Was hard on Clarke all season until the last few weeks. Should resume after these last two games.

Boti gave a particularly strident and very critical article a month or more ago, in which he also highlighted Marty Clarks's apparent failings in communicating with the media and with fans,

All the articles following that one , both took a more positive vein and also directly quoted Clarke ( for it seemed the first time this year and last).

Given this it seams possible that Boti either directly, or through the News sports editors, was approached with an olive branch from the 36ers and a promise/guarantee of full access to the coaching staff, and requested that he consider moderating his comments somewhat in the interests of NBL Basketball in SA as a whole.

I'm not suggesting unethical approaches or coercion/graft here, I'm thinking more in the lines of a reconciliation between two parties who were perhaps personally "at war" with each other( Boti and Clarke) , and which was providing toxic fallout to the sixers as a whole.

But really who knows ?

I had a similar feeling to you, new in town. Clarke or the 36ers' management appeared to be making an effort to reconcile and be more forthcoming through Boti's articles, for a few weeks. Boti in turn stopped quoting other people indirectly calling for Clarke's head.

Coincidentally, the 36ers' form also improved about 6 weeks ago, when they strung together a sequence of wins and close losses (starting with Townsville) and Clarke's and Radford's coaching seemed to have improved as well. However, as Isaac says, I would expect substantially more critical reporting this week.

In particular, I suspect the recap of the season will be substantially harsher on the coaches than would have been the case if the 36ers had at least beaten Cairns this weekend. I think even a loss to Wollongong would have been less harshly viewed if they'd beaten Cairns as they should have.

I hope that any reporting is balanced as well, as the players have to bear their share of the blame for this season of disappointment. Nonetheless, I hope the owners can engineer a new coaching arrangement next season and Boti's reporting pushes for one.

Should've been a win in Cairns and small loss at worst in Wollongong. Can't see any kind words being found after this round.

With you two on the guesswork though.

I think Boti made his point as "new in town" referred to. Boti loves the game and the sixers and knows it doesn't help the game or club to keep banging on about it. Either that or someone from the club has told him in confidence what is going to happen, so he doesn't need to write about it anymore.

No point hammering Clarke when it's already done. Finishing bottom in year 2 of a 3 year plan is crap no matter how you slice it and surely his time as head coach is now over.

I don't agree with the form improvement. In that stretch we beat.....

Melbourne (awful team)
Townsville (worked out how to beat them after 3 consecutive games, basically if you shut down Schensch you're halfway there)
Wollongong (cellar dwellar at the time)

I don't blame Marty for all the teams woes but after the way the season finished it's probably time to move him on.

The Sixers promised a full review of all positions at seasons end where, reading between the lines, some of the owners wanted to make mid-season changes.

The team could have done the coaches a favour by turning improved overall form into a few more wins at the end of the season. However, after losing the last four games, I would suggest Clarke's position is now untenable. Two wins on the weekend, or even two wins from the last four games, it might have been a different story.

That probably means we blow up the team (again) and try to start from scratch (again). Deja vu. At least we can close the chapter on an unhappy season.

Adelaide need to pull out all the stops to get the best possible coach available. We don't have the worst roster in the league but we finished last. I can tolerate losing if there was a plan/vision or you can see things getting better next season, but with Clarke and probably more particularly Radford at the helm, I can't see this happening.

We need someone who is personable, can relate well to the players, staff and public. Not someone who drums out the same old excuses. You can't just say 'We did a lot of good things tonight, we just didn't execute/shoot well' every night.

Boti just has the clubs interest at heart and wants basketball as a sport to flourish in Adelaide, and when the town's NBL team struggles, the interest (to the general public) in the sport goes with it. Much like the Reds in the A-League. We want a packed house, more media coverage, more sponsorship, more debate, more general interest in the 36ers, but this will only happen when we get a winning team.

Clarke and Radford have had their chance, they cannot deliver this.

so who would people have coach then?

where do you find these good coaches?

coaches are usually unemployed for a reason

Are people forgetting that Andrej Lemanis had 20 - 45 record for his first two seasons with the Breakers? He has gone on to build that side into the league Powerhouse.

By no means am I certain that Clarke will do the same, but I firmly beleive he should see out the three years he was signed on for.

I've been thinking the same thing about Boti as new in town and PeterJohn. I definitely think Boti was asked to wind back the criticism mid-season. After the Sixers finish to the season though, I think the gloves will be off again.

Obviously, the coaching needs to improve. Question is, can we afford someone who is sure to improve on Clarke's performance, without compromising the quality of the roster?

Hopefully the end of season review will get at the core reasons for the team's failures and SOS then has the money to do what is needed.

@anon you have named 3 coaches who are employed.

Stacker is out of the NBL for certain reasons and has a plum job
Westover was let go from the Tigers and last i heard getting paid really well in China
McLeod wont leave the Hawks

My point still stands to all the sack Marty people, who do you get to coach then?
Try a rookie? The club cant take that bigger risk.
Get a College coach in like Monson or Dunlap? Again lots of risk associated with that line of thinking

What you are forgetting Skip and BJF is we cannot do any worse no matter basically who takes over.
For club to survive there has to be a change as those loyal supporters need to see something positive to happen .
You guys were spinning a week or so ago about improvement in team towards season end , well sorry guys we lost to btm team and get the wooden spoon .
I assume both you guys are close to owners and concerned about costs and future but no change in coach is going to hurt the income not save .

What was I spinning a few weeks ago? Be interested to see what I wrote?

I know the owners, but certainly would not say we are close. I have no idea what their funds are like at all.

I just said that I personally would like to see him given the chance to see out his contract.

Sack the coach and I would imagine both he and Radford would then have to be paid out. You then bring in someone new, who would be signed for at least 2 years as I couldn't see anyone decent committing for less.

What then happens if we finish bottom again next year? Do we sack and payout that coach (and assistants)?

So just because Clarke is under contract we should accept another year of mediocrity? This would never happen in Perth.

I remember the calls for Ninnis to be sacked two years ago because of the win/loss record. Since then, it has gone downhill. This year was meant to be better than last, it ended up worse. I could accept Marty staying if he 100% had player support, but does he?

It's not just the W/L record that is concerning, its the style of play. We just seem to not have any options sometimes, there is little offensive movement and the defence breaks down badly at times.

wtf is all this about Al Green what has he actually coached before woodville ABA which he didn't take to great heights last year. Torrens Valley?

Crooked? Sixes do have one of the worst lists. They have no defense. Take out the 2 boil over wins in Perth and what do you have? 6 wins. The win/loss column is it. Period. No matter how much a coach or fans tries to sugarcoat it with his "it's not about the wins it's the process" plan. What is the one area teams started putting pressure on the Sixers with Ninnis? Full court press. We never learnt to execute the offense to beat it. What do we still see with Clarke as coach? No plan to breakdown full court press. And the opposition knows it. What does this say about coaching and learning? After 2 years we see the same mistakes from players repeated over & over. Is this coaching or learning? Turnovers on inbounds passes anyone?

People ask "who would you get to coach?". That is up to the club, but you just do it. Poach him from somewhere. Find him from somewhere. But if it's too hard or expensive for the owners to do then get used to being down the bottom.