. He will be , but dont rush things, he can learn so much from this turmoil in Melbourne .

This will be pennies in the bank later in his coaching career. Specially when dealing with private owners!

I'm wondering how Shane is going to fit Simon Kerle into the rotation ...

From seeing Ninnis at the dragons trainings, he is very respected by all those boys. Before price entered the country Ninnis was running better sessions with the group than after price arrived. Molloy is not needed their... Ninnis can do more.... alot more respect from the players.

dont think its smart to have a player coach in this day and age and especially another unproven coach. Ninnis has WON as a coach, be that as an assistant with the sixers or with South Adelaide and Sturt ~ he knows how to win. What has malloy done as a coach? can someone give me his record and past? Ninnis is a winner.
Dan

And Larry Sengstock ...
And Leroy ......

http://www.nbl.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&aid=4068

The nbl.com.au puts a different spin on things.

It does not mention that he was "asked to resign" and suggests he wanted to go for family reasons.

I also love how the release of Todd Fuller is a mentioned very briefly on the last line of the article.

pure spin..

Sportal report claims that Cowan got rid of Price because he wanted "something different" for the team this season, "something different" for basketball.

Can the brains' trust think of "something different"?

Shane Heal as coach,thats pure spin also!
Seems like the dragons are using his name to smooth things over.

So is Fuller suiting tomorrow then or is he cut straight away?

Just heard Heal on 3AW.

The interview was soft to say the least. Dwayne Russell and Tony Shaw had no idea. For example Tony Shaw started by congratulating Shane.

Key points made by Heal were (and I am paraphrasing):

- Price didnt realise the commitment he had to make here in moving 4 kids etc to the family.
- Price was not aware of how hands on he would have to be, Heal pointed out that he was used to the NBA where they would have staff cut up tapes and do scouting etc. In Australia there is no such infrastructure
- Price was introverted
- Price could not get his point across, had trouble with communication

He was extremely critical of Fuller
- Too big and slow for the league. Came out with some crap about the NBL being the fastest scoring league in the world per minute
- Said he had a poor attitude and was at the end of the career just trying to squueze what he could get out of it
- Said this was not the kind of attitude you wanted coming from your american import

Sounds like Heal had the balls to make his criticisms of Fuller clear at least.

Brockman, sacked straight away I think.

I smell a bit of a ratneyeke. Heal has always been difficult to get along with. I agree with the comment about Simon Kerle though. Heal, Parky, Kerle and the red boots could get another run.

The Guy Molloy addition is a smart one. They'll need help if Shane is to do this full-time as a player-coach.

To the guy who signed Fuller in his fantasy team, I signed Heal on the cheap and I'm laughing all the way to the bank. Now he's officially calling the shots, LG - life's good!

Sixers will belt these guys.

Making criticisms clear isnt something hes struggled with in the past.. I would have been amazed if he bit his toungue though!

I should add to my previous post that there was a fair amount of talk about Guy mMlloy's appointment, and not a word about Scott Ninnis.

The criticisms of Fuller were my recollection of what he said in between the live streaming cutting out on me, but that was the general gist. He certainly did not have much time for him.

Ive been listening all day on SEN, and havent heard Ninnis's name mentioned once.

I wonder if Ninnis' downward move to 2nd assistant is a breach of contract. He would have been hired in the assitant coach position. As much as I hate to say it because I do like Ninnis, but it seems bad luck follows him around. It all started with his appointment in Townsville.

nice joining of the dots anon, rumour that he was dragoon a few months back and now the opp is there for it to happen.

R Ellis ex Perth import to join the Dragons....

Maybe this was all organised before the season started.Think cost wise, sign two big names for only five games, and pay them the going per game price. Results are irrelevant, as the club gets exposure, the two yanks get a paid holiday, and if successful - they add this to the resume, and if they fail, they just say it was a bit of fun. Heal knows he can't take a full season, so plays as much as he can, then moves off-court f/time from mid-season (again, his move to coach is only to get headlines and bring fans onside ... assuming there are some Heal fans out there). They've probably already got the new big training there, and Ninnis is already getting fitted for his new coaching uniform for next season ...

This just proves what a wanker shane is

From Ozhoops -
Mark Price speaking on SEN right now.

Stabbed in the back by Heal.......Not treated fairly....... Never seen undermining on a scale so large. Heal showed Fuller no respect and had a personal vendetta against him from the moment he arrived. Is concerned that other players were involved in the coup. Heal can deny it all he wants, it's obvious what happened and he definitely has a knife in his back.

The personal side of this is awful. His daughter's FIRST day at school after taking so long to transfer grades, etc. Son struggled terribly with the move and is only just finding his feet.

Surprised that the wheels must have been in motion after a couple of games, even though Heal had barely trained, and didn't play in 2 of those games. He must have spent all of his time machining this takeover.

When asked how he thinks Heal will go player/coaching? "I have no opinion on that."

Rest of the team, and the ownership are wished all the best

What a nightmare, I cant wait to here what Ninis says tonight now.

I think the spotlight should now be turning on Cowans. How spineless must this guy be to get drawn into the web that S.Heal spins. No class.

He probably doesnt know better - just caught up in the 'Heal is Australias basketball God' hype.

I know a person with Heals personality type who had many many people fooled for years. There was always the odd discerning few who knew he was no good, but most fell trap to his manipulation without even realising it. Im sure everyone has a story like this.

Its very easy to see the obvious and lay blame. The truth is always someing different.

This action would not have been taken lightly by the owners and Heal woud have been consulted by the owners, not the other way around. Thats how business works. It was not Heal to found some rich blokes and conned them into starting a club!

The truth would probably never come out, but there was someting else going on.

I found this web site yesterday. I am not saying this indicates what happened, but it does put another spin on the situation.

http://www.bc-enschede.nl/wenglish/grassroots/heroesvillains/3tl3_0304/vanuum_mjanssen/sports4.html

What spin does it put on the current situation ? Not sure what you mean .