Maybe the players should have a look at themselves first looking at the boxscore.

There does need to be some accountability, if we don't break even after game 12 (6-6), hand over coaching to Smyth on a temporary basis and see how he goes (like an Adelaide United-Kossie situation).

2 Years we finish essentially bombshelter, we have a much more talented lineup this time around, if they can't go 50% from the first 12 games, we don't want to ruin the season with the same old, same old. Something needs to change this year, and it needs to look like that's happening by the middle of the season.

The team is awful, plug different players in and still getting the same poor results. I personally would've gotten rid of Marty a while ago and I really am unsure why the Sixers management have not tried to relieve him of his duties (i'm assuming it's because he's on a long term deal and don't have the coin to pay him out).

The offense dries up for minutes at a time and looks awfully disjointed, lacking cohesion. On D they get abused whenever the offense runs multiple pick and roll sets, help doesn't come across quick enough on the weak side and they often end up leaving men wide open for easy points as a result.

I would kill to see the 6ers have a coach like Smyth back at the helm. At least his teams where enjoyable and exciting to watch. Watching Clarke's reign is just flat out painful!

Jack Toft...thank you for starting this thread...seems Isaac's 'Sack Marty' bot isn't on its game tonight.

While it isnt the coach who misses shots, fumbles the ball, defends poorly, doesnt block out to take defensive rebounds and just doesnt get into position for offensive rebounds, the coach is responsible for the players attitude, confidence and adherence to team rules.

Ken Cole may not have been the best coach in the world but over a long period of time he got his players to get the best out of themselves. I was still with South Adelaide when he first came over here and what a presence. Gary Fox had basically the same team for a lot of the time he was in charge of the 36ers, but couldnt get the same out of the team.

When Phil Smyth had the players, he got the best out of them and won Championships. In the later years, the team didnt have the money behind it so he didnt have the same overall team quality but at least it was enjoyable to watch.

Would Phil make this team perform better, who knows, but it must surely be a huge worry to the team owners to see these players having the life sucked out of them. The Tigers game was always going to be tough but it was a 53 point turnaround from their last match.

...... and now for Perth on Sunday. Could be a very interesting Monday.

Sanderson turned the Crows around in a season. So when you say its not the coach, think about the impact Marty has had on any player. Weigh...turned to sh$t, Creek hasnt developed anywhere near what ppl expected, Holmes improved the day he walked out the door, Ballinger plays like he wants to play again this season, DJ hasnt developed defense anywhere near enough.
All these players just keep getting worse mentalities, decreased skill sets and lack of game smarts. The only consistant thing over the last 3 seasons has been the coach and the horrible way we have played.

Look forward to the day I can goto a game with excitement again.

good point Skud, my thoughts summed up there too.

Really, Really Sad times! Where will it end?

Do people think the Sixers players were spooked by all the hype that surrounded Errol's debut?

It's the task of the coaching staff to make sure this doesn't happen but were they caught up in the hype too? I didn't read any quotes from Marty during the lead up to last night's game.

Couldn't agree more Anon #386609

I agree that the coach isn't responsible for players missing shots but he can directly influence the flow off the game by calling timeouts before the opposition gets away on the scoreboard and can put combinations on the floor that are going to work against the other teams players.
Breakers came out flat last night (like they have started most games this season) and before it got out of hand Lemanis called a time out and gave them a serve and some instruction and presto they were back in it.
It's not like the Sixers don't have the players to get it done.

Come on its time! 3 years in he cant coach! He would lose with the dream team. PLAYERS DON'T PLAY FOR LURCH

" Stevie pulled up OK , after playing the team's most minutes and that's the main thing , as he has to do that again on Sunday . "

Sick of his excuses, sick of his bad coaching, sick of ppl who think after 3 years he will improve and blame the players consistently for his obvious problem, sick of a club who wont do what they should have done several years ago.

Considering the new 1:30 timeslot means I don't get to half the games, the clubs persistence with this idiot makes me seriously question my season tickets. I wont watch another season of this crap.

A couple of things that I've noticed:

Last night - check the scoring worm on Live Stats. The slope of the Tigers' scoring line is the same all game. No flat spots, no noticeable changes. The 36ers' line starts the same and then the slope drops and stays at that lower level for the rest of the game. So nothing the 36ers' coach (or players) did was able to slow the Tigers' scoring rate all night, or increase the 36ers' scoring rate. So the coach either had no ideas on how to change the flow of the game or the players weren't able to do what the coach told them to do. Given the history of the last 2 years, it's hard not to lay much of the responsibility at the coaches' feet.

