Hoops

Opals selection camp squad named

Comm games squad surely ends up with the younger players again in order to see who is legit or not.

They don’t need to pick the big name stars for that

How is he 'rightly recognised as a better coach than her'?

Counterpoint is, if Brondello was open to Chambers in the first place she wouldn't have hired her own pick of yet additional assistants. And Chambers would have led the way in Asia Cup.

I reckon people aren't misremembering how ordinary Lange is as a coach, but rather rightly recognising he is still a better coach than Brondello and she only implements his 'system'.

It seems people have forgotten the ordinary job Olaf did with Logan back in the day. Maybe BA facilitated the Russian gig to keep him occupied elsewhere. Thereby opening the door for Cheryl Chambers to have the space to be more of an influence for Brondello which will be a beautiful thing. Chambers is/should be Associate Head Coach because she's the future. If Brondello is open to utilising her properly, then together they will lead the Opals very well imo

Everything trickles down from the national team.

if the team is not performing well and is poorly managed, then everything below it begins to fall apart.

"Lavey, Snell, Kunek, Hodges should have not been in that Asia Cup squad imo.

Brondello will no doubt pick a vet heavy squad."

No doubt. She also heavily plays favourites.

Liz will walk all over Brondello too. Just watch the Mercury games and see how she can not handle Taurasi's on court antics or hysterics.

BA appoints part time coach living on 2 continents, neither of which are Australia.

Part time coach makes her own assistant appointments after the BA appointments are already made.

Part time coach appoints one of those extra coaches as her replacement when she's at her other job.

Extra coaches happen to be one of her close mates and her husband.

Husband takes new job after coaching us to a second place finish in a Cup we should have easily won.


Is this the senior team or the junior state level?????? Will BA even make an official announcement about this or are they too embarrassed?

Not possible until 2020.

What happens when Russia vs. Australia?

2 wages are better than one.

HAHAHAHA now we lose Olaf, Brondello will be useless.

Unless Olaf continues in the role and effectively is head coach of Russia AND Australia?

What a joke. BA needs to be overhauled.

I personally wanted Seebohm.
He's located here and close to our best facility, the AIS.

Lavey, Snell, Kunek, Hodges should have not been in that Asia Cup squad imo.

Brondello will no doubt pick a vet heavy squad.

well everyone cried they wanted Brondello, what did you expect, those that are at the helm of BAs selection need to go find another job, they suck at this one

They paid him a lot of dosh...

Russia didn't even make the World Cup.

Olaf Lange to be named Russian women's national team head coach.

Real professional moves being made here. Getting hired by his wife after BA already made previous appointments. Dropping Aus as soon as he gets another offer. Makes it look like a really professional organisation down here.

Yet they left Sherf out and she would have been there the whole time

Poor form really, especially from a college student when their season hasn't even begun, it's not even official training yet for college

Going by the latest photos posted by BA, Alanna Smith has shown up for the last couple of days of camp.

IMO I doubt she'll make the final 12 this time around but it's great that she was able to attend at least a part of the camp.

... or a hater of women.

and those who understand the reality between the economics and popularity of men's sports vs. women's sport doesn't make them sexist.

Just because people think women athletes ( and all women really) should be treated equally doesn't make anyone a feminist , seriously only someone against women would think like that

I like, watch and support women's basketball. But to ignore the financial realities of the situation is also misguided and will never move to advance the women's game... especially now as we've officially left behind the Golden Age of Opals basketball. To be frank, if BA couldn't sustain a boom in the time of having two of the best ever, how do they plan on generating interest and talent now?

Let's just conveniently forget the anon feminist's who fuel the fire, ignoring popularity -> economic reasons. It takes two to tango.

Agreed, they're all basketballers at the end of the day and deserve to be given the same amount of respect as the men receive.

Slightly unrelated but does anyone know if the Asian Cup games will be televised in Aus? Thankfully them being in India means we won't have to wake up in the middle of the night to watch!

Another thread hijacked by anons who don't care about the Opals or women's sport but spend a lot of time caring enough to spout their tripe. Wonderful place.

"Don't be naive. Sports is entertainment."

Exactly, and a business! There are a lot of Robin Hood fans on here.

It's astounding the amount of people on here who don't understand that the men's game is vastly more popular which brings more benefits to it. To top it off they then trot out the word sexism. A lot are probably jealous misandrists. Yes in utopia everything would be equal but we aren't living there.

^so only five people watched the olymics and world games....hmm interesting concept.....

its astounding the amount of males here who are so blatantly sexist LOL,and Im a male , who just happens to have sisters and sister inlaws who play sport not just basketball at all levels of ability......frankly these women deserve far more respect than both BA and the general sporting bodies give them, not only do they train and play just as hard as any man, but they get less pay which means they hold down jobs, run families and in most cases look after the men in their lives too.

Perhaps if they got more support from the male sporting fans then their éxposure'wouldnt be such a struggle...or do they always need to be in skimpy suits(notice beach volley ball is never short of spectators for the women)

maybe think before you condemn and look at the reasons why...and dont say because its not as good, it is if you appreciate the players

"The funding should be equal, however considering the medal tally of the women compared to the men, if it was performances based the women wouldn't need subsidising"

Don't be naive. Sports is entertainment. It's based on who tunes in to watch, and women aren't doing much of anything to get eyes on their game. So they used to get more medals in front of 5 pairs of eyes?

