There are stacks of hidden messages in this article....

"But rightly or wrongly, basketball's progress in this state is heavily aligned to the fortunes of the 36ers. The glory days are a memory but the worry through '07 was that there is no joy in sight, either." Boti is a traditionalist, an idealist unfortunately the current structure is the reality.

The team's still alive and fans (decent number compared to other club's in the league) are still attending. The difference in expenditure just makes it tougher to contend with the top sides.

Boti makes a number of good points in that article though.

Boti's a journalist behind a computer.

Mr Hemmerling's paying the bills.

DDFan,

If he doesn't have deep pockets and is not able to bring a competitve team to Adelaide then he should not have bought the team.

Adelaide will not sell out the stadium and win with the current coach. Adelaide fans expect the best and we are not getting it. 10 years ago, every other person at a game was a club junior, the 36ers are so far away from getting these people back to games it is not funny. Phil has been a major problem with this regarding not allowing club players to play at their clubs and his poor coaching.

We will not get back to the glory days under the current system!

mal needs someone else to invest and help him out

boti also has more basketball knowledge and experience than mal does so his opinion is worth something

Boti's not pulling the $$$ outta his pocket. And neither are you guys. Cheaper tix this season, remember?

It's all very nice to be critical, but you have to face facts. Mr Hemmerling bought the struggling 36ers franchise. It wouldn't have come cheaply, & I'm appalled that you guys think it's on him & his bank balance to get the club to where it used to be. FFS, the league isn't what it used to be. Is it up to the owners to cover for the NBL's ineptitude over the last 8 freak'n years in one hand-out?

Get a grip.

DDFan, so you are not excpecting the 36ers to get back to the top of the NBL?

Then why would people bother supporting a team that isn't going to try and win?

Are you saying that we now have a management that doesn't care about winning to go along with a coach that is only interested in putting in minimal work to pick up his pay cheque?

Posted by Santa within the hour:
"DDFan, so you are not excpecting the 36ers to get back to the top of the NBL?"

Mate, it love it to happen, & I want it as much as anyone, but it'll take time. You can't expect a turnaround to happen in one season. Eddie Groves copped a lotta flak for pouring money into the Bullets. It took 4 years for his dream to happen, & he's got very deep pockets.

Posted by Santa:
"Then why would people bother supporting a team that isn't going to try and win?"

Who said they aren't trying to win? And where on your admission ticket did it guarantee a home win? It's a game & there upsets happening on a weekly basis. Life's like that, if you hadn't noticed.

Posted by Santa:
"Are you saying that we now have a management that doesn't care about winning to go along with a coach that is only interested in putting in minimal work to pick up his pay cheque?"

Now where did you get that stupid idea from?
Santa lurks HoopsSA?

Just as well you only drop in once a year.

Santa I think you read DDfans post COMPLETELY wrong. I beleive he was not just talking about the 36ers winning or loosing games but having REAL supporters to the games, week in week out win or lose. The NBL has been in steady decline over the last few years due to lack of Marketing, and by not being able to secure a decent free to air deal.

Those that critize Mal, all you have to do is look at the ticket prices this year, we have had low level games with free tickets offered, and for the first time in YEARS we have adverts on the TV. Granted the adverts dont show enough excitement, but its a start.
Unfortuneatly someone buying a club is not a immediate fix, but the club has been trying some things and aslong as they continue to progress then we will see improvement. The Damage done by BASA cannot be fixed in 1 season, to expect it to be is to not understand how business's have to be run. Mal has to make sure he is still making money to pay everyone while trying to slowly bring in changes to bring in more fans.

DDFan, like you, I am a season ticket holder. The reality of this is that the club has already gotten everything it is going to get out of us for the season in terms of admissions revenue. If we don't show up for the rest of the year the club is still in the same financial spot as it would be if we did. But the week to week fans, who for whatever reason can't commit to season tickets but who will show up when they can, if these people stay away that is when you start seeing a club run out of money. I mean, if we could afford Brad Newley we must have paid less for Neal Mottram as a replacement. What was the buyout figure to Chappell, like $20K? If you can get another 400-500 buy at the door fans each week then there is no way that we wait 15 games to replace a great bloke who is so obviously finished. But we haven't, so we were stuck with him until we were 6-9.

