Hoops

Triple M Talk about Marty Clarks Future

Here's an idea; if there's hints about Smythe coaching if Marty tips the boat, why not bring Phil in as an assistance coach and help mould Marty at the same time as the players.

Hell, you can have Marty solely responsible for player dev as the head coach and have Smythe be there to draw up plays.

Worst case scenario, you swap them over; have Marty assist to Phil.

I can recall a 3 year plan with Brad Hill and now that he has left and departed the building, at his new club he has some solid figures. Funny that!
With Marty Clarke, he might be a marvellous coach like Stephen Weigh says, but we all know that is the coach's pet speaking. Who else gets 35 minutes game time for poor output?

What I would do is say this, if you can get a win out of any of the two away games, you keep your job (for now!). You lose by under 20 in both games, you keep your job because lets face it, Perth and NZ are still the benchmarks of the comp. Lose by more than that and cya later.

In 2 home games, twice I have considered walking out,more so in the last game against Sydney. And while I dont blame the coach entirely, he runs the ship and this ship has been sinking faster than the titanic. Id prefer the RENA anyday but that aint gonna be now is it.

Last call: he wont survive past round 6.

We have all heard how good Marty Clarke is technically and his development of players at a technical level. Having seen the whiteboards, he seems to have all the stats down pat as far as who took what shots, where they took them from, who farted and how many times did they scratch themselves.

Is his biggest issue that he is not a strategic thinker?

Some coaches are good developers of players skills, some are like master chess players able to checkmate their opposition in 3 moves. I look at some of the NBL coaches going around and some like Gordie seem as resourceful on a game night as McGyver with a stick of chewing gum and a paper clip.

Surely, if Marty adds value to the club during the week, but executes poorly on the night, then this needs to be confirmed and is the area to work on.

I shutter to think how the next two games are going to go. Perth are going to make a Sturt press look like a Centrals defence and New Zealand in Auckland, well have we ever got close - can you go for the 20-0 in NBL and save % ?

If the trigger gets pulled, then it should be pulled for the right reasons and not because it can. Obviously, he was considered to be capable of the gig when appointed, what is preventing him from being that same capable coach?

Forgive my forgetfulness, Stacker would be silly to take on an NBL job at this part of the season, an interim job would not be ideal...

I know as Sixers fans we got stuck into Brendan Joyce a hell of a lot, but his record speaks for itself at NBL level. I would be happy with his in ya face defensive style game.

no, im more inclined to think if one goes both will go.

The problem with radford is if he gets the gig he will hire clarke as his assistant so it will be more of the same. the original article when clarke got the gig was about how them two grew up together and made a pact that if either of them got a gig they would get the other in as assistant hence why radford left the wildcats

how bout Brooks with Smyth as his senior assistant?

Would give us a combo of a young coach, who always seems to be at the games and enthusiastic about the game and the 36ers, with his former coach whom he appears to get along well with, who coached the team in its most successful period. They both seem to be very easy going people and would work the media and fans well also. Also doesnt give us our old coach who many fans wanted to get rid of a few years back, some may see that to be a backward step, he will mentor KB but KB will be his own man.

If they do make the change this is a combo i hope they look at, even if its Smyth as coach and KB as assistant, they are probably the next best options.

Could you go a coaching team of Smyth, Ninnis, Brooks?? Ninnis also seemed to be a very good assistant under Smyth back in the day. With either KB or Phil as head coach. They seemed to get along well on Inside the game.

Anyway i hope we get a few wins and we dont need to make the change and we end up pushing for or making the playoffs, as i think our roster is heading in the right direction with talent, balance, youth, etc. Obviously some improvements to be made but we are heading in the right direction IMO.

sorry to be post whoring, but what about Kevin Brooks. when he was at the games he said he was coaching and was interested in getting into it. then again as others are saying, is there much point replacing one inexperienced coach with another.

one other thing, i find it interesting how we dont really hear anything about Smyth but now more and more fans are getting upset with the current coach, and there is Smyth giving his two cents worth. and in the article he even states how the management seems to be doing a good job on there part.

Someone said earlier pride would need to be swallowed from both parties if Smyth was to come back, but is that true? current management had nothing to do with Smyth when he was running the joint, they came in with ninnis, unless someone knows something else im missing?

Agreed MK, it seems as though Clarke spends more time planning his excuses rather than his plays. We have already heard this season with Williamson being injured but in all honesty its more than just the one player. i too hope Clarke comes good and snatches a road win over the next 2 games. i feel another coach swap mid season will just further increase stability, but if we end up in the same position as last season on the ladder, i would hope SOS dont wait for the conclusion of Clarkes 3 year plan.

Good point EC, Clarke needs to learn and adjust his style accordingly or it may not be a bad risk trying someone else, i personally would like to see him given a bit more time, but as said by others dwindling/disgruntled fans will force the decision sooner rather than later.

if we do make the change i would also welcome Smyth back, he seems to be the best available to me, but would be sort of funny after the bagging he used to cop, hindsight is a funny thing, his coaching style would also suit Weigh, Warren, Johnson also IMO.

i wonder if we could go back to the future if we would have kept Smyth on given him the roster Ninnis started with ala Bruce, Maher, Hodge, Ballinger, Schenscher and let him push us through a new successful time, as that is more talent than Smyth finished with for sure, and the Hodge saga would have been less likely under Smyth as those 2 seemed to really get along. Anyway just funny how things/thoughts of the past change over time,

We never really appreciate what we have til its gone,

Very true with the fans, i hope we can keep the faith and keep supporting, if nothing else to ensure the club is alive, it doesnt matter who coaches if the club isnt around long term.

