SA Footy

The MM's demise wasn't linked to not joining Mallee. Doing that would have resulted in more clubs folding - no one wanted the 2-3 hr travel and would have left. BSR lost Adelaide based players for that reason when moving to Indies. I still reckon BSR and Sedan should merge to form a new MM club and go somewhere that has full footy and netball at the same place. Which league is stronger RMFL or RFL? RFL might be a better fit despite the extra travel for city based players.

Neither of those leagues have footy and netball at the same place. (I think)

On The Pine wrote:The MM's demise wasn't linked to not joining Mallee. Doing that would have resulted in more clubs folding - no one wanted the 2-3 hr travel and would have left. BSR lost Adelaide based players for that reason when moving to Indies. I still reckon BSR and Sedan should merge to form a new MM club and go somewhere that has full footy and netball at the same place. Which league is stronger RMFL or RFL? RFL might be a better fit despite the extra travel for city based players.

BSR and Sedan would never merge too much bad blood, think you would find most players would walk away and stay in the city to play footy - many of the guys in our side is made up of lads from the city who grew up playing at BSR and come home to play- merge it with the pigs and most wouldn't stay so why bother??
Not sure what's wrong with BSR as we stand?? Competitive and the players are happy- why leave just to keep a couple people happy that think they can run OUR club better than us!

Seriously BOM? Move on. That attitude is precisely why the MM folded. Clubs didn't realise how much they needed each other until it was too late. The facts are, Sedan are a footy/netball club and the Hills doesn't cater well for it. Indies is a comp which has it's troubles - witness Moorook and Lyrup. BSR have lost juniors (footy and netball) and seniors to other comps - BL&G for quite a few families I know. Want to improve your footy or be the big fish in the small pond? There are people in your club that see the bigger picture. After you have pulled up stumps, they still want something for their kids in the future. Me? An ex player, not from either of the regions, but with a soft spot for both. As an outsider though, it's not going to affect me either way. Finally, if I was involved in the RFL and saw these posts, I'd be voting against any proposal if I thought this childish attitude was a reflection of the clubs in general.

OnSong wrote:Neither of those leagues have footy and netball at the same place. (I think)

RFL don't have netball follow the footy? Pretty sure RMFL do.

On The Pine wrote:Seriously BOM? Move on. That attitude is precisely why the MM folded. Clubs didn't realise how much they needed each other until it was too late. The facts are, Sedan are a footy/netball club and the Hills doesn't cater well for it. Indies is a comp which has it's troubles - witness Moorook and Lyrup. BSR have lost juniors (footy and netball) and seniors to other comps - BL&G for quite a few families I know. Want to improve your footy or be the big fish in the small pond? There are people in your club that see the bigger picture. After you have pulled up stumps, they still want something for their kids in the future. Me? An ex player, not from either of the regions, but with a soft spot for both. As an outsider though, it's not going to affect me either way. Finally, if I was involved in the RFL and saw these posts, I'd be voting against any proposal if I thought this childish attitude was a reflection of the clubs in general.

We have moved on and as a club are happy with our current situation, given our options. Yes we are disappointed to see what's happened to our juniors but I'm not sure that situation would be any different regardless of what comp we play in.
What happens to Sedan is their problem, we as a club tried to work with them in the past - by looking at the old mid murray board you already know how that turned out! Why rush back to work with them when were happy as we stand?
As for the demise of the mid murray you may be rite in some ways but people like Zads, Rocky and Deb Tanner at both club and association levels worked harder than anyone to keep that going so not sure you can point the finger at BSR on that one.
On the players that have left the Juniors hurt the club obviously but for the seniors we have lost bugger all to other clubs! The ones that have gone were a heap of the B grade guys and then guys leaving due to work/leaving area or retirement - merging with Sedan wouldn't help with that but it would ensure others lost interest.
Not sure we're the big fish in a small pond at all- a lot of the footy in indies is very competitive to say that is also a slap in the face to clubs like Paringa who play very good footy.
All I'm saying is that I'm still very active in the club and all the people I know at the club are happy with where we are at, other than the Junior situation. So given that why go out trying to make a change which would turn off a heap of players from coming back?

