Play 27, scrap the silly season

i am a player.
27 games.
keep the silly season, but runs in january with 2 pools of 5, with top 2 from each pool playing semis....would be interesting...run through school holidays, with all games at wayville and pasadena on a tuesday or wednesday night....big crowds.

27 no contest - keep the silly season too - never enough basketball. This talk of extra injuries etc is a bit silly. Guys train 2-3 times a week anyway - so swap a game for a training.

The product is good so lets get it out there - midweek games, double headers - it's what the fans want to see.

Doubt many players will disagree

Player:

18 games.

In terms of crowds and enthusiasm this yr was probably one of the better ABL seasons, since the state league moved to the suburbs and became known as ABL. Why change it?

Keep the silly season. Give coaches the chance to try new things and players that may not get on alot in the ABL season (like me this season) the chance to get a good run and prove themselves or otherwise.

Was an Asst. Coach a couple of yrs back too, so can comment from that angle:

You need the silly season to try new players and see how they play with players from your previous yrs ABL team and to try out new offenses etc.

Following the principle of periodisation in training, you also need 6-9 months to prepare for a season and to develop players bodies to prevent injuries. EG. 3 Months Muscular endurance / bulk up, 3 months Power development, 2 months Skills / Fundamental development would be an ideal ABL Season preperation.

Some points to ponder about 27 game season.
1. no national players, therefore no Jacob vs Darren or Jacob vs Oscar or Nash vs Jacob (as far as the women are concerned the views of the new coach are not known whther he would let his players participate in the finals) Why, because they are required by their national coach.
2. No All Star Game - when do you fit in.
3. Run your volunteers to death. One reason a club died is because they couldn't run ABL games.
4. What chance salary cap will come in, therefore players will want more money to play (see yogee's previous post) therefore financial drain on the clubs. It is a realistic statement that junior basketball funds run a majority of senior programs. Easy to say find sponsorship, but have you tried (and if you have and are succesfull email me and you can do it for my club), the money is not laying around.
5 What happens if other clubs want to come in, go to a 33 or 36 game season, or go back to 22 or 24 (and beleive me it will happen)

Easy to say for coach and players to vote but who puts the teams on the court and makes sure that all goes well, not just the players and the coach, to use an old cliche....it's a TEAM effort.

One last bit, why did they have such a large crowd at Pasadena that would have consisted of at least 30% non aligned supportes.....cos they wanted to see jacob and oscar......27 season, it won't happen.

committeeman

What about 22. Play everybody 2x, play other teams in your area (eg North, South 3x). These extra games are either Sundays or midweeks like the old Apollo days. Use the biggest and best venues and promote, promote, promote. Wouldn't everybody like to see Sat night at Pasadena more often?

Keeps everybody happy. More games, but not too many more. Doesn't increase the load on volunteers too much (who by the way will simply not commit to 4 or 5 extra home games!). Best players in comp can still play because length of season doesn't increase and All Star game(s) can stay etc.

Plus it is a compromise and aren't they generally the best solutions!

player: 27 the current abl is too short. we are supposed to be some sort of semi professional league but playing one game a week and only training normally two sessions as a team a week is a joke, feel like a social player at times becuase there is just not enough involvement!!!!!!!!

I like your thinking coach, playing extra games vs the teams in your area is a good solution i feel.

YEa Coach is onto something. Some midweek games would be good to make up the 22-23 games.

Dont let the season get longer than 5 months though.

Player
Dont mind the longer season as long as it is over the same period of time. A couple of mid week games instead of training would be great. Dont know how that will work with lower divisions??? Also like the idea of playing road trips at country locations every now to promote the game and for player bonding (pissups) ha ha

I know it was meant to be players/coaches only, but here is the viewpoint from a volunteer.

Whilst I personally wouldn't be affected by mid week games (luckily I live a 5 minute walk from The Dome), but what about others, especially those down at Southern, or up at Centrals, who would have to get home from work, and pretty much leave straight away.

Mid week games would take away family time, not to mention any personal time for these people who already give up their valuable time.

