West Adelaide's starting group now much better than Norwoods.

"Two undefeated sides will be hungry to get their first win on the board."

Whoops - two winless sides I meant!

Why would you assume that Sturt had a tough start to the season when Mavs had to take on Eagles 1st and then Norwood which they were beating by 10 points (scared the bejeezes out of them LOL). The season is still young people. How about we try and stay positive on this site vs negativity all the time. We all support our own teams - stick to that support your team.

I don't think anyone would argue Sturts start of Norwood, Mount Gambier, North, West is probably the hardest schedule of any team to date?

"(scared the bejeezes out of them LOL)" Norwood were up by 40 at one point against Sturt.. pump the brakes mate

battle of the coaches sturt v mavs better than the montreal comedy gala

West with a dynamic addition to their squad for this week.

Isn't he at college?

Dynamic Kubank is dynamic

BJ will be huge for North when he shows up.

Woodville have gotten worse each year under Whitmore, makes Gaze look good in comparison. Cant play defence, always in a zone and dont develop juniors. And their current group of juniors worst in the league.Only won games when Everitt played well yet bring back the dud import. Perhaps the most boring team in the league, would be ok if they won.

Woodville do sit in a scared 2/3 alot hoping teams have an off night from the perimeter. Kinda Whitmores gameplan.

After all the Mavs men's team bashing

Maybe people will see that there perhaps was a plan

Likely the people talking about culture issues were likely exited players that were the culture issue

I note a decent number of Mavs juniors in the PL team now

Good job

Above
No one cares your club is irrelevant
I guess you need to protect the family though
Best of luck hope you can sleep straight with such dreams

BJ will never turn up. He is woeful

North probably unlucky to be down 25 at 1/4 time as well

Would have been 30+ if Andy hadn't played his bench against the starters

Andy put his bench on a couple of minutes before Hawkes.
Either way, Eagles were scary, especially that first quarter.
North were stunned and forgot to play basketball.

Might be something else that has Mays wandering around the court confused. Sure him and Rashard have a good time together.

Souths one offence working well for them

And he still destroyed Starling. Almost as embarrassing for North as Bijan screaming YESSIRRRR after a whole bunch of missed shots lol

Bijan did have 22, 9 assists and 5 boards.
Starling had a tough night out for sure.
After the first quarter hiding, North did win the next 3/4s 73-71.
Eagles were ridiculously good in that first quarter and will take some beating this year. That is a stacked lineup.

Down by 32 with three minutes to go when Andy had his bench in and North had two of their starters on, so a 23 point loss was a lot closer than it should have been.

And fair play to Bijan, took full advantage of Forestville not worrying about a bloke averaging 6/2/5 on 20% shooting so far this season.

Norths chemistry is terrible. Starling must be pissed he resigned there, bet there's a bit of concern. Bj has proved his doubters correct, loose cannon at point, bring back Dim Sims.

Norths chemistry didnt look like that against Gambier, Sturt and Norwood.
Eagles made them look like very average.

Sturt should have beaten Mavs with an edge in the final term but just couldn't contain the two Mavs imports who won the game. No much from mavs regular or local players throughout, Stock brothers woeful but thats all they have.

Above
Definitely better options at Mavs that don't see daylight due to the coach favoritism. Most clubs have it but this one has a long history of nepotism or looking after those in the personal favour regardless of ability.

Seb Vozzo tell your mum to stop posting

Wonder how the big Rig feels about moving to an inferior club to still play a bench role!

Actually Phil it is 6xD1 NCAA kids from Sturt in the D1 NCAA this past season.

If they added all 6 to the existing team yes they would EASILY compete in the top 4.

Anon, don't kid/embarass yourself now with silly statements. The PL comp is not very good at all. The tops teams from the old seabl comp would quite easily beat Forestville for example.

De Santis a club junior from u10/12 is he Phil? I would suggest you fact check that one.

So 2 of your top 5 scorers (including your import with the 4 you mention) are true Sturt juniors. Exactly the same as Mavs, as you pointed out.

The point with Desantis is that he WAS A Sturt junior moving into the program via the junior pathway. The concept of offering exisiting juniors, young players a pathway into Premier League, rather allocating resources disproportionately, in order to ensure their basketball demise (IE recruting over them) is a noble goal. It strengthens the sport and keeps staholder's investment firmly focussed on where it gets the best bang for buck. That is, growth and development of the sport.

Juniors moving clubs is a different conversation than paying money to bring in players at the expense of player development and growth.

