Hoops

What now for the 36ers?

well bretts the man, sounds like you should be coaching the team..........NOT

Seems strange that everyone is on weigh's back when Brad Hill couldnt get his game going for how long?
Ah thats right, daddy looked after him and told everyone he had 3 years. Get off weighs back

I'm no expert but from next weeks game against Melbourne I would bring Balls back into the starting lineup at PF. But who to drop back to the bench? Cross and Warren seemed to work well together last night from what I understand.

My starting 5 would be Warren, Cross, Simpson, Balls and DJ with Creek, Ng, Weigh, Simpson and Helliwell coming on as needed.

I don't know, I'm just glad I'm not the one making the decisions for the club. Its a thankless task.

Exactly, seems to be a good, young import along with Warren, i love his active hands inside and on defense and the boards, i hope we can bring them both back next year.

Exactly changes were needed last season as Clarke kept most of Ninnis's squad and got a similar result, i am a Holmes fan but can understand why the let him go, especially with Weigh coming into the forward rotation and Simpson gives us a good athletic inside precense with active hands on defense and on the boards next to Johnson,

IMO our Starting 5 should be Warren, Creek, Weigh, Simpson, Johnson, with Crosswell backing up the guards, Ballinger back up the bigs and the rest play minimal minutes.

Gives us a well balanced starting 5 all whom are under 25, and 2 veterans off the bench. Its only a 40 min game our stars should be playing atleast 30 IMO.

If we can retain that 5 (atleast the 3 Aussies) for the next several seasons we will have a strong team going forward, remember young teams are inconsistent in all sports, its common in the AFL, takes young teams 3-5 years to become good then they stay up the top for around 5 years if they can retain there core, we are in year 2, if we can keep our young starting 5, they continue to improve and bring in another good young aussie or 2 off the bench, which should be possible with Clarkes AIS connections next season, im happy for Clarke to continue next year and think we will be fairly good.

1st step is retaining Creek and Johnson, given Ballinger would be our highest paid player is coming off contract and they would either give him a reduced role and $$ or let him go there should be good $$ around to retain our young talent and recruit an extra young potential star IMO.

If Clarke cant deliver this then questions should be asked on how good his AIS/top young talent connections/recruitment is, but given he has bought in possibly the 3 best under 25 year old players in the league so far id say he has done fairly well in recruitng the top young players, if this can continue and we continuously see the top young players coming to adelaide and improving, we will hopefully be able to build a very strong program like Bevo and Goorj did, where they developed a strong side after a couple of years in coaching by recruiting and retaining top young talent, and stayed there by continuosuly bringing in the top young aussies available year after year,

Clarke has shown signs of this already IMO, and if he gets the right talent and guys like Weigh, Creek, Johnson stick around and improve even just another 5-10% we will have a strong team and winning will happen, no matter if Clarke doesnt fully perfect his rotations, etc. Goorj and Bevo are both stubborn coaches with floars to their game plans, they just have great talent, we also need to remember we cant just buy talent like some of Goorjs teams, hence why we have to get them young and develop and retain. Goorj was also very good at this.

IMO the signs are there, its year 2, lets say it takes 3 years so he gets atleast until the end of next year, aslong as he retains Creek and Johnson, and brings in another good young player, then we can truly judge him, if they are still struggling end of next year then id look elsewhere but IMO we will be fairly good if we retain our young starting 5.

Too early to right off Clarke IMO, he is just in the 3-5 year re-building phase, and AFL clubs such as Geelong under Thompson have shown if you keep the this process and be patient the winning will come. Just takes time, Geelong with a young team went from around 9th to 1st in one season, the Breakers jumped up from out of the playoffs last season to win the title, after having 3 years with the same group, so it can happen very quickly after 3 years just need to build a core, good chemistry and retain the good ones.

When was the last time the 36ers have been able to say we have the best 3 guys under 25 in the league and a coach able to recruit those guys who in the past went to guys like Bevo and Goorj and help them build dynesty. That alone aslong as it continues should give Clarke a couple more years in the helm IMO.

The season now rests on the coaches getting Ballinger firing at his best. He's Adelaide's x-factor for the remainder of the season. Previously the team needed his offense however this no longer appears the case given Adelaide's recent ability to put high scores on the board with little offensive return from Ballinger.

Last night the crowd witnessed a very un-balls like shooting performance, open shots that have previously been his bread and butter never looked like dropping. He needs to regain his touch and quickly otherwise he becomes an over paid (unfairly assumed), low percentage jumpshooter with little lockdown ability on defense.

If something does not change then Ball's may become expendable much sooner than he will like.

We have Melbourne and Gold Coast in next two home games so we need to win games,as teams above sixers are winning,Weigh is having a bad run ,put balls back into starting 5 and see what happens.

Start Johnson,Ballinger,Simpson,Warren,Herbert

then weigh,Crosswell,creek,Ng and Helliwell

See how this goes and Hope for a win against Patty Mills Melbourne team.

Yea agreed on Clarkes rotations, there were a few last night that i didnt like, but aslong as he keeps Johnson and Creek next season and continues to develop and adjust his game night coaching, i think he is making small changes atm, im happy to persist with him for next year.

I like our young talent in Weigh, Johnson, Creek, our 2 imports look good and both are the style of players we need, if we can retain those 5 for the next few years we will be fine, we are just a young/inconsistent team at the moment, if we can retain those 5 that would be a step in the right direction. The key is retaining the core players for several seasons ala NZ and Perth.

This offseason/next season the keys are to retain Creek and Johnson, the 2 best young players in the league, hopefully we will be able to keep Warren and Simpson, best import combo in a while and both young and have the right skill sets to blend in with our young
Aussies.
We should have cap space next season with Ballinger being off contract and im guesssing he is taking a fair chunk of our cap, so hopefully its enough to retain Johnson and Creek, keep our 2 imports or get equally as good and hopefully add another good aussie player into the mix. I would consider retaining ballinger but on greatly reduced money and a reduced role, as he obviously is never going to be the main man on a top side, but yea wouldnt be too upset to let him go if he gets a bigger offer elswhere.

If we can retain our 5 good young players, hopefully add an extra good player with Ballingers money, id be happy to give Clarke his 3rd year and would expect to be in the playoffs, or very very close. As Clarke has gone about the rebuiling like AFL clubs do and as shown in the AFL when you put together a young team it takes 3-5 years to make the playoffs, we are in year 2, sure i think we should have won last night against the kings but we did get it to over time and scored over 100 points which many teams are not doing, and Johnson looks like he is going to be the best C very soon, Weigh had his worst game id expect he will play better most of the time, just 5% more from him we would have won last night IMO, so its definatly not all doom and gloom and we would be stupid to break it up and start again when we have 3 of the best young aussies going around.

If Clarke was recruiting old guys like Smyth did at the end ala Wheeler, Copelend, i wouldnt be as patient, i just think he is going about it right by blooding top young talent and it will work out if we stay patient and can retain them. Just see it as the AFL clubs term it as a 'rebuilding phase' and it appears to me they are doing it right, so im willing to see it out and see how good we can get with our young talent over the next few years.

it will be 1 out of 6 next week when we host the Tigers and what a flop that will be.

With any luck, we get some interstate refs who actually ref well. Bitterly disappointing last night with some extraordinary fouls being called and some not.

I cant see finals, and cant see us doing much better than 6th if we get the ball rolling.

Another year of zip and another $320 gone. Gotta wonder how long people will take this before either leaving or ditching the club?