When NBL was under the BA umbrella they used NBL team contributions to fund WNBL. Then NBL bolted from BA WNBL players complained about not having an awards night all of a sudden... derp. How brazen and ungrateful!

Lol^ ....the men "subsidise" the women, seriously lol
You do realise that if their were no inequality the men wouldn't have more money to be able to subsidise the women

The funding should be equal, however considering the medal tally of the women compared to the men, if it was performances based the women wouldn't need subsidising,

Considering the women had to subsidise their travel ( upgrading to business) themselves meanwhile the entire men's contingent, staff as well were all paid for by BA, I can see how you would come to that conclusion hahaha

There is no inequality. In fact the men subsidise the women.

LOL @ "shoved in economy". The men are much taller then the women.

Opals had 8 of the 12 players over 6ft, of the ten Boomers thats were over 6 ft only two were taller than Cambage, so if you want to play that game, then it should have been fine for those two under 6ft to sit in economy dont you think.
the height excuse was just another bullshit way to try to justify the inequality in the sport,

I like how someone goes to the effort of digging up an old Russian article probably lost in translation to rev up the sexism debate. Troll!

Why? I have no problem with the comment. Let me guess others will take it way out of hand now...

Why I am not enthused about Olaf being involved... Brondello's response to being asked about coaching with her husband leaves a lot to be desired, especially as he is obviously now involved with the team although not on official staff.


https://mobile.twitter.com/EuroLeagueWomen/status/827094210725736453
Interviewer: At the moment Olaf is a head coach and you are an assistant coach. But once it was vice versa. Which is simpler for you?

Brondello: I am comfortable in both situations. Probably it is better now, when I am assisting. I think that being a head coach is more of a male job.

LOL @ "shoved in economy". The men are much taller then the women.

Whilst it's a valid question we finances and just how much these overseas camps will impact on the overall budget , I don't think the men have any grounds for complaint considering they had overseas camps for almost every training period and that was with an Aussie based coach , they also refused to stay at institute provided accomodation in those countries they were training st, opting for 5* accomodation , plus add their business class travel while the Opals were shoved into economy and had to pay their own upgrades .... the Men have had plenty of "extra" funding over the years whilst never producing a medal

National teams should be training in Australia and saving the funding to go play tournaments leading up to worlds and Olympics to get the international experience needed

And they SHOULD have a coach based in this country too
And one that's available for ALL tournaments
This situation they have is ridiculous, what was BA thinking?

"Which the brings me to another question: will the finances to keep our absentee coach minimally engaged with the side come from the regular Opals part of the BA pot or is there a separate fund for this? Are our developmental finances going to be drained for this?"

The men should complain about sexism if the latter is the case! :P

There's another photo on the BA facebook that shows Snell in the same training top as everyone else and it looks like she's a part of the drill they're all doing.

IMO I think they need at least one of Snell and Hodges in the team - without them, that team is VERY inexperienced at international level (excluding them from the 12 means only half the team has played a senior international tournament). I'd rather one of them there for their experience, as they're the ones that will most likely keep a level head if the Opals are in trouble.

I'm shocked Snell is even there. Judging by the shirt she's wearing she's not participating. Which brings the question of why take her all the way to the States. Which the brings me to another question: will the finances to keep our absentee coach minimally engaged with the side come from the regular Opals part of the BA pot or is there a separate fund for this? Are our developmental finances going to be drained for this?

Mangakahia also has great potential.

Snell, hodges too old. New blood needed.
Garrick and Tupaea are a while off.


If hurst, ohea, Jarry, Phillips, smith aren't available.. then..


5'7 Mansfield/5'8 Lavey
5'11 Cumming/5'10 Ebzery/5'11 Wallace
6'2 Blicavs/6'2 Kunek
6'2 Griffin/6'3 Bishop/6'5 Mijovic
6'5 Tolo/6'5 Bunton


I would like to see the following get camp invites next major tournament
Clydesdale, Wehrung, Whitcomb, Wilson, Seekamp, Sharp, Froling, Magbegor, Scherf.

I'm surprised Clydesdale was overlooked too, to be honest.. perhaps Tupaea is there as an 'emerging opal' like she was at one of the camps last year?

Assuming the non-attendees are out of the selection race, I reckon the final 12 would be

Mansfield - Lavey
Cumming - Ebzery - Snell or Wallace
Blicavs - Kunek
Bishop - Hodges - Mijovic
Tolo - Bunton

Mitchell imo will be outdated before Tokyo

I think it will come down to Mansfield, Clydesdale, lavey or Wehrung.

Whitcomb will take Mitchell naturalised spot.

agree Clydesdale is better than Mansfield,and probably Hurst re athletic and shooting though Hurst has more experience and with Mitchel not available they are missing that experience at the point,but she is way way better than Tupaea!!

Not at the moment but she'll get her shot I'm sure.

Clydesdale is much better than Hurst or Mansfield.

I'm thinking...

Hurst/Mansfield
Cumming/Ebzery/Wallace
Blicavs/Ohea
Griffin/Bishop/Tomlinson
Tolo/Bunton

"As if there was any doubt, Olaf is in the camp team photo in Phoenix."

Yes, he is the coach.