All I am saying is look to the future. You are better off being proactive while still going well rather than being forced in to a decision by circumstances outside your control. Robertstown did exactly that to ensure they had a future. You have to have a realistic view on the region and recognise that clubs may fold, or merge and look at other options such as suggested earlier by the reflex. In your own area your cricket club couldn't find 11 players which has led to the MMCA folding. And don't underestimate the long term effect of your junior situation. Isn't Deb now at Angaston where at least one of her kids is playing? Once they're gone you struggle to get them back.

On The Pine wrote:All I am saying is look to the future. You are better off being proactive while still going well rather than being forced in to a decision by circumstances outside your control. Robertstown did exactly that to ensure they had a future. You have to have a realistic view on the region and recognise that clubs may fold, or merge and look at other options such as suggested earlier by the reflex. In your own area your cricket club couldn't find 11 players which has led to the MMCA folding. And don't underestimate the long term effect of your junior situation. Isn't Deb now at Angaston where at least one of her kids is playing? Once they're gone you struggle to get them back.

We don't under estimate the junior situation our club works hard to make it work- this wasn't helped by the age restriction which saw us loose families. Other than that some of the families have trouble traveling from Brown to Swanny and Swanny to Btown just for training so adding sedan to this rotation isn't gong to help matters!
Yep robertstown merged and are now no longer even recognized! Everyone from that league just sees them as eudunda!
The best solution for us would be to see the age restriction lifted in the juniors and for some of the weaker teams to to turn their situations around to make a stronger comp. if we can keep a good competitive competition in the Indys players will stay. The Indy clubs really need to stick together to see this happen the next couple seasons will be very important for all Indy clubs.
A merge would cause more trouble than its worth, I'm sure most at Sedan would feel the same except for the ones there that think a merge would mean us folding and our players going there!
And yes Shannon Tanner left for Angaston to try his luck on a strong comp- one if the only players we have lost for this reason- other junior families left due to the age restriction to keep all kids playing in the same place. As for seniors we have only lost maybe 2 or 3 players a season due to retirement or moving which isn't too bad.

Unfortunately you think a merger would be a takeover but that's not how I would see it. It would have to be 50/50 and if the RFL was the league of choice, then BSR would be in a good position. Southern Saints are going well. Robby are well represented in that club and it's great to see their juniors doing well, both underage and the ones that have progressed to A grade. (Now there's two clubs that used to detest each other!) You have to be proactive with juniors these days as there are so many competing interests. Alot of the time travel is a convenient excuse so offer a solution so it can't be used.
I reckon Mid Murray United has a good ring about it. Imagine a full compliment of senior football and netball teams, good opportunities to recruit, plenty of kids around the club playing footy and netball and packed clubrooms after a game. Oh, and the footy at a better standard is actually fast, clean and more challenging/fun to play without having to worry about getting sniped behind play. Doesn't sound too bad at all.

On The Pine wrote:Unfortunately you think a merger would be a takeover but that's not how I would see it. It would have to be 50/50 and if the RFL was the league of choice, then BSR would be in a good position. Southern Saints are going well. Robby are well represented in that club and it's great to see their juniors doing well, both underage and the ones that have progressed to A grade. (Now there's two clubs that used to detest each other!) You have to be proactive with juniors these days as there are so many competing interests. Alot of the time travel is a convenient excuse so offer a solution so it can't be used.
I reckon Mid Murray United has a good ring about it. Imagine a full compliment of senior football and netball teams, good opportunities to recruit, plenty of kids around the club playing footy and netball and packed clubrooms after a game. Oh, and the footy at a better standard is actually fast, clean and more challenging/fun to play without having to worry about getting sniped behind play. Doesn't sound too bad at all.

You seem to think its so easy! For this to happen sedan would have to give up their home ground as the RFL would never travel to Sedan! They would also give up their club colors something they fought very hard to keep - can't see them being too happy with either of these options, what would they gain?
I think your underestimating the work that has been put in by our club to support juniors- people like Reidy and Webby have done everything on their power to keep the kids interested- for a number of reasons the numbers remain poor- a merge I can assure you wouldn't help with this.
Yes of course a bigger stronger club would be good but I'm not convinced a merge would create this- more work needs to be done to ensure the current Indy comp is at a good standard. With a bit of effort and all clubs working together it isn't impossible- just look at the 2013 Indy grand final I think most that saw it would agree it was a great display of country footy!