So yes, Phil. Include Desantis in that conversation forsure even if these guys cannot understand, and probably will not be capable to.

You only need to look at a club down South that recruited juniors from other clubs at U18 level only to consistently recruit over those same kids, causing their demise.

Not embarrassing myself with silly comments, am on-point to be honest.
Stating the current Eagles line up isnt good enogh to play with SEABL teams is the silliest comment.
They will beat Sturt by 60.

"They will beat Sturt by 60".
I'd say that is a slight exaggeration, but that has nothing to do with the points I bring up.

No - you are not on point. Clearly you have no idea.

You suggest that Sturt could compete with 2 "gun imports". Go and look at the level of non-NBL imports in the premier league and check their college stats/levels. They ARE NOT "guns". The best 2 players out of college in this league are Majok and Drmic and they are not even imports. McVeigh is not far behind and 18 months ago he barely hit the floor at his high major school.

Go and do some research.

Check the SEABL playing lists from last year and level those guys are at. Check when SA teams have played SEABL teams in past years or in preseason games. Check when college teams come out here and play NBL (albeit minus imports normally), SEABL teams and check the results.

Check the stats and performances of the Sturt College kid's teams at PL/SEABL level before those 6 kids above left when they were just kids (17-18 yrs of age). If Sturt were to just add the senior at Cal Baptist this season they would have won the game on Saturday.

To say adding those 6 kids would not help Sturt compete in the top 5/6 IS a silly comment. To say getting 2 "gun imports" would help Sturt compete with top 5/6 would is just funny. Are you saying the imports dominating the league are "gun imports" ? LOL

None of the Sturt NCAA div 1 kids will play at Sturt until college is over

The NCAA won't allow it

387, some very valid points there.

A good Premier League comp is important and you make a few good points. But it should not be a bandaid fix for clubs that have junior programs that are basket case.
It should be built on sustainable growth and long term planning. Look at Southern who have overspent and now called in administrators, charging juniors a levy to recoup their funding. Are you saying the spending on their premier league over the past 3 years was against a backdrop of sustainable planning and development? Are you saying they have done a good job at player development over the past 3-4 yrs?

What if those clubs spent their money in developing the kids they have? Or offered their juniors devevelopment path upwards rather than NBL/US Imports a path downwards (that they play in for cash rather than development)?

A few clubs spending relatively significant money on their Premier League teams have junior programs that are just terrible. What about if they got their junior programs right first?

Not elitism. Just that there were some incorrect statements earlier made and wanted to provide better clarity and information.

McGee never played a minute of jun ball for Mavs either.

If Sturt are disrespectful not playing a full strength team, what would you call souths women's squad last year?

390,

No I do not think the clubs pouring dollars into their PL programs at the expense of their basket case juniors is acceptable.
Where I am from both can be done and Sturt could also lead the way with this model, no-body questions Sturts long term junior success or development.

405,

As mentioned earlier, all clubs failing to provide competitive programs at PL in this current climate of growth need to try something different. The window of opportunity with new stadiums and potential to attract more juniors to develop and have a strong, balanced PL competition is happening now.

Appreciate the non-personal attacks. Cheers.

Not sure winning PL in anyway attracts juniors.

Mavs, Woodvile and Southern men and North women have won PL finals. No benefit at all to club growth or junior recruitment. Not to mention Forestville spending on their men's program and having one of the worst boys programs in the competition.

That concept is a fallacy and has been proven as such over time.

Room for both at the same time.

It's amazing PL Clubs allowed MTG in. But across their district model if they don’t allow expansion they will forever tread water. Their own shortsightedness will be their downfall and they will continue to tread water in comparison to other states.

Agree with room for both and a healthy growing premier league competition gives talented juniors somewhere to play at a semi-professional level when they become adults noting that playing at a full time professional level is something that not many junior SA players have achieved over the past 15 years.

Would be interesting to see the list of SA born and raised players who have played NBL since 2005 (actual roster players not development players).

Can only hope that the premier league competition grows, more sponsors are obtained with dollars flowing to basketball and the premier league and other second tier comps provide a viable option to keep players in the sport.

It's not just the AFL that attracts talented athletes. Young footballers know how hard it is to crack the AFL. It’s the reality that talented footballers can earn quite decent money playing in second tier competitions such as SANFL, amateur and country competitions.

Don’t agree it’s as simple as clubs choosing to spend its money on premier league versus juniors. That’s a bit simplistic.

For example if a company donates $500 for a premier league player sponsor that is not $500 that one can argue could have been spent on junior development. If not for the premier league that $500 wouldn’t have been received.

