Used to barrack for Adelaide: Gleeson's surprise 36ers history

Trevor Gleeson is mostly known for his time winning championships in Perth, but many might not have realized he grew up supporting the Adelaide 36ers.

Gleeson was on Friday announced as the new Head Coach of the 36ers for the next three seasons, bringing him home to Australia after five years abroad, coaching in the NBA and in Japan.

The 57-year-old will reunite in Adelaide with six-time league MVP Bryce Cotton, with whom he won three of his five NBL championships with the Wildcats in Perth.

Speaking after his appointment, Gleeson remembered getting a lot of “advice” from the Adelaide Entertainment Centre faithful over the years and that “it wasn’t all pleasant”.

But he does have pleasant memories of wearing Sixers’ colours as a supporter in the mid-80s, when the late Ken Cole made the side a formidable outfit.

“I’m from Warrnambool, so I used to go across to Adelaide for family holidays back in the old football trips and went to the racetrack and visited the wineries so I’m very familiar (with Adelaide),” he recalled on SEN SA.

“I used to actually barrack for the 36ers when I was a teenager in the mid-80s, so I’m very familiar with Ken Cole and the like.

“The Warrnambool seaside carnival, we used to have a lot of Adelaide teams come over so I remember Phil Smyth playing, Ian Davies, Ray Wood, all those guys used to come and play the tournament in January to get ready for their season.

“I haven’t been (to Adelaide) for a while, except when we played on the road (with Perth) so I’m looking forward to venture a bit more than Glenelg beach and Henley beach to see what else is there.”

Gleeson said he was excited about being in the right colours from now on in front of the Adelaide Entertainment Centre crowd, and helping the side push for a long-awaited Championship.

“Adelaide has built itself up to one of the premier basketball destinations in the NBL. It’s a credit to everyone involved,” he said.

“They’ve built this team,” he added. “It went close last year but there’s no guarantee that we’ll go close next year.

“We’ve got to build something new and strive for excellence to get that championship trophy lifted up.”

To ensure the group keeps improving, Gleeson has identified one key area he would like to bolster ahead of NBL27.

“The defence has been a little lax and you’ve got to have a strong defence to get you through some adversity - injuries or bad patches,” he said, “and that’s an area we’ll need to tick the box.

“I think Bul Kuol will help with that but he’s not going to be there til Christmas (because of his knee injury) so there’s three months in the season he’s not going to be there so that’s going to be a big focal point.

“We need to get some role players who are happy to play their role and contribute to the team.

“You’ve got some fundamental sound pieces to build from. We just need to add some other pieces to complement each other.”

Gleeson will start in his role next month and is expecting to be in Adelaide from July.