Boomers, Opals jobs in the air
TweetTHE fate of Basketball Australia’s two key coaching jobs, the Boomers and Opals, will remain publicly unknown until mid-October at the earliest, the performance reviews to be conducted later this month.
BA chief executive Anthony Moore today said High Performance Manager Jan Stirling would conduct the reviews after her return from the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
FIBA’s new direction for its World Cup and Olympic qualifying requirements also will play some part in determining the best candidates to take the Boomers and Opals through their next cycles to Tokyo 2020.
Andrej Lemanis (below), who took the men’s team closer to a medal than Australia has ever come, already has said he cannot continue in the role, having accepted the head coaching gig with the NBL’s Brisbane Bullets.
But that is as the Boomers job currently stands, which includes a fulltime role at the BA Centre of Excellence. With the Boomers now having to qualify for major events via Asia, home and away games instead of an Oceania Qualifying Tournament will be the build-up.
FIBA has yet to formalise how it will conduct its women’s qualification but is favouring an Asian tournament in September next year, with finalists advancing.
“After Jan gets back from the Paralympic Games, we’ll have the review,” Moore said.
“The respective coach's contracts expire a month after the (Olympic) Games, pretty much through to the end of September.”
Moore said while the coaches, Lemanis and Opals’ mentor Brendan Joyce, previously had roles at the Centre of Excellence, the level of congestion in FIBA’s forthcoming calendar might force a revisit to that requirement.
“We might have to go a different way,” Moore said.
“There’s four World Championship qualifiers and the Commonwealth Games in 2018.”
The BA Board will meet in mid-October where review findings and forthcoming FIBA developments present it the chance to have a searching look at the quadrennial.
(Yes. BA didn’t just teach us the meaning of “demerger” but has added “quadrennial” – recurring every four years – to help supplement our word power. Now if someone could just let BA know what “imminent” means…)
“Process-wise, Jan is starting conversations with the coaches,” Moore said.
By failing to get to the medal rounds, the Opals under Joyce produced their worst Olympic result in 24 years, eliminated in the quarter-finals, so it will be interesting to see whether he falls on his sword.
When Phil Smyth in 2002 failed to get the Boomers to the FIBA Worlds, he did precisely that.
If BA does change its Boomers coaching parameters due to the qualifying process also changing, Lemanis has said he would consider continuing.
Having just produced our best ever Olympic performance, BA should be trying its utmost to retain him if the role does become part-time.
Moore said how the game now capitalised on the mainstream goodwill the Boomers efforts in Rio had generated would be with a boost to the NBL’s profile.
Rio Olympic Boomers David Andersen (Melbourne United), Kevin Lisch (Sydney Kings), Damian Martin (Perth Wildcats), Cameron Bairstow (Brisbane Bullets) and Chris Goulding (Melbourne United) all will feature in the league this year and already are at the forefront of NBL publicity.