Similarly saying that spending that $500 on junior development guarantees better results is simplistic.

A club could spend significant sums on a junior development officer who is amazing on paper but for whatever reason does not attract more juniors, does not attract good coaches and does not deliver better results.

Mount Gambier being in the premier league hopefully will inspire other clubs of what can be achieved albeit on a smaller level noting they have an entire town behind them.

But sometimes you have to think bigger if you are to progress the sport.

Doesn’t help progress the sport by pushing a narrative that building a great premier league program is at the expense of juniors. Especially when the practical reality is that the div 1 junior at Sturt is likely to be in the same boat as the div 8 junior at eastern when they get to their twenties (ie looking for a 9 to 5 that isn’t as a full time professional basketballer).

A successful second tier will go some way to giving that div 1 Sturt junior some advantage over the div 8 eastern junior when it comes to showcasing their talent in their twenties and thirties.

The one question I have is where do these sturt juniors go? They've dominated the boys for at least a decade with a couple of others winning state champs occasionally. The last few years they've gone with locals without any success. Imports are important but where do the kids go? Sure there's a few on benches in div 1, despite the hype janx does they would be better going to a good div 2 school and playing. They're not on nbl or European rosters to my knowledge, so for all that dominance they're in the same boats as an eastern or Woodville. Do they get to seniors and suddenly it's too hard and they don't beat same age kids so quit. Bravo to their junior program but why not bring in imports and they would dominate seniors without all this money the other clubs throw around on hired guns like cheatgles.

Would be interesting but I think you'd find that Sturt has more players playing at higher levels for longer than any other junior program.

Off the top of my head, outside the ones in their Sturt premier league team now.....

I think Maynard and McMath played a bit post their junior careers in SEABL. Maynard a couple years of NBL before moving into the AFL.

Tom Daly and Sam Daly are in Mt Gambier. Sam Daly was with Sydney Kings as a development player this season. Both are pretty dominant.

Jack Turnbull is currently in his senior year at an NAIA school.

There are a few at Southern Tigers (2-3).

Of the 6 at the division 1 level.

Jordan Heading just finished his senior year. Dominated for his school that just got promoted to Division 1 WAC. Will probably play professionally in the Phillipines I'd be guessing or get an NBL DP spot.

Lat Mayen is injured. Did have 12 pts against West Virginia.

Isaac White is in his sophomore year and playing in the Pac 12. That is against schools like Arizona, UCLA, Washington, Oregon etc etc. Had 14 pts against the Kansas Jayhawks earlier this season and 15 against Washington State. Last season had 20 pts against North Carolina Tarheels.

Jacob Rigoni is starting for his school in the MAAC conference. Has had plenty of dominant games this season, one of the best shooters in the MAAC and in his schools history so far.

Ben Carter and Alex Mudronja are freshmen. Both in programs that went to the NCAA tournament this season.

Prior to recently there would be 1 or 2 players get to D1 college ball every 4 or 5 years at best. Hooley (albeit non-Sturt) was the most recent to spend 4 years and graduate. He is a Melbourne United now, won an NBL title. At the high major level (Same as Lat and Isaac) there has been Schenscher and Vasiljevic (both had 15+ yr pro careers).

There isn't really much of a precedent.
Be patient, D1 college is a 4-year deal if you can last it out. You don't typically play as a freshman out of Australia, especially for guys in high major or dominant mid-major programs like most of these guys are. These guys are all doing great, will keep getting better and court time will grow. I'd expect most will have opportunities to move into the NBL at a minimum if that is what they choose to pursue.

I'm not sure on your assertion of playing D2, glad you were not advising these guys and their families. Only they and their families can make the assessment on what they'd be better off doing. If they felt that way they can easily transfer down to D2 but I'm certain they won't be doing that.

Might as well sign your name janx

All good.

I might add Lat's coach for example earns around $4mill a year. He has 13 scholarships to give out. Could recruit and get millions of kids across the US and the world.

He aint wasting any of those 13 scholarships.

Key recruiter reportedly for Lat was David Patrick who has strong links to to CoE and all over Australia.

They did their own research. Probably a little more than you earn in your Premier League/Junior coaching job and I'm sure more capable than you to make an assessment on talent ;)

I love how this little side conversation goes from hype to clarity in the space of a few mins.

Then at the end you through out some baseless, negative statement, after acknowledging there is no precedent. I love this study of human character I've been on. What I've found is when they do make a higher level the same people that have been consistently the naysayers turn around say they knew it was coming, or better yet they were somehow adding value. I love the classic line of our past high performance manager "I made mistakes on assessing their talent and potential but my mistakes inspired them". As I would often say "What about the mistakes made where people were not there to pickup the pieces?".