Last season was a disgrace, but not altogether unexpected considering the team was put together at the last moment. Last season cost us a lot of fans who would show up on the night and buy a ticket. Last seasons team played with no passion and even less poise and skill. And for those of us who have showed up, having to watch Chappell for as long as we did this season was an insult. And look at what has happened since he has been gone, we are 3-1, and the loss was actually an encouraging one for the most part. Phil Smyth supported Chappell for as long as he possibly could, and Phil's loyalty to his players is not a bad thing, though his blind spots on guys like Mark Nash and Jason Williams have hurt us in the past. But once it became apparent that Chappell was done, we weren't able to replace him as soon as would have been ideal because of a lack of financial resources.

I've heard it mentioned so many times on this sight about the only opinions that matter are those of "real" fans. Well, I consider myself a real fan. I will show up no matter how bad I think we are going to be because I've been following this team since I was 10 and will continue to until one of us ceases to exist. But I'm sure that the Canberra Cannons, Geelong Supercats, and Hobart Devils would STILL have a lot of "real" fans. But that alone is not going to get it done.

I believe criticism of Hemmerling has been over the top, but he cost himself more than he had to pay to buy out Chappell by waiting as long as he did. It will be an incremental process to get us back to where we were 1998-2002.

anon, I do believe that Phil should take some of the blame for a team that plays without passion and without defensive intensity! He is the coach.

And any coach that doesn't even bother to have a white board is only giving it half an effort, just like those players that have left would confirm.

No, but it was built, during the day.....

i think for the first year after the BASA debacle the club is steadily turning it around, and lets not hide from that either, but lets not deflect blame away from inept coaching and coaching decision making.

a couple of recruitment differences and it could have been a whole lot better as Boti said with newley dammed if you do dammed if you dont. I for one am glad Mal went after him and signed him. either way hes a building block for the future.

BASA left it in one shit hole, i still remeber foley saying it would take in financial terms years for a new owner to fully stabalise the organisation again,
again lets not brush over this BASA left BB on the bones of its arse.


i think Mal has made steady inroads into this, they may not be giant and publically visible steps but there happening, i for one would give him credit for whats Hes doing.

now Phil. lets face it this is a tricky situation. a) do you arse a fav son. (lets all be honest hear hes a SA Great regardless) or do you gracefully let him see out his contract (supposidly 200k) or do you pay him out cop another debt ontop of what you have take over.

personally let him coach the season out then in stead of Sacking him you dont renew his contract or his side kick SB that shows respect that he is due.

then create some interest Ninis give him a crack. but also look for Local identities for the Assitants roles. why not approach some locals coaches example richard hill(not saying hes the one but a local would be good shows a connection from local to nbl and a path to follow ) and look at a Daryle Pearce or a Mike Mckay to bring back a recongnisable face to the club.

anyway just my thoughts.

A 3 for 1 post:

Excellent post Mutley, as always.

The Anonymous poster wasn't me.

Nice work Thomo.

So much talk about a buyout cost for Chappell. Does anyone really know whether he had to be bought out or not? Surely a contract becomes null and void if performance issues have not been met. Why would any money be paid out to Chappell to end his contract if he wasn't meeting his end of the bargain? Their were grounds for ending that contract and no cost to the club should have been incurred. The club agreed to pay money in return for a product. That product was not delivered.

im pretty sure there would be a pay out figure which would be set into the contract at time of signing if they get cut through out there contract, i wouldnt know the figure nor pretend to but have heard it mentions on ozhoops that its usually 12-15% of the players entire contract so lets say max $20k payout assuming it was a 1 year deal

Definitely would have to be a buy-out negotiated or in the contract as only a desperate player would sign without one. Performance is a subjective thing and it was obviously clouded further in this instance by injury.

The point about Newley for Mottram (especially considering they were bidding very strongly to beat the Tigers) may be valid. It's very possible that financial circumstances changed after that (the ABC Learning Centres share price, for example).

Also, Smyth has been using a whiteboard/playboard recently (perhaps since that incident involving the sheet of paper? Not sure if he used one often prior to that.) - definitely spotted him using one in the televised game against the Dragons.