Tony Clifton wrote:Aerie wrote:With the benefit of hindsight, was the Salisbury/Elizabeth merger a success? Would’ve a stand alone Salisbury be stronger now than Northern Districts? Or does the merger have nothing to do with it. Northerns were still strong 10+ years ago.
From what I hear a lot of old Salisbury people were extremely unhappy about the merger and haven't gone back. They were the strongest club through the 80s, state players everywhere.
Elizabeth was only in for a season or two. Was no need to merge. Should have just folded Elizabeth CC or they go to ATCA. It would be like Collingwood merging with the Suns if they fall over.
Biggest change though is the Salisbury/Elizabeth demographic. Used to be a traditional working class footy winter/cricket summer culture. Produced heaps of good players. Now highly multicultural, soccer playing or sedentary culture. Cricket clubs struggling. Fewer players coming through. Cricket has become a rich area game, like rugby union in NSW.
Added to that the relationship with the Barossa has soured. Not sure the background there.
Elizabeth was only in A Grade for a couple of years, they had spent time in the the B & C Grade comps prior to that, they got their stripes the same year as Southern Districts.
The merger should never have taken place, Elizabeth were financially secure it seemed, they had a thriving junior program and plenty of youth in their A Grade, it soured a lot of Elizabethans too that never played for the Jets.
Elizabeth were very successful in the ATCA, hence the move to SACA, they had some great names and strong leaders, they even had a scholarship trust to retain young players who struggled with the costs of district cricket.
Ideally, it would've been great to have a Gawler/Barossa based club at the time even though it would've thinned out the A grade comp even more today, they may aswell of had 16 clubs with two divisions as it it is tripe now and will never be fixed.
Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2020 10:52 pm