Hoops

U19 Womens world cup

No one knows how those listed will develop. They are all capable. That's why they are there. You know.. the wnbl, The best womens comp we have.

Shelley is a good young player, certainly not ready for the jump to senior level, and basically until they make that jump it's not a guarantee they will ever make the grade.
Many factors to consider especially when it comes to PGs, they are the engines of a team, look at Mitchell, Harrower and any of the really top PGs, not only are they good players they are good decision makers, smart and organised, they are you on court leaders/coaches, they may be fine in their junior levels, as the rest of their team mates are on the same maturity wavelength, but at senior level your dealing with adults not kids

Many of those names will never make that jump for any number of reasons , from ability to communicate, to gaining respect so their team mates listen, to being a great reader of the game, knowing all positions and what their team mates strengths and weaknesses are, and being able to take control of not only tempo but also at crunch time.
Add all these to being able to p,at both ends of the court and a good PG is not that easy to come by hence why once found they are not quickly replaced unlike other positions.
Bit like a good centre, few and far between, but you 2/3/4 positions are the ones who change frequently and usually depending on a coaches personal preferences.

Over the next few years they will hopefully sort the chaff from the wheat, then you can revisit all those obscure names somevare throwing up and see how on the money your were lol

Combo guard...

What exactly is a CG? Catching guard? :p

Lots of names you've thrown up. I'd rather two stand outs than 15 "almosts" though.

I could put a hard line through most of those you have listed. Strange you missed Shelley who is probably our only world class guard prospect.

Plenty of competition for pgs/cgs over the next several years.

We shall see in time.

Youngins 17-19y,o
Conti at Melbourne, Rocci at Canberra, Tessari at Bendigo, elsworthy at Adelaide, Tupaea at Sydney, Fejo at Perth, Goodchild at Townsville.

More experienced. 20-23y.o
Clydesdale at Adelaide, Wehrung at Canberra, Panousis at Adelaide, Lavey at Dandenong.

College
Nakkasoglu
Reid
Wallace
Mangakahia
West
Etc etc

Exactly! On court performance was just like her attitude and behaviour towards her teammates and coaches - atrocious!!!

Hopefully never to be seen again.

Are you serious Conti. Hello mum

Trouble is MS are wanting to play her at pf.

If she moved to sf. Shes got Talbot, Allen, Blicavs, Horvat, sharp to go against in the future. Will be tough.

Possibly , but if she can get her ball handling up to scratch and put plenty of work into her foot speed in defence over these next four years in college she could be a good SF, she can certainly shoot

Yep agree.
Not sure Bibby is opals potential. Too small as a pf.

Long way to go and plenty ahead of them, before they are even close to that level
Shelley , Magbegor and Bibby were the only standouts from that side and non are ready for the senior level in any major capacity

Conti, Shelley and Magbegor are probably the only Potential opals within the next 5 years imo.

Some serious failures amongst the squad on an individual basis. Would expect at least half will not be in green and gold again, maybe more.

Ezi played VC in u14s for Coburg. She also played Youth League. Still, she may be one of the very few girls who are better from their time at the COE in the past 5 years. I can't think of another one.

IMO there's no doubt the injuries that happened when Downer was at the helm of the COE cost us any chance of a gold medal. Overlay this with the terrible coaching panel and inexplicable section and we were never likely to medal.

The boys didn't qualify.

COE players are not guaranteed.
Mums and dads who think this may get a real shock.
Ask many of the boys who missed out.

The 2 01 born pgs are excellent ball handlers. The best we've had in some time, possibly ever at that age.

Even Before ever going to COE...
Both of them are better at that skill than any other player currently there who are 2-3 years older.

Another case of players failing to make enough buckets

Of course coe kids are guaranteed.

Yaeger barely played at Oregon this year and is stuck behind one of the best freshman guards in the country. COE kids always had the edge on that pick.

Her father probably wrote that

Mclean'

Would have made a difference
Tessari at PG-leader
Yaeger at SG-creation + shooting
McLean at SG-penetration, defense, shooting
Horvat at SF/PF-slashing + physicality

Out
Cubillo-not a leader nor any offensive threat.
Rowe-defender only at sf (this age group)
Simons-perimeter shooter only when open.
Pizzey-defender only at pf (this age group)

Squad =
Tessari
Conti
Rocci
Shelley
Yaeger
Horvat
Maley
Bibby
Aokuso
Magbegor
Mcspadden

I thought they did well considering the selection options, not much the coaches can do when the pool of players is preselected, which happened in this case. Indeed we can debate why Horvat was not picked, but not sure she would make much of a difference as what she brings on is not what was missing - shooting and ball handling. I thought Yeager should have been part of this team.
I watched several games and was under impression that our guards were outmatched by opposition. They could not defend the post, which meant that the opposition created mismatches all the time. On the offensive end, their shooting was not consistent and one-directional penetration ie very rarely using a weak hand were very visible. I just could not see any improvements in our guards within a year, while it was obvious that Ezy and Shelley played at a different level.

