Sixers Should “Tab” New Coach
Tagged in: Tall Blacks
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Boty Nagy, Adelaide Now
The Adelaide 36ers must “think outside the square” if they decide on a successor to three-time NBL championship-winner Phil Smyth.
The likely candidates for the coveted position would include West Sydney’s debutant and former national junior coach Rob Beveridge, former Townsville coach Ian Stacker and former Smyth and Stacker assistant coach Scott Ninnis.
Smyth’s long-time assistant and former Geelong and Canberra NBL coach Steve Breheny, would be unlikely to seek the role if Smyth was not involved.
But the Sixers should look to cast their net wider and perhaps over the head of one-time New Zealand national coach Thomas “Tab” Baldwin.
The 49-year-old American was the mastermind of New Zealand’s 2001 elimination of the Boomers – ironically coached by Smyth – from the world championship, taking the Tall Blacks to fourth in the world a year later.
He coached the Auckland Stars of the NZ NBL to five championships in eight seasons and remains the most successful coach in the history of that league.
He also has coached in Turkey with Banvitspor and has a reputation for bringing the best out of his personnel.
Beveridge has enjoyed a strong debut at the Razorbacks, doubling their wins of the past two seasons and dragging them from the bottom of the NBL ladder.
On a one-year deal at Wests, he coached Australia to the gold medal at the 2003 under-20 world championship and was an assistant coach of the Boomers at the Athens Olympics.
Stacker had eight years at Townsville, reaching one grand final series and going out three times in the semi final rounds.
As Australia’s under-23 coach, he won the gold medal at the 1997 world championship.
Ninnis would be the biggest gamble as an NBL coaching debutant.
He has enjoyed success at the State League level and won championships as a player at every level in the sport in Australia.
Another contender out of left-field would be Australia women’s world championship gold medal-winning coach Jan Stirling who is stepping aside from that role after the Beijing Olympics.
If any woman could coach an NBL team, the tough-as-steel South Australian coaching legend most certainly would be it.