Through the season so far. Petrie, Schenscher and Johnson collectively are shooting 41.5%. I haven't checked but is that the lowest shooting percentage of the front lines in the league this season? It must be close to it!

Johnson is the worst - 38.2%. Johnson shot 44% last year. He's never shot as well at Adelaide as he did at the Tigers (55% in 2010).

Schenscher is shooting 40.8% after 48% at Townsville last year. He never shot below 54% for his preceding 3 seasons in the NBL.

Petrie is at 46.6%, which is about what he's shot each season in the NBL.

These patterns can't just be about the players. If the offence is too complicated for them to execute correctly, the coach has to either simplify the offence or find a different way to communicate it to the players. If it isn't the offence and execution but the players not shooting well, the coach has to diagnose why they've suddenly lost their accuracy and work out how to get them to fix it.

Last one is the contrast of the 36ers' performance and the Sydney Kings. The Kings have a new coach and have at least 5 new players. In contrast to the 36ers, they have been highly competitive in all but 1 game they've played, against teams at the top as well as the bottom of the league (the Cairns game in Week 2 is the sole exception).

They've had to deal with the same level of change in personnel as the 36ers. All of this team (not half - like Adelaide) have had to learn Heal's tactics from scratch and he has had to learn how to teach them and get the best from them come game time. Much to my surprise - and that of a lot of others - he has them playing well and CONSISTENTLY, week to week. As much as anything, this contrast with the inconsistent performances of the 36ers week to week convinces me that the 36ers' coaches are struggling.

By the way, anyone notice we are yet to have 2 wins in a row this season? Remember how good it felt to get that monkey off our back last year? Well, it seems to be back. To be honest, if we win against Perth tomorrow, I'll be only mildly surprised and unconvinced of a corner turned. We beat them 3 times last year and ultimately, those performances only raised false hopes.

Also rememer two of our wins were against Cairns backing up after night before (we fell in) and Sydney after they had played in NZ. Our form is very average. Always excuses, "Melbourne caught fire" Its your job to put the fire out!!

I'd give him another 3 years

In 2002, the year we won the championship we lost 13 games. Of those 13 games we lost to the bottom team by 18 ( Cairns) the 2nd bottom team ( Canberra) by 27 and to other games by 18 plus

People need to calm down a little i think.

Get to the Arena tomorrow and SUPPORT your team.

its funny this thread wasnt up last week after we beat sydney kings. We had a shocker. Perth had a shocker last week against Wollongong. Wollongon had a shocker last night vs Sydney. Relax guys every team has a bad game.

So it follows then that a championship coach should allow loses to bottom two teams. The 36ers for the past two seasons have been hamstrung by ballingers contract.

NZ beat cairns tonight and the 36ers are back in the top 4

Perspective is all I am offering

One of the ANON's early on said the sixers fans were dicks for venting. As paying customers, I'd like to think I get something decent for my money both home and away. People forget that a membership is only for home games. The salaries are for all games, so while there is no benefits at away games, we expect to see something and against Melbourne,....well?

I wouldnt call the game impressive unless u were from the Tigers, would you?

Marty is a good coach for a junior team, not an nbl club. As much as I hate Benn McDonald, i'd have him coach the 36ers. Least we know how the refs will cheat for the perth game

Hawks and Breakers are at the top of the ladder. Bad loss in Melbourne and no one would dare overrate Marty, so I don't think it's catastrophic. That said, I'd be watching things closely for a couple of games. His coaching has been underwhelming to date.

Heal has been more convincing with Sydney at this point, and that's coming in completely fresh.

The comparisons with Smyth are always going to be unfavourable given the 98-02 years. Better, more recent one might be Lemanis in a way. He had some pretty decent rosters with Powell and Penney before seeing success. Half the 36ers crowd would've sacked him long before he got a championship. I don't remember thinking that he was a convincing coach in his early years.

Ignoring the last two rosters in Adelaide however, I think the team is strong enough on paper now that we should expect the side to be around where they are or better at this point. A couple more heavy losses and I'd seriously look at a change.

In the meantime, I'd start Petrie and bring Luke off the bench.