Gold Coast Blaze news

I was checking out the Ozhoops boards this morning and came across this news. It seems that the rumour mill has ex-Brisbane Bullets coach Joey Wright as the new head coach of the Gold Coast Blaze. Nothing has been finalised as yet so it will be interesting to see what happens.

The Boards @ Ozhoops • View topic - Brendan Joyce Fired

Word is Wright will be new coach
Nick Smart- Gold Coast Bulletin (2/3/09)

SPECULATION is rife that former Brisbane Bullets coach Joey Wright will soon be unveiled as the new coach of the Gold Coast Blaze.

The Gold Coast Bulletin understands that incumbent coach Brendan Joyce, who is currently holidaying in Hong Kong and could not be reached yesterday, will be replaced at the club he took to the playoffs in the Blaze's first year.

The Coast struggled with injuries and a tough draw on their way to a wooden-spoon finish in their second season.

The shake-up has already begun with assistant coach Mark Watkins - who declined to comment when contacted yesterday - believed to have already been told his services at the club are no longer required.
The former West Sydney coach has been Joyce's loyal and hard-working right-hand man at the Blaze since their formation.

But it appears the highly respected basketball mind will now be looking elsewhere. With Watkins understood to be out the door, Joyce is expected to soon officially follow suit. The Bulletin believes the former Wollongong championship-winning coach was recently told of his fate by the club.

Sources close to the club suggest Wright - a former Bullets championship-winning coach and two-time NBL coach of the year -has agreed to terms with the Blaze and will be announced once the Coast receive word they have been accepted into the new league.

However, one stumbling block could be the fact Joyce still has two years remaining on his current deal.
The club could have a legal fight on their hands if Basketball Australia force current clubs to honour existing contracts in the revamped competition next season.

An NBL spokesman yesterday said a decision had not been made on whether current contracts remain valid.

Blaze co-owner Owen Tomlinson would not be drawn when contacted by The Bulletin yesterday.
``Brendan Joyce is not gone and Joey Wright is not in,'' he said.
``We haven't really done anything yet, and don't take that as misleading either.
``We haven't made any specific moves.
``We are not going to do anything until we find out officially that we are in the league and that's what we are doing now.
``We are trying to put everything in place and then we can look at the structure of the team and the coaches if we decide to make a change.'

In other Blaze news, not surprisingly Luke Whitehead was rewarded for his extremely productive last couple of months with the team's MVP award. The only question now is, Luke ... what are you wearing??

No such thing as bad publicity

With no TV coverage of the NBL on free-to-air or even Foxtel at the moment, any publicity is good for the league right?

I was reading John Rillie's blog this morning about "ruffling some feathers" and there are a number of stories that are hot in the league at the moment. Firstly, Brendan Joyce's blow up in the Perth press conference on the weekend and more recently JR with the city of Cairns as he discusses the possibilities for the new league.

I also caught a little of The Morning Show on Channel 7 this morning and they were talking about brands as they compare to the NRL and AFL. The discussion basically talked about how teams need a bit of controversy to make them more appealing to the public. "Brand expert" Simon Hammond says you need a combination of a hard-working team, a good coach, personalities and even some bad-boy behaviour to make for a good footy brand. He pointed to two teams that have had their share of bad press over the last season, Carlton and Collingwood as having strong brands and being better for it (the bad press).

So it got me thinking about the two hot topics in the NBL right now. Sure, Brendan Joyce's outburst was out of line and he has since been told off (a little) by the league ... but it certainly has got plenty of media coverage. What's a little surprising was that Shane Heal, who the original story centred around, sat quietly in the press conference saying very little. Shane is used to playing the role of the villain in the NBL, you either love him or you hate him ... and most people choose the latter. He's not afraid to say what he thinks and he realises he's not just a sportsman but an entertainer, on and off the court. Anything wrong with that? No, its good for the game and for the league. The non-basketball following public know who Shane Heal is ... unfortunately they couldn't name too many other players in the league now.

As for JR and his current fued with the city of Cairns ... that's also good for the league. Sure, it may get a little personal (Cat called him an "idiot" and referred to Townsville as "Clownsville") but the discussions about what's going to happen after this interim season is positive for the league. The rivalry between Cairns and Townsville is healthy. The two teams met on the weekend, Townsville came from behind to win a close game which will only add fuel to the Taipans fire. There should be more of it!

I remember my time at the Bullets (who I've been a fan of for more than 20 years) and how the new crop of Brisbane players got on way too well with the Sydney Kings. Now, back in the day these two teams hated each other, the games were fierce and the fans circled the date on their calendars and came along too give the Kings heaps. The new players weren't around back in those days but they should know how much the Bullets fans hate the Kings. In my opinion, there's not enough of that in the NBL. In the AFL, the current stand-out sporting code in Australia, there are plenty of those rivalries ... Carlton vs Collingwood, Adelaide vs Port Adelaide, Sydney vs West Coast (before this season), Collingwood vs anyone, Essendon vs almost anyone.

We certainly don't need our basketball players carrying on off the court like some of the football players do but it doesn't hurt to have some villains to hate on and some fierce team rivalries. Sure, a lot of opposition fans don't like Chris Anstey and he sometimes shows he doesn't like opposition fans (with his one finger salutes) ... but really, are there any players currently in the league that you love to hate? Is there an NBL team that you can't wait for them to come to town so you can hate on them? Discuss ...

NBL wrap

There were 3 games over the weekend in the NBL:

• Wildcats 94 Blaze 80
• Spirit 112 Sixers 105
• Crocodiles 100 Taipans 96

The "highlight" of the first game was the explosion by Blaze coach Brendan Joyce at one of the WA reporters in the press conference. Having run the press conference for the Bullets for the last 5 years I've seen plenty ... but thankfully nothing that fiery. On the court, a balanced Perth team took care of business while Shane Heal was the stand-out for the Blaze with 28 points including 5 triples.

Game 2, and its good to see the Sydney Spirit get their first win under the new name. Derrick Low and Julian Kazzouh led the way with 26 points, 7 assists and 16 points, 11 boards respectively. Jacob Holmes had one of those nights for the Sixers with 27 points on 9 of 13 shooting (including 4 triples) and 10 boards. Jacob is one of the uglier (read: flattest) shooters in the league in my opinion but when its on, its on. Luke Schencher also chipped in with 19 points (8 of 11 shooting), 6 boards and Adam Ballinger and 18 points, 9 boards.

In the highly-anticipated clash of the far north Queensland teams, the Crocs came from behind to knock off the previously undefeated Taipans. Homicide Williams (pictured below) again led the Crocs with 31 points on 10 of 15 "shooting" (we all know he got those buckets going to the hole), 9 boards and 3 steals. For the Taipans, Blacky was red hot with 30 points on 10 of 13 shooting (including 6 triples). Cattalini had 18 points, 16 board and 7 turnovers with 0 assists, 0 assists, 0 steals (who is he, Eddy Curry? Zach Randolph?). Looking at the boxscore, the Taipans shot well but committed too many fouls and turnovers.