Money not very well spent. At least there's a few South juniors in the Men's side.

No, I've been ridiculing them for a long time about their fully imported roster.

badluck south, i luv u

when are they going to bring on the south junior girls or are they going to seat on bench again and olds again.

south got a long way to go they only have one good junior.

Wheres the development side of things?

How many Div2 womens players get a shot at playing ABL?

How can u have someone of Marina's experience not train against younger players?

How about South try and breed their own players, rather than recruit oldies from outside? what does taht say about and to your juniors?

just some thoughts - maybe someone might actually consider raising them with relevant ppl at South?

then again, why do i want them to do that?

why fight online about a club which isn't going to address any issues. they have old jr's that didnt get anywhere and have players like abbey williams playing minutes (christ) wat is the coach thinking.
Bad luck they didnt get to the show but the problem lies deeper than the ABL side.

All they are after is a quick fix and obviously it didn't happen...again!!!

Should they follow the lead of the men's team and show faith in their own players? Or perhaps use the Woodville tact of complementing the locals with an import?

It's nice to see you can bag a team once they are out of the finals race and not put a name next to it. Let me guess, you would've been congratulating the coach and players if they went all the way???
If you look at the team, a lot of players have come from other clubs, i'll agree on that. But how would you seriously know if those players didn't want to come to play at South under a coach like Kay-Lee? What makes you think that they were all recruited? If a decent calibre player approaches any club they're not going to say "sorry, we don't want to look like we're poaching players from other clubs. Have a look around the league, most teams have players from other clubs, it's the nature of the game. Players leave because of a number of reasons, they don't like other players, certain coaches, certain committee members, location, more money, more playing opportunity, etc.
Who's North's number one player? Erin Phillips, where did she come from...West!
Forestville have a collection of different players from other clubs, why? Look at the coach and how many came accross from North, or Sturt.
The same thing happens in the mens league. So don't sit there behind your computer and start bashing coaches or teams or even clubs for that matter, when it's happening all around you especially when you don't have the nerve to put your name next to it.

Not all clubs do it, however the majority do. Why?

Because it's easy. It's easy to pick off other club's juniors and much harder to develop your own.

To say it is all around is correct, but it doesn't make it right. especially when the senior budgets are drawn mainly from junior subs. If senior programs were self funding then it wouldn't be so bad. This is the main reason for the salary cap.

It's time all clubs got serious about their junior programs for the good of basketball in SA.

If every club does it, doesn't it cancel out? It's like a poaching cycle.

Eventually players should end up back where they started. :)

It's not always like that though. Like I said, some players approach clubs. I know for one because i've done it myself. When bringing in juniors to senior programs, there are a lot of outside influences. What if you had a team like the North men's senior team from about 12 years ago. I remember playing against them and they were seriously massive! The majority of players were all forwards or centres. If you don't have a guard coming through the junior ranks that's good enough what are you going to do? Have a Point Forward? You go and recruit. One of South's mens team of late is that we have an abundance of guards, but not a lot of huge guys coming through the junior program, so it would be beneficial if we go out and recruit a centre or forward. What does Forestville do just about every year? Go and buy a Centre. Same as Woodville. Legitimate Senior players do not grow on trees. Sport is a Business as much as you and I hate to say it, AFL clubs go and recruit, NBL clubs go and recruit. Look at your own backyard...Rees, Cooper, Rychart, Nash, Farley, some of the old teams have had very few Adelaide born players, why aren't you bashing the sixers for not having a whole team of Adelaide players??? Because they would probably struggle and then you would be the first person to bash them about that!
Get a grip on reality and wake up!

There's a big difference. The Sixers are self-funded - they sell tens of thousands of dollars worth of tickets each game. Add sponsorship and corporate suites to that.

ABL teams don't exactly drag in the cash (certainly not the value of the salary cap). If an ABL team can make $25,000/year in ticket sales (560 people for every one of 9 home games, each paying $5; over and above any costs related to training for two teams, etc), then I don't see why they can't recruit all they want.

I think the point made previously was that teams shouldn't spend the money coming in from junior subscriptions to finance their senior team. Instead, more should be done to reinvest in those junior programs (and raise future senior players). I'd guess there's a general rule that people playing for their own club are more cost-efficient than those recruited.

Look at the statistical output of, say, Tom Finkemeyer and Simon Kent -- very even, one playing for their club, another recruited, and I'm pretty sure they're not costing their respective clubs the same amount of money.

Excellent points Isaac.

Panther, I agree - AFL and NBL programs are businesses, which must make a profit. However, if ABL programs were run like a business, they would be immediately shut down because, to my knowledge, they all run at a loss. Profit from ABL games doesn't even cover the salary cap, let alone court hire for trainings, strapping tape, etc.

To some extent, people are satisfied with this, the argument being that senior basketball should be supported so that our juniors have something to strive for. However, I think the solution is for clubs to do a better job of marketing their senior product, so that it can at least break even.

I agree.

My comment re marketing wasn't meant to be having a dig at club committees (one of which I'm on!).

I agree - the best way to encourage people (particularly juniors and their familise) to watch senior games is for seniors to have more involvement in junior programs.

Isaac, in a perfect world that's what would happen. But if you put all your money back into developing juniors, they get to a certain age and are lured away by money, more opportunities, selfishness. If you are not offering your senior players some sort of financial incentive majority of time they will go to another club. Unfortunately it's not all about the "love" of the game. You can put in all the time and effort and money only to have your player taken when they start to perform where you want them to be. Holmes, Ng, Gower, Sullivan, Illman, Mapunda, to an extent Kent!
Junior's don't look up to the ABL senior team as much as they used to. In my opinion it's because the average age has dropped down so much. The sport has evolved to a much faster paced game where there isn't a lot of room for "older" players, so the senior team are not that older than our junior players.
As a kid growing up, I was in awe of the senior teams. Every "36er" played for their local club and it was great to go out and watch these guys. That's when players played for the love of the game. They were home grown, so in the NBL off season, they hung around, worked and played in SA. These days that doesn't happen. Their primary income is basketball and they travel where ever to make the $$$$. I think crowds would double if you had Maher, Farley, Rychart playing for a local team. Who wouldn't want to watch Maher and Farley go one on one???
Sixers should be encouraged to play locally and things like sending them to play a scratch match in Perth instead of playing for your local team in a Grand Final is a smack in SA Basketball's face and things will only get worse...

Senior players shouldnt be expected to coach teams, unless its a contractual thing, but certainly a prescence at trainings or games every now and then would make a hell of a difference to juniors and parents attitudes towards senior players....and who knows maybe more interest in senior games...a club is a club from seniors to juniors you cant concentrate on just one area....but certainly a working mix would be ideal....seniors give a little bit and juniors yeah support...win win

Uhh, Eastern was in the comp when he started playing, not that this is relevant to the thread topic anyway. Stick to the topic or start a new thread.