Coaches Butler and McAughtry are not inexperienced, Butler was with the team 2 years ago when they won bronze, while McAughtry was part of the men's team when they won silver in the worlds. Not sure anyone with greater international experience (not that many) was available.

About CoE - I thought it was about creating future Boomers/Opals so plenty of time to develop many potential players (several from this group). However if the selection for U17 and U19 will be exclusively made from the same pool the results will not follow those of the senior groups. Most of these kids are selected based on their potential (or at least we think so) that requires lots of hard work to develop. Creating muscle memory required for shooting and ball handling takes time - years - so if they come at 17 or 18 with poor skills, this can't be fixed within a year or two.

The overall selection is flawed as it relies on main state competitions, some camps and nationals although many kids may miss for various reasons. One of good examples is Deng Adel who never attended any of state trials (actually he did once but declined in the end) because he or his parents could not afford it. A few years ago, nobody knew about Ezi as she played Metro 1, look at her now - a great story. IMO what needs to be done is better scouting - how much those employed within BA or any other association really know about talent in this country. How many of them turn up for the Sudanese tournament?
Many of these positions are paid by taxpayers so those at CoE or other associations funded by public money should justify this investment. If they don't want to do their job properly, maybe they are not right people for the job.

Stats don't tell the whole story

Actually Bibby had a better stat line than Shelley for the tournament, three best performers were Magbeor, Bibby and Shelley, their best rebounder though was Marley averaging 10.8 rebounds a game

Our 2 best players Shelley and Magbegor played the entire 2nd half in the last game, am not surprised that they struggled to back up from that

They will.

They lost last years u17s to us. never lost before at u17 level.
They lost the boys u19s to Canada a month ago.
Today they lost for the first time in 6 tournaments to Russia. Dating back to 2005.

USA lost the final. Quick sack the coach, sack the CEO, sack Trump, sack everyone!!

Girls played well

You need to pick more guards and better shooters going through Asia now! It's not like the old Oceania half court slow down days

Plenty of good shooters were left at home.
Maybe a few wrong selections. Stars of the future not
Always the right selections

U20-u19s you've got

Levchenko/Zaviolova
Kolovoskaya/Kurilchuk
Cheren/Ogun
Musina/Maiga
Vadeeva/Shabanova

Got revenge against the USA.

Russia have some real talent.
Will have an awesome senior team once again in a few years.

Finished 6th out of 16.
Going in I thought we would finish 3 or 4th.

The surprise packets have been Canada (3rd) and Japan (4th). credit to those programs.


We look quite good in the guard spots for next u19s 2019 but we don't have the same calibre of bigs in 2019. Cochrane and Bourne are the only 2 in the post that stand out.

Their shooting percentage was terrible, a dismal 26%

Gems lose in a 45-47 crudfest :(

Why wasn't Horvat picked??

I was disappointed in general given how much these time most of these girls spend together at COE. I was impressed when things got tough, so did Shelley, she raised the bar when needed.

Russia looked slick compared to our girls. Why? Too many girls sitting on the bench or not contributing, the more experienced girls like Horvat would have had a better impact on this tournament.

Last year they may have won a gold medal at Un17s but that was assisted by the fact the USA put together THE worst and weakest team they have ever produced in any age group.

The very same main players from that UN17 team were in the current un19gems......

Think that says a lot really.

I'm surprised Shannon Seebohm wasn't either part of the coaching staff for this squad or the u17s Oceania team. He has got some great results previously.

BA = joke
Jan = joke
Centre of Dourness = joke plus wasting taxpayer dollars
Recent coaching appointments, present and past = joke

USA team'

I Disagree, we were better than Japan. If we had finished top of the group, we'd be playing for a medal and would have given the team sa a much greater test.

Selections and coaching appointments aside, this team has done very well and finishing 5th is just about right given the only two teams they have lost to were Japan and Russia, both whom made it through to the semis.

Magbegor and Shelley have been clearly the standouts from my perspective.

It's been that way for 10 years.
Look at who previously went to the COE and now at college,
There ball handling is terrible.
One skill that clearly isn't being taught a whole lot whilst there.

the best ball handlers from Aus in college never went to the COE.
the natural ability the players once had gets ruined by going there.

I wouldn't give her credit for un20AJC coach, I mean it's a crap comp, Vics always win, BigV SCW she's dismal as a coach, she's so far off national standard let alone international, and the same goes for McAughtry, two of the worst they could have chosen, only have to look at track record.
But hopefully the next coach appointed will be better

U20 ajc champion with victoria.
Big v scw diamond valley - 2nd last place.