But yes, a great conversation would be why with some good success at junior level, strength of Sturt has SA generally struggled to produce any talent to higher levels (national, national junior, D1 college), retain men in the sport. In recent years there does seem to be very significant spike in boys from SA going to higher levels. Might be worth some discussion here. Feel free to start another thread if you want some more enlightenment.

I think some of the answers are infact amongst your posts above and some others above. You are not giving the answers though, you are the answer. Think about it :)

Mmm, deep.

Doesn't change the facts that spending on PL for short term wins, doesn’t have any Long term benefits.

Nope. It doesn't change it 449. It supports the facts you mention.

The opportunity for the players mentioned above to play at SEABL and Premier League levels at a young age enabled them to continue fast track their development. It enabled these major programs that crawl the earth to recruit talent assess their talent. In other environments they would have had to "do the time" or worse still being recruited over. They would not be where they are now had they not had the opportunity to compete and succeed at Premier League/SEABL level.

I've seen kids move programs at a junior level. Really good kids only to be hampered as they are consistently recruited over with guys moving down a level to play premier league. Let talent flow upwards, not recruiting talent downwards, over these guys. Their opportunities have been hampered by the programs they have moved to, not developed, not enhanced. It has cost them dearly.

McGee only came to Australia top age U18's so he went into training with PL/U23's. For his young years and athleticism he's a solid player and now a starting 5 player in PL. He's an Australian - not an import - so what's your point Anon 404?

Why would Sturt get Rigby Alphabet when the are apparently committed to their own juniors. He's not getting huge minutes but still taking them away from their precious junior development. That makes no sense.

Where is Rawson for Sturt, injured?

It is just State League mate. Settle down. Don't get ahead of yourself turbo. I know it is a big deal in your small world but it aint.

"Its just state league mate" is the exact attitude that prevents growth of our premier competition and keeps SA behind Vic, WA and other states premier competitions.

The fact that the Premier Conpetitin makes a loss for a majority of teams is what holds it back.

Along with clubs and people believing that spending money, will make money.

You still haven't explain why Southern are in receivership, why Forestville junior boys and North girls are a basket case, why no club has been able to achieve both. And if any club has it would be Sturt. Who have had plenty of finals positions over the last 10 years.

You can’t do both because clubs have a finite amount of resources and can’t afford to do both without going broke.

What is South and Woodville seeing for all their spending on seniors? And how quickly with South be massively in debt again?

You seem incapable of understanding that most clubs are responsible and sponsership money, money gained for the club through sponsers that directly come in due to the PL teams, is what creates both.
Some clubs rip all the money from juniors but the majority canvas and raise for their PL programs and this money has nothing to do with juniors.
Some clubs are doing both.

History would tell us that clubs aren't being responsible with their money. Many a club have put themselves in a similar position that Southern find themselves in over the past years trying to win the PL or equivalent.

Finances are of a finite value, and the cost of running PL for a club would be $50k before played payments and import costs. No clubs are generating more than that in sponsorships.

And you still are refusing to accept that winning PL has no correlation to junior growth and success which does increase revenue to a club.

Tell he how Southern and Forestvilles boys programs are going? Or Norths girls programs.

Eastern, West and Woodville have all one Men’s PL titles over the past 10 years and their junior programs are a shambles. Why is that they have money for imports and paying recruits when they don’t have money for a full time Coaching Director who can increase participation and drive junior growth?

All, some good conversation above.

Some interesting points as to why we have over the past 10 years failed to produce talent from Adelaide up until recently. Fundamentally clubs and coaches from the old school are clueless about how to attract, motivate, retain and develop talent. They just do not get it.

With no appreciation or insights on the game beyond Australia, and very little beyond Adelaide. It is self-perpetuated and cycles around in circles with the old boys club, stuck in the 70s and unfortunately it reverberates in a continuous cycle.

I could not even begin to solve it,and no longer need to to get get the desired results, so have decided to just work around it.

Outside of that somewhat rhetoric, some of the answers are in amongst the philosophical debate of the role of Premier League programs within clubs where stakeholders and funding sources are extremely heavily waited towards juniors and therefore should be focussed on delivering results for those key stakeholders, but instead clubs focus on the loudest but most insignificant stakeholders.

442, you didn't give me much, chief. I was just getting warmed up. But you got chewed up, spat out by the cruel hard world of Hoops SA before you even got up and running. Good luck with it all though.

