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Really? I dont think it matters what questions are asked or what the answers are......Just one other thing, how would it benefit me to stay in the run? Obviously you will get enough votes from all your 'long time friends' plus more. I didnt understand that statement you made regarding me in your speech...

There are many benefits Latino. I yearn for a good debate and challenge, which never happened during my time, cause I was a 'clique' shoo-in. But anyway... The benefits are quite obvious. If you win against me, which definitely can happen, you would have proved that you have the respect of BB Australia. If you don't, then that's ok. Because you would have fought a good fight, and I fully intend to reward that if I am elected. Again, I am no automatic winner. Whilst I have never been a polarising figure, I do have my flaws.. People might think I've been there, done that. Give the new guy a chance! That's fine too! All I want from you is to continue being the person I know you are. If you want it, fight for it, and I'll give you the biggest fight.

couldnt you perhaps closely mentor a new U21 coach so that you are still well and truly involved but someone else is also getting experience and a chance?

My approach with mentoring has always been a bit different. As you know, the U21 team is a very tough gig. During my time as the coach, especially as I started grooming Leeroy, I allowed him to make all tactical decisions, only overriding him if I felt it wasn't the right choice. This gave him all the power to be involved whilst removing him from blame if it didn't work out. Cause I could take the heat. As evidenced, last season there was no heat shield and he copped a lot of unfair flak, cause there are so many variables to a successful U21 team that it is almost impossible to control it all.

What I would want from my next assistant is someone who wants to make all those tactical and training decisions, with my guidance, to eventually take over. Sure, I could let someone win and mentor them from behind the scenes, but a poor performance and you'd be gone within a term. Even if the reasons are genuine, like a rubbish group of talent.

I respect your work with the U21 and NT. Work I have done many times before as well. If you don't think there is much more you need to add to your campaign that is fine. I can go ahead and answer all the previous questions if necessary.

Thanks iwen.

Last edited by Latino Heat at 11/28/2012 6:01:47 PM

Hi Iwen,

welcome back. I have one major query for you. I have been around long enough to see Mllama's U21 reign, in which he appointed a whole host of staff to help track the progress of the 18/19 y/o's and aid managers in training their players. I feel like in your term of managing the U21 team we lost that connection with the young players as you preffered to centralise the management of the team and give yourself say greater control over the team. Not taking anything away from you, you did a great job in getting the team to the successes they achieved in your term, however i do think the level of talent and the shear quantity of players you had to choose from had something to do with Mllama's group of staff who let very few talented youngn's through the cracks.

From what i have deduced from this debate already is that many high profile coaches, ie. Trikster, Tremell and Mllama. regard having a larger staff over a single assistant is vital in successfully having a strong crop of players season by season.

Anyway to my question. If you were elected again, would you take the same approach of centralising the management of the team to give you all the power? or would you look at adding 5-10 staff members to make sure all of our potential future NT players are getting training even if it isn't 100% the way you would like?

also if you have any other opinions on what i have said i would like to hear them

I know this question is for iwen but could I just share what my plans for staff structure would be?

sure

Cool thanks

I was thinking alot about it last night and ideally I would have 2 assistants for each age group. It is alot of work so I think with having two the workload gets reduced even more and if one coach isnt able to complete tasks for whatever reason (eg real life stuff) then atleast we still have another person and I would also help cover the spot. So yes 8 all together! But wait, from all the interests we have gathered so far from the debate Im sure we coudl rally together enough coaches unless their 'availability' changes if I were to win. So far from who has expressed their ability to help out I would have it like this:

18 year olds:

- iwen
- Trickster

19 year olds:

- mllama
- tremell

20 year olds:

- Leeroy
- Matty8

21 year olds:

- Latino Heat
- yodabig

Thoughts??

Hi Bains,

All good points, however the timeline is a bit wrong! Let me explain.

The team I inherited was pretty bad. Yes, mllama did have a lot of mentors in his system, but I found as the talent grew older to the point of being U21 ready, they just weren't good enough. At the time I made a decision to centralise the mentoring to myself and a few select individuals. This allowed me to control the way in which talent was raised and reduced the diluting of talent through too many opinions.

My success came in my second term after I had initiated a centralised mentoring system, not through many assistants. From memory I had started to specifically mentor 18 and 19 year olds in mllama's last season in preparation for my stint.

Whilst mllama's way helped reduce his workload, it didn't increase the talent. For various reasons at the time.

Now I feel there are plenty of managers who have trained U21 talent looking to continue mentoring, which wasn't the case during mllama's time where half the mentoring managers hadnt actually successfully trained U21 players.

So to answer your question, yes, there will be plenty of willing help this season and the next few. With a little bit of guidance in regards to team play style, we will get there.

Great to see you back Iwen!

As a previous aussie u21 coach, how far realistically can you see the Aussie u21s being able to go in the big intercontinental competitions if everything goes to plan?

Alright. Thanks for the qualification. I forgot you had 2 terms and that is where the mix-up is coming from. Anyway it is good to hear that you would be willing to enlist this help if you were to be elected, especially as nowadays we have a lot of managers who are keen on improving young ausssies and even top level teams who are willingly paying premiums to keep these talented players in Australia.

Iwen you know you have my vote over probably any other manager in the game with the possible exception of Zyler (he could sell our 18 year old announcer potential rookies to his mentees in China for millions!) but I do agree with Bainsy.

Your tactical smarts are clearly up with people like mllama, Whitebeard and Dire as the top in the game (just look at Dire vs Bryce). Your toughness, enthusiasm, effort, attitude and maturity are also great assets. But I felt mllamas mentoring system was the best we ever had. Maybe you didn't like some of your players in your term but you know there are lots of reasons for that. A shallow draft, two managers who wrecked the game shape of key players etc. Remember I had a very well known manager who said his players skills were his secret and refused to cooperate at all.

After the great progress we had made under mllama getting the community involved (which funnily enough included Leeroy, tremell and Fanny) I felt that was the one flaw in your administration, that it was a two man show and all the others that had got involved drifted off.

Do you plan to do it that way again or get more of the community involved and why?

On the one side "many hands make light work" but on the other side "too many cooks spoil the broth".

I think we all have a vision of how we would like the team to look a few seasons down the road. As it so happens, we had the best guards, small forwards and power forwards in Asia the season we came 2nd in the Asia Championships.

I have a vision of what I would like the team to look like and will provide guidance on what I would like to see, but there will be room for tinkering and personalisation.

Some of the best and most experienced managers have put hands up for assistant roles and I'd be crazy to not look for help this term.