I personally cant see mid week games working, I would love to be proven wrong though :)

yogee,
you only need to look at how the crowds used to be for the old school apollo days when wednesday nights was the big nights....it can work!!
also...committee man...a couple of your points which are not valid.....national league players could play as would be over the same period of time....midweek games or more double headers is the solution. also, all star game if the comp is over same period which seems to be in favour, could still be held at the same time. also team 1 is right....it is a semi professional league here, and we play 18 games...that is pretty pathetic...18 games of basketball.

My point of the national players is that they would play the whole season and then when the finals started they wouldn't be available, What's the use of playing for your team, then when the important part of the season comes along you are forced to sit and watch. Don't bring up the point about injuries, everyone has to deal with that (Southern and Pochintesta), but to know you will not be able to play and you are fully fit???!!!???

Team 1, yes we are semi professional but why not have the best playing for the whole season and being able to go against them, isn't that better with a shorter season.

Why should clubs that develope their players to reach NBL/WNBL level then be penalised and not have them available for the whole season? Why give your time, energy and input only to know they won't be able to help out their club at the crucial end of the season???

How can the all star game be held at the same time???? It is now being held because there happens to be break between the our GF and the national GF.
The proposed season begins in mid February and the finals start at the beginning of August to finish the week before the national GF?
18 games season was good, it was fair, everybody played one game at home and one away. 27 will give some clubs unfair home advantage, and no it cannot be evened out.

By the way team 1 there are such things as double headers, had them this past season, so you didn't play one game a week.

It's tough organising a season, where you have to take into account long weekends, State junior champs, carnivals etc, and it's not about letting juniors play, it's about stadium availability.

18 is the way!

Player:

I am all for the 27 games, and would love the silly season too stay too. Those with the passion to play ball will agree.

dear committeeman,
did you listen to nothing i said (or wrote). i am proposing the season finishes exactly the same time as the current one so that nbl players can play. hence more double headers and or mid week games. please if you respiond take this into account as an option.

committee man. You even out the draw out over 2 seasons eg Sturt v West 2 games at Pasadena one season, 2 at the Port the next.

chaemaine, i appreciate that mid week games USED TO WORK.

Back in the Old Apollo Days. Early 90's. Over 10 years ago.

Lifestyles have changed drastically in the last 10-15 years, where peoples demands on time has grown.

Also, for those proposing mid week games, where are you proposing they get held?? There are comps on Wednesdays at Noarlunga, Wayville and The Dome (that I am aware of..probably at Mars, and Pasadena as well, I dont know the northern status at all).

Do we alienate our social / lower Div teams so we can play more mid week games. Alienate the people whos fees actually keep the whole BASA system afloat??

Sorry, but midweek games for ABA, unless held at one, central, neutral stadium, would not work. And considering there is no central, nor nuetral stadium, none of this is going to occur.

I love how people are asking for midweek or double header games, with no real thought into the time it would take on the volunteers of the clubs, STOP bench staff, statitiscians, door keeprs, canteen operators, commissioners, bar staff etc. All these people would be getting asked to dedicate extra time, which the majority of them wouldnt have.

Then what happens?? The whole ABL would dissapear, as no clubs would be able to function, as there would be no volunteers.

Sorry, but whilst 18 games may not be the length the general public want, you need to consider the wider impacts.

Playing ur the teams in ur area 3 times would definately be a good compromise......no mid week games, just more double headers. Sounds pretty fair, and simple!-Player

One thing that could impact adding games is that there are a number of long weekends/events during the traditional ABL period that force teams to play a couple of games over a weekend, etc.

Yogee, the original post asked us to say if we wanted 18 or 27 games. We weren't asked for extra thought as to HOW it might happen or the effect it would have. In a perfect world, I would want to play 27 games, forget the pros and cons.

the idea off this post was simply to get an idea from the players and coaches their opinion on playing the short season. I was not interested in how it would work. The majority of people in my club (ABL coaches and players) feel that an 18 games season is a joke. I was trying to identify if a similiar opinion exists at other clubs. Committeeman and Yogee i value your opinions, just not on this particular post

27