Justquietly wrote:Legs Man wrote:shoe boy wrote:Interesting to see that Ironbank are forced to play 2 senior colts players in A grade as they've gone over the APPS allocation with recruited players. With respect to the two young senior colts concerned, it is weakening your A grade team. Strange way to run a club when you've got good young locals playing B grade who are now less likely to get an A grade game because of this scenario. One of your rising young guns has changed clubs because of this. So much for Jars saying he was going to build the whole club.
You cant blame Jarman, He is doing the best he can with a system that is a joke (points) and kids are -1
This points system must go and any other restriction to footy clubs.
Agree entirely - having relegation and teams with differing points at their disposal is not equitable.
It seems to simply be a safety net for the clubs with strong juniors and certainly hasn't evened out the comp as was the original intention.
If all clubs have the same apps points it immediately eliminates any conjecture over this element also.
Hold on. What ISN'T even about the comp per se, & I'm not talking points? A promoted team won the A grade flag. Last year saw a great even A grade comp. Traditionally 'strong' clubs aren't dominating but rather being challenged both on & off the field to remain competitive. A 'safety net' for teams with strong juniors?! What's wrong with that? TV, Echunga & Uris - top 3 (as it stands) yet NONE of them have won a SC or JC game between them. The system's there to prevent mercenaries, promote locals (that's juniors, especially). What's wrong with that? UNEVEN points, now that's a different story.[/quote]
What it means is that the clubs with large junior player access due to location don't have to be strong in their senior sides to avoid relegation.
Agreed that the A grade comp is even - but the rest of the Div 1 comp isn't.
This gives large population clubs a distinct advantage as they can rely on the junior grades acquiring enough club points to stay in the top tier comp.
It also means that a club can win the flag and still face relegation if they don't have strong juniors due to smaller population e.g. Uraidla, Echunga & TV. (they may field all sides and provide a game for kids each week but cant compete with the large junior clubs)
Meanwhile a club that has easy access to juniors can finish bottom of the ladder in A grade and still stay in Div 1.
As a club you can invest in junior development and build a strong senior side then still face relegation due to the current system in place.
When a club doesn't have access to large junior stocks they shouldn't be penalised for this as currently occurs.
You can do everything in your power as a club to attract juniors but if they aren't available you are immediately up against it.
Clubs with less access to juniors are then presented with a situation of having to recruit heavily in the senior grades - and in some cases pay way over the odds, to ensure enough points are accumulated from senior side wins.(particularly A grade which is the most)
This in turn promotes a mercenary approach as teams will pay whatever it takes to get players when presented with this scenario.
Common sense shows less apps points available = higher payments to individual players. (supply & demand 101)
Unfortunately a lot of the problem stems from geographical location of clubs and access to local schools and players in their vicinity which is something that isn't the clubs fault - its simply their good fortune - and gives them a huge advantage.
If we are going to truly have a fair competition then this must be taken into account when structuring both the relegation and apps points system.
Having relegation as part of our league structure with differing apps points (and extra allocation on occasion) simply isn't fair particularly with the uneven access to juniors being part of the overall equation.
This situation isn't unique to any one club which makes it something that needs to be addressed - albeit hard to do when less than 50% of clubs in Div 1 are affected.
It is impossible for the smaller clubs - by population - to compete against huge population clubs like Mt Barker, Blackwood, Mt Lofty, Nairne, Hahndorf etc. in the long term unless a mechanism is put in place to even things out.
Uneven or tiered apps points isn't the answer IMO as it only addresses the A grade and not the biggest point of inequity - junior grades.
