BuzzerBeater Forums

The role of Australian 21 National Team Coach is a vital cog in the Australian Buzzerbeater community. The person fulfilling this role not only is responsible the results of the team and helping with training of players for the team but t also engage coaches new and old with the national teams to not only ensure the current or next bunch of players for the 21 side but to encourage local managers to train players to National Team level. To do this the NT 21 Manager is the 1st call for Australian managers in regards to dealing with the benefit of being involved with the NT sides and needs to engage people in a way that ensures we have more people showing a interest in the sides and developing a strong player base for both sides. The resent result of coming 2nd in the Asian Championship showed how far behind countries like China we are. While we may not have the sheer number of managers involved as some of these nations we need to ensure we get as much value as possible from those we have to be competitive internationally.

I joined BB towards the end of season 15. Losing my 1st Conference final to RaZorSharp. I was bot promoted to Div III and made the semis in my 2nd season and did so for a couple of season before deciding I needed a long term plan to win. As a result I sold all my players 28 or over to have a young side to build around. I expected to survive Div III still but ended up demoting. During this time training Harry my PF who played 2 full seasons in the 21 NT side. I was right back to Div III and the last 3 seasons been knocked out by the side that went on to win the league. The 1st 2 seasons I had injuries to key players (SG both times and one time back up Sg also) for the finals. This last season with a much smaller squad salary I was winning semi by 10 points until my top OD got fouled out just before half time ( he had never fouled out before for me) and went down in OT. During my seasons of player BB I have learnt a lot about the game and feel my biggest issue has always been I cannot bring myself to not try and win each game and season. At the start of last season I was planning to just cruse along and finish 4th or 5th but had to add a couple of players and give it a go to win it all again.

But for me the main part of the 21 NT role and NT role are to engage other managers and get them to help build players and be involved with helping make our country great in BB.

In RL I run my own business and have a management experience. The major part of my work is to engage people with a company vision and managing workloads to ensure all parts of the work are completed in a satisfactory way. I believe these skills will enable me to be the 21 NT Manager. While the manager has to do most the day to day work it is working with a team of others that the full needs of the community can be meet.

When I ran for the NT role I put forward having a PR Manager and other roles. I would if elected find people to fulfil these roles. There are people who I am sure are keen to help out in different ways. When the old Platypus Fed was looking in danger I set up the Wombat Federation and we have over 50 members. I believe just about ever active manager with supporter has joined up. For some it is the major part of their activity within BB. I have a good working relationship with lots of these people and shown my commitment to building the Australian BB Community without a official role.

With the talk of setting up Federations for each NT side I believe this would be an error. I believe Federations have a place to be used but we would take out too many managers if we only used Federations for NT info. I believe the manager of each side needs to work to make sure people visit the offsite forum and that it is worth their while. Any changes to this would need for me the support of the wider community. Elected or not I would suggest that each side gets their own thread within The Wombat Federation to use that. But the offsite needs to be used to engage new managers. I for one was a manager for a long time before getting supporter. Until I got to know a few more people and the benefits of supporter I was not willing to pay for it. And some people just can’t afford it. The offsite forum allows newer managers to find out more about the game and how others can help them build their own sides and help the NT.

With day to day running of the team I do not know everything about this game but believe I have a good base and also the ability to not get precious if others have different opinions. I often ask others for input not because I do not have ideas myself but to see if others think differently about it. I love to learn and feel others point of view can improve me weather I agree or not. I have and would continue to speak to the greats of the game and had asked most of them if they would offer advice when I went for the NT role and all were willing to offer it when I asked for it. I assume their offers still stand.
I have recently had a player on the 21 NT side for 2 seasons and helped with training plans for bigs. I have also for 2 seasons been an assistant coach for the NT side working with training plans for bigs. I have been committed for a number of seasons to improve our NT sides and our community in general and honestly believe I would be a great NT coach and be a success on and off the court during and after my tenure.
With my plans for the team. I think we need options for each position. But to have that we need a number of managers to build players to suit roles. This would be done for me with 20 years olds been given how they might be used. In simple turns have 3 players in each position would be great. Each with a focus on how they play. One with more attack, one with more defence and one more balanced. This would mean the team can select players to do different roles as needed. But for this to work we need lots of coaches training guys. I know season before last my guy Harry was the only PF on the squad as a 20 year old. There was not one single 21 year old PF to include in the squad. This is important to encourage managers to train players needed for the side. If all are doing SF we will not have enough Cs as an example. This is a rather important part of the 21 NT roles. I would love to have teams listed with their training plans and am sure some would alter their if they knew the 21 NT side in a couple of season would have no PGs. Then that early we can make sure someone is working towards getting the team what they need. This would also mean the NT side has guys coming through for all positions and not most teams doing the same ones.
To finish I am an active motivated and connected manager who can step in and build on the great work done by Iwen and Leeroy before him. For me this is the most time consuming and important role in our country for BB and would be honoured to do this job.