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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.

So with your previous Aussie U21 experience mate with the right system in place and a touch of luck how far can we go on the world stage?

@matty8 - I had some inside word the messiah was coming back so I was just laying some groundwork if he didn't register for some reason. Would be great to see you as one of the managers learning and helping Iwen bro even if u are dockers :-p

No miracles this season, talent is a bit dry (until I can see skills through scouting it's just a guesstimate.). Expect big things in the Asian Championships and hopefully World in a few seasons. We should be able to make a splash next season though.

Personally, anything less than an Asian Championship would be a failure in 3 seasons time. But with everyone's help I think we will be OK.

Last edited by iwen at 11/28/2012 8:41:49 PM

Can I point out that the 'mentoring' system was only put in in the final season of my stint - prior to that I relied on two assistants. If there was any benefit to the system (and who really knows, to many variables), it would have been felt a couple of seasons down the track.

There are things I'd do differently with the system, but it had some potential I think.

It was 7 or so seasons ago. That's 2 years ago!

All I remember was canning it cause I didn't feel the results were there.

Will definitely aim to improve it this time. Especially since many people want to help..

Last edited by iwen at 11/28/2012 8:45:28 PM

What happened to the debate and challenge? iwen you even said you wanted me to keep running, and now your writing as if you already have the job

Seems like everyone has made up their minds and is only interested in what the new favourite has to say, forgotten about everyone else.

Hmm disappointing guys.



Last edited by Latino Heat at 11/28/2012 9:08:01 PM

Lol, I mean there wouldn't have been significant results under the scheme in the first season you got the gig - the 18 year olds mentored under the system would have come through in your 3rd season, which I believe was when our team was the strongest. That may have been because of the system, it may be because you nurtured then well when they were 19/20, it may have been a combination of both, who really knows :p