Very tough decision, i defiantly see both sides of the argument, but my main question is who out there is experienced enough to be guaranteed to do better, id rather stick with Marty than go for an inexperienced coach.

Who else could we look at, i guess we could give Smyth another go, or look at a Stacker, Molloy, Joyce, all who have had some success but all have been proven to have their flaws also, so may not really be a huge upgrade.

Radford would be another option, as he would likely do at least a few things different to Clarke and has coached SEABL successfully and under Bevo so is probably one of the more experienced assistants out there, so for me since there is no real name that jumps out at me to get, id stick with Clarke, but if forced to make the change by the fans which possibly could happen id go for either Molloy who has experience building a team from scratch pretty successfully or a Radford type with a senior assistant, maybe a Smyth type?, mentoring him.

I guess it gets to the point when the team is in the bottom 2 or looking to be yet again where the fans just want change to see if someone else can do better as the current set up isnt working.

Anyway interesting times ahead, personally i hope we get the upset in Perth or NZ and win the next few home games, to put all this to bed atleast for the short term and keeping moving forwards, with our young and fairly talented group.

We need to be very pro-active and go and get Ian Stacker!!! One of the 2 best coaches to not be in the NBL right now.

the problem with keeping the coach if we are 0-6 Jonno is the fans wont be coming in to watch, and in the end the attendance figures is what decisions are based on. Look at Neil Craig, if the fans lose faithin the team, management will do what they have to to please the fans. people can sit there and say in the long run he will be ok but the long run doesnt solve the case of the lack of numbers here and now that is required to bring the club into the long run, otherwise it will just fold.

im not against your idea, im just trying to show that marty does not have time on his side at the moment. SOS can have faith in him but in the end the fans will truly make the decision.

it makes me wonder if Ninnis would have been better off if management had given him the flexibility that marty has had, however ninnis did make some seriously poor coaching decisions. regardless though it is a very difficult decision.

Thanks for the info Skud. I feel a bit unconvinced by the idea of Davis, Green, McKay or Pearce being brought in to coach though. As far as I know, none of these guys have really been pursuing a serious coaching career, have they? Even Maher hasn't really shown any interest to my knowledge.

We could do worse than go back to Smyth if Marty can't get results this year. He has a proven record when he has the cattle. Very much doubt it would happen though - SOS and Smyth would both have to swallow some pride to make it happen!

Other than that, its really got to be someone like Goorj who has a proven track record of success in the NBL. Do we really want to see Marty sacked for another unproven coach who could struggle just as much?

I'm just gonna cross everything and hope the players can give us something to believe in against Perth and NZ at this point!

Its funny though, everyone on here was bagging out Smyth at the end of his coaching and the imports he had at the time, and look what has happened since, sometimes a new coach isnt always the best.

Guys like Charles Thomas, Willie Farley at the end of his stint were seen to be bad imports but are both better than most we have had since.

I guess many of us didnt always realise and/or appreciate what we had at the time.

Not sure if getting rid of Clarke during the year is the best solution, personally i think he will end up being ok in the long run if we push through this current situation, people bag him for being stubborn and things like that but Goorj, Bevo, Stacker, Joyce, etc all seemed pretty stubborn to me and they all took a year or 2 before they started winning regularly. Then all had pretty successful careers in the end.

Smyth was bagged for being too relaxed, and not recruiting young guys, Clarke is basically the opposite and still gets bagged, i guess thats the world of coaching its basically no win, unless your in the top 2 teams.

It would be interesting to see who the legend replacement was, do any of the above mentioned names have any decent coaching experience, if not i dont see it being a great move, as atleast Clarke has a very solid coaching reputation at the AIS and with guys like Ingles for being a good coach and teacher of the game, i hope if they do replace him the replacement has atleast some decent level experience of coaching and is not just a Maher or Davis big name who have little or no coaching experience, sure it would be exciting to have someoone like that at the club and both are good leaders but i think coaches need to learn the trade at other levels ie assistants, AIS, ABA/SEABL before stepping into the chair. A combo of a star plus an experienced head like a Smyth as an assistant would be interesting though if they were to go down that path. A bit like Hird and Thompson in the AFL.

We gotta get 0 - 6 yet.

Might be worth bringing the general back then? if it was management at the time, and now we have good management, then he could bring back our championship winning ways?

Thats pretty interesting, as it also eludes to a bit of what Phil Smyth was going on about in the adelaide now article: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/four-key-win-formula-broken/story-e6frect3-1226175637781

he states the four keys to be successful in virtually all sports, if it is as Phil states and the board has done everything, then why wouldnt they look to axe Marty if he is the reason the team isnt performing?

also sounds like Phil stating why he lost his role once new management came in as they didnt give him what he needed. although i wont pretend to know the truth there.

Very interesting . Would've liked to have heard that.
5aa had Weigh and Warren in the studio , probably about the same time.
Warren ; " Today was the first time the whole team was on the court together , either thru injuries or availability or general soreness and that's a whole lot better going to Perth and by the time we get to NZ
we'll be going pretty good , all together. "

Weigh ; " The Coach is marvelous . "

Cornesy : " We really wanted the Coach to be coming in for the hard questions the fans want answered.
I reckon they might get one of these away games , against the top 2 teams. "