The above hurt my head with all those big words.

Where were southerns regular bench players and is Ellison playing this year ? Missing Burns, Spurritt, Dodman last game. Played 7 for the game with token last minute or less for the rest of the bench. How does this compare to other teams bench this season ? Interested to hear everyones take on the teams. Maybe review one each week.

Where were southerns regular bench players and is Ellison playing this year ? Missing Burns, Spurritt, Dodman last game. Played 7 for the game with token last minute or less for the rest of the bench. How does this compare to other teams bench this season ? Interested to hear everyones take on the teams. Maybe review one each week.

Agreed, bench strength or depth at PL is important. Forestville in last years GF lacked any depth and Harris had a down game.
You cant win it all with 5 players IMO

Forestville doesn't have that problem this year with Rios coming off the bench! Much like Daly in the Mount.

As good as Rios once was, he's not the same player he was before he left. Inconsistent. Some decent kids coming through, but depth will still be a problem for them.

Norwood has zero bench strength but got the W over North who probably have too much talent for one roster! They have a State 20's rep that can’t even get on the bench and still have their two college guys - NAIA and JUCO to come back next month.
This is probably a case of how does everyone coexist with 12 roster spots.

Gambier will only play 6 for the season.

Player Of The Round being fans choice is a weird method

No disrespect but if you aren't the best player of the game and you don't get a win, you should not win POTR. That was a popularity vote.

Wasn't even second best.

Absolute amateur hour having fan vote, like when Pachulia got voted in as all star. Just make a freaking decision, and as mentioned, wasn't even top 2.

No mystery Norwood got the win #739577 Rojo just a superior coach.
Simple

Rojo a superior coach? 2 things wrong in that statement, Andrew Webber will be pissed!

Saw Majok Vs Starling, McVeigh and Dowdell. 30/19. Big Eagles win.
Pretty unlucky not to be player of the round there.

Was shocked after that first quarter. So unexpected.

Mavericks only use 6 guys even when there are much better options hugging the bench

Mrs Vozzo is back again. Ok, who are these champions that are overlooked that constantly finish near bottom in reserves every year? Lost to Centrals by 30 last night ffs

Actually Isaac Purple. ND was a Sturt junior. Came over in U18s about 5 yrs ago and obviously has just flourished since making the move.

Sturt had more people vote for PotW than they do actually rock up to their games. What a joke.

Of course, it's not like he was a state junior before he moved to Sturt...

Oh yea he had played on the worse U16 state side in decades. Big deal. Just saying facts.

Where do you find out about potw ? and where donyou find out all these rule changes or is it secret squirrel amongst the few

Aren't two of the mavs starters related to one of the assistant coaches? I could be wrong but thats what I was told.

POTW is on the Premier League Facebook and instagram.

#642 the team manager not a coach, I'll let you connect the dots.

Hopefully all those haterz fire Sturt up enough to stop them losing by 60 this week

Only thing funnier than Nik thinking he deserves that award is the margin Forestville will win by.

669 - looking at sportingpulse results there was only 4 teams that got smashed this weekend between Fville vs Sturt and it was not in the Premier League. Another quality, observent, intelligent review by you though LOL.

Maybe put some time into your program instead of taking shortcuts and talking smack here. And if you have a son there, rip your kid out - QUICK. The kid will not be developed, get smashed each week and then recruited over as a senior player and your money will have paid for him to get recrutied over LOL

Yes, Sturt turned all that popularity into basketball skill. Well done to them. 0-6 shows their own program is doing fantastically.

I think U12s got up by 40, 14s by 80, 16s by 70, 18s by 25.

Premier league FVille got the win. By 18 despite predictions by idiots it would be 60 at least.

I think the point here is Premier League success does not equate to longer term growth, player development or overall club success.

Hardwork, offering viable pathways including premier league for your young players, player attraction/development/retention DOES ensure success which is sustained over the years.

Spending $$$ at the expense of the latter and providing poor coaching and environment to premier league teams as visible by massive player turnover, little player development (players moving backwards into premierleague and not moving upwards) and no pathways IS NOT success.

Well done. You lost your 6th game in a row by ONLY 18, despite your elite juniors. Imagine the only thing you have to celebrate this season being 'losing by less than 20'.

Congrats to Forestville. Your boys junior program is a mess. And lost 5 x D1 game by an average of 50 points.

See how that works!!!

Hopefully Desantis can get his mates to vote for the entire team to be Player Of The Week. Deserve it.