Is 0-3 really that much of a surprise?

Is it that time of year already? I could've sworn "Annual Bash the Tigers and Call for Terry Wallace's Head Week" occurs during the middle of the season.

Nonetheless, the knives are out, after just three games, and Richmond's clash with Melbourne this week has already been labelled "Bloody Sunday".

Mike Sheahan, in big giant letters on the back page of the Herald Sun, said Wallace is on "death row".

Beneath the hype, it seems everyone is talking about how horrible the Tigers have been.

Under normal circumstances, going in to bat for Richmond is not my style. In fact, I don't think much of Wallace as a coach. His interviews tend to leave me unconvinced and he doesn't have an overwhelming track record when it comes to getting results.

But the past couple of days have been brutal (too brutal, in fact), and I think we should all put the 0-3 start in to some form of perspective.

Just consider a few points:

- The Tigers have been without midfield gem Trent Cotchin since the pre-season.

- The Tigers have been without midfield gem Ben Cousins since round one.

- The Tigers have also missed out on the services of returning stars Andrew Raines and Mark Coughlan.

(As it turns out, all of the above are on the verge of returning in the next couple of weeks.)

- The Tigers are implementing the rolling zone – something that should not be expected to make an impact overnight.

(As it turns out, the side that began the rolling zone craze, Hawthorn, took three years to finally get it right.)

- The Tigers have played three of the competition's best and most in-form sides. They certainly haven't had the benefit of playing a Melbourne, West Coast or Fremantle.

(As it turns out, they get to face Melbourne this week.)

- The Tigers led Geelong, arguably the best side going around at the moment, by one point going into three quarter time.

(As it turns out, even Collingwood couldn't manage such an influence over the Cats beyond the first quarter.)

- The Tigers have played THREE games for crying out loud! The season is still young!

(As it turns out, there are another nineteen rounds of footy still to be played.)

Judging a team on three weeks of the season is absurd, especially the three weeks Richmond have been through. So why don't we just wait until the season has progressed a little further before we start calling for Wallace's head?

His job this year, after all, is to make the finals. He's got another nineteen weeks of footy to meet that challenge.

In the meantime, is it so hard to just give the guy a break?

Photo credit to k-BeckS on Flickr.

Don't get carried away, basketball has a while to go yet

Basketball Australia announced Larry Sengstock as its new CEO today, along with its new catch-cry "basketball: everyone's game". The sport's administrators have assured us all that they're taking a step in the right direction.

You know, just like they did with the Sydney Spirit.

Just like they did with the Singapore Slingers.

Just like they did with mid-week games.

Just like they did with Rick Burton's appointment.

Just like they did with the move to summer.

Just like, well, you get the idea...

My personal favourite out of the lot comes in the form of this piece in The Age in 2003, which read: "Burton said public negativity made his task greater, but hoped in five years to talk about the 'meteoric rise of the NBL'."

Yes, that's actually what he said.

For the record, at the end of said five-year period, the NBL lost the Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets (and the Slingers too, ironically.) It was also forced into a last-minute broadcast deal with Fox Sports well down (both in coverage and financial terms) on the deal from when Burton arrived.

So forgive me for not completely eating up comments like "we are poised on the brink of what could be a new golden age for basketball," as Sengstock indicated today.

It's seems more appropriate to approach this "new age" with caution.

Of course, as a basketball fan, there's always been that instinct to be optimistic about the future. To be optimistic that maybe, just maybe, this time will be different.

Which is why today's CEO announcement was a touch easier to swallow than, say, the Sydney Spirit announcement.

Sengstock's appointment is not in the same league as that of John O'Neill's – the man chosen by Frank Lowy to turn around football – but it is, nonetheless, impressive.

What Sengstock brings to the table is not only a love of the game – Burton, Chuck Harmisson and Scott Derwin all had that down pat – but he also has significant experience working in the Australian sporting landscape outside of basketball.

He was head of sport and athlete services at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and is currently a senior consultant of international projects for SGL Group, a sports consultancy firm.

Another guy plucked straight from the basketball fraternity wouldn't really raise too many eyebrows, let's be honest.

There is, however, enough of a reason to remain cautious in spite of today's announcement. Like how ridiculously deep into the reform process this appointment is, for example.

The New NBL is only – supposedly – six months away.

We haven't got any idea on which teams will be competing. We haven't got any idea on the name of the competition. And it has taken until now just to find someone to oversee the competition?

The introduction of the new league was always going to be a race against the clock. But you have to wonder if the sport is rushing into this too fast.

You don't need me to reel off another multi-paragraph list of examples to know that basketball administrators have a history of rushing into things, too.

The oddest part for mine is that running a September-March season is widely accepted as less than ideal. The season begins during the footy finals (a disaster in terms of generating media attention) and ends at a time when the focus turns right back to footy again (a disaster in terms of generating media attention.)

The start of a new league is the perfect opportunity to make the switch to a more media-friendly schedule once and for all. And best of all, it delays the start of the new competition.

It makes perfect sense, but yet this is another area in which Basketball Australia is opting to take the easy option and stick to the status quo.

Need another example?

The sheer fact they'd even consider running a league in this day and age, in this country, without a salary cap is ludicrous. But it is, after all, easier to stick to the status quo on that front, too.

And what about all those nasty rumours of the New NBL being called the, err, NBL?

Perhaps that'll be Sengstock's biggest challenge in the immediate future: to start making decisions that may not be easy in the short-term, but will reap benefits in the long-term.

Because if that doesn't happen, the game's administrators could really mess things up.

You know, just like they did with the Sydney Spirit.

The Variety Bucket: Happy blog birthday!

April the 6th marks the anniversary of Best Off Ground's first ever post, a delightful piece about the Wellington Phoenix and their rejection from both Asia's and Oceania's club competitions.

The only regret? I didn't manage to sneak the words "plight of the Phoenix" into the title.

Since then, some 74-odd posts have been added! Hopefully we'll see a lot more in the next 12 months.

Thanks to all my readers and everyone who has helped out over the past year.