Best League/Association

[in and under]

I'm interested to know which league would be the best in SA?
SAAFL D1 is clearly the best, but after that who is the best league???
Would have to be between Southern and Hills Central wouldnt it??

[robby]

hmmm good question, i think it would have to be between Hills and Southern. Hills football standard is rising and the Central div is good quality. I know Mt Lofty beat Modbury convincingly who are a half decent SAAFL D2 team.

[magpie in the 80's]

western boarder league

[bobby davis]

id have to agree robby, the hills is a strong league and i reckon it would be slightly better than southern even, i havent ever seen a game in the southern league but ive followed the results and seen shane russell absolutely dominating kicking bags of goals and getting BOG every week. Russell was an exceptional player in the hills league and deserved his mail medal but i dont think he dominated to the same extent as he is currently for reynella.

[wishiwas]

western boarder league

have to agree with you there magpie...
bloody strong league.

[magpie in the 80's]

played in it admittedly along time ago. plenty of ex vfl and sanfl players who finished their careers the year before. remember when geoff raines left richmond to collingwood for $200,000 plus 2 players from colllingwood. both played vfl "a" and reserves. one of the players didnt want to go to richmond so he went back to his country team portland. guess who we played the following week and who i had to stand. each week you would stand someone who played either league

[Thunder Down Under]

You must be mistaken Bobby Davis as I have not seen S Russell in the Best Players every week and dominating as you put it.
He would be the first to admit that he has had a good season but has found the competition a lot tougher than what he faced in the Hills. Having watched games in both leagues this season Reynella would beat Mt Lofty comfortably in both the A's and B's and I think Shane would share that view.

[thegossip]

have to agree with the southeren league, but only when the top 6 teams play each other. in most of the leagues the top 4 or 5 players are very strong. then the gap of the next tears 5 to 12 then 12 to 21 tells you how strong your club is.

[Winger]

Would be close between southern and hills. Would be cracker match between those 2 teams TDU. Very Close. But also i think a bottom team in Hills would kill someone like Southern Hawks or Christies. So depends how ya judge the strength of a league.

[GWW]

If there was a Carnival and players from all associations made themselves available, i'd predict that the finishing order could be something like:

A1 Amateur
Southern
Western Border
Hills
Spencer Gulf
Barossa Valley
Kowree Naracoorte
Whyalla
Great Southern
Riverland
Mid South East
River Murray
Port Lincoln (mainly because of absence of Adelaide based/ex SANFL players due to distance)
Yorke Peninsula
Great Flinders
Mallee
Far West


**Very difficult to rank the various leagues, but i think of the country leagues (excluding Southern), Hills (if that can be classed as country) and Western Border would arguably be the strongest.

Leagues closer to Adelaide have an advantage due to being able to recruit Adelaide based/ex SANFL players.

I dont know enough about the standard of the league that Crystal Brook/Jamestown, and Two Wells/Mallala play in, but i'd say they'd be somewhere down the bottom of my list.

[heater31]

**Very difficult to rank the various leagues, but i think of the country leagues (excluding Southern), Hills (if that can be classed as country) and Western Border would arguably be the strongest.

Leagues closer to Adelaide have an advantage due to being able to recruit Adelaide based/ex SANFL players.

I dont know enough about the standard of the league that Crystal Brook/Jamestown, and Two Wells/Mallala play in, but i'd say they'd be somewhere down the bottom of my list.

you have missed out on a couple of EP leagues there GWW in Eastern Eyre and Mid West

Id rank the EP sides in their finishing order of the Mortlock Shield which i think was (minus Lincoln City/Districts) Great Flinders, Mid West, Eastern Eyre and Far West (some one from the EP thread confirm this pls). For me an Outright Port Lincoln side would rank in the top 3 of this list however Lincoln did get belted by Whyalla a few years ago. By going by GWW list mine would be:


A1 Amateur
Southern
Western Border
Hills
Barossa Valley
Kowree Naracoorte
North Eastern
Great Southern
Riverland
Whyalla
Spencer Gulf
Mid South East
River Murray
Northern Areas (Cystral Brook)
Yorke Peninsula (they have some Adelaide players that come up each week)
Adelaide Plains (Two Wells)
Port Lincoln (If they all made themselves available)
Great Flinders
Mid West
Eastern Eyre
Mallee
Far West



* EDIT:After reading Brad's comment and thinking about it i have decided to drop Spencer Gulf and Whyalla while i was at it.

[Brad]

I wouldn't have Spencer Gulf so high, no way.

[Brad]

Id also include North Eastern (Clare & surroundings) highly it is a very strong league, would be up there.

[GWW]

Who else plays in the North Eastern league? I'm surprised you guys rate them so high although i'm not saying you're wrong, i just dont know much about that league. Do they have many ex SANFL/AFL players?

[PPLions]

Great Thread

I have played in the Hills, Northern Areas and Spencer Gulf.
Spencer Gulf has really dropped off compared to what it used to be, although there's no doubt it would be stonger than Whyalla. Port Augusta and Port Pirie play in Spencer Guld whereas Whyalla is a stand alone and smaller competition.

Northern Areas is a strong league. Stronger than Spencer Gulf in my opinion.

[PhilG]

..

[wishiwas]

played in it admittedly along time ago. plenty of ex vfl and sanfl players who finished their careers the year before. remember when geoff raines left richmond to collingwood for $200,000 plus 2 players from colllingwood. both played vfl "a" and reserves. one of the players didnt want to go to richmond so he went back to his country team portland. guess who we played the following week and who i had to stand. each week you would stand someone who played either league

magpie,
i know the player you are talking about. played interleague with him a long time ago. very good player too. portland were very strong back then. they had a few that had returned from melbourne and adelaide. you are right, nearly every week, the opposition had a player(s) that had league experience. did you play for millicent?

[Dogwatcher]

I would definitely have the Mallee League up closer to the Riverland.
The contests between the two leagues in recent years have been exceptionally close.
Last year Mallee beat the Riverland, and this year the match went down to the wire in the Riverland's favour.

[petoe]

I would only have hills central slightly higher than southern league because of the coin they throw around(hills) compared to the southern.
Hiils can attract more big names.

[Justquietly]

Good thread...
PhilG - appreciate your knowledge on quite a few leages, really do. But Blackwood/Bridgey game...that quite seriously probably would have been one of the worst you could have seen.
I think if you saw Onkas, Lofty or Uraidla you may rate Central Hills a bit higher. How can you say that Portland would flog them? Have you seen those 3 teams play?
Lofty did Bridgey by 203 pts last time, and Blackwood didn't score a goal against Lofty last time. So yes, there is a gap and I agree with some other posts saying, that to rate a league, don't just judge it by the BEST team.
Then again, most leagues would have a fair gap between bottom and top, wouldn't they?
The Lincoln league is not what it used tobe, but definitely has some great players. Getting guys there is bloody hard.