That's it then......you've convinced me. See you at the Swanny for a beer on the weekend!

The introduction of BSR and Ramco to the Independent competition has been amazing.
Both have lifted the standard of the competition to a greater level and I would hate to see the Redbacks move to another league.
Like BOM said, you only had to watch last year's grand final to realise that.
Despite what some people say (mostly the 'big six'), the Independents has thrived in recent years, at least in the A grade.
The colts is another matter and something certainly needs to be done there.
But the A grade competition has expanded to nine teams and Moorook and Lyrup have come back from having no team at all to both looking like quality teams for 2014.
You only have to look at the teams who have made the grand final in the past decade to see that success could be just around the corner for some clubs.
Paringa, BSR Ramco, Lyrup, East Murray, Wunkar, Cobdogla and Moorook-Kingston have all played in at least one GF in the past 10 years. The only team that hasn't is Brown's Well and it showed huge improvement this year.

Well said Baron, glad to hear we add something to the comp- we've felt the comps improved since we've been there but it's something that's hard for us to gauge ourselves.

Hopefully the comp continues to lift the bar as with recent years, also I hope there is a solution to the junior problem as I see that as the biggest issue we face going forward.
The thing to remember is the Indy comp is worth fighting for - having been through the mid murray folding I can tell you it's a sad thing to see! Some people need to be careful what they wish for! Every time one of these little clubs fold or even a comp people are lost to the game- some move on but some will always give it away because it's now too hard- too far away to late in life to start fresh at a new club. What do the young lads do when their parents either can't or won't take them to the big towns to play? Surely no one involved in footy could think this is ever a good thing?

On The Pine wrote:The MM's demise wasn't linked to not joining Mallee. Doing that would have resulted in more clubs folding - no one wanted the 2-3 hr travel and would have left. BSR lost Adelaide based players for that reason when moving to Indies. I still reckon BSR and Sedan should merge to form a new MM club and go somewhere that has full footy and netball at the same place. Which league is stronger RMFL or RFL? RFL might be a better fit despite the extra travel for city based players.

Being a city based player for BSR, I'd suggest right now their city based numbers are at an all time high, albeit it, almost all are locals moved to town for study/employment.
I can tell you now that if BSR had moved to the Mallee rather than indies there's not a snowballs chance in hell I would have been playing.
What I've noticed as an outsider is the current BSR group of locals is a very tight group, the only senior locals to move on in the last few years are due to employment taking them too far to head back for training/games.

At this point in time, senior wise, BSR has solid numbers in both footy and netball, and to be honest, the Independants are a perfect match for them. Juniors continue to be an issue, and something that the club will need to be working hard to manage, as most small clubs do, but I don't see a merger of any sort helping the club with what it has. If that was to occur I'm certain some of the locals would not head back anymore - as it wouldn't be "their" club, and to be honest, a merged club would not work in the Independents, and I doubt they would want to play in a merged mallee/murray/hills league - it just doesn't fit.

In an ideal world I suspect indies would be a better fit for SC, but I don't know that the independents would be keen on the extra 1/2 hour, my understanding is many were worried about the travel to SR, but who knows in time.

I'd have no problem travelling to Sedan-Cambrai.
It's only once a year.

Can someone tell what the Indy comp is like nowadays.
Is it stronger than it was a few years ago and how would it compare to the Riverland comp.

Certainly stronger than say 5 years ago but still nowhere near the strength of riverland

Baron Greenback wrote:Certainly stronger than say 5 years ago but still nowhere near the strength of riverland

Cheers Baron

Baron Greenback wrote:I'd have no problem travelling to Sedan-Cambrai.
It's only once a year.

If only more had that attitude! Imagine how good a 10 team Indy comp would be! And they would be at the pointy end straight up which could only be good.

It's the same attitude I had when Ramco and BSR came in.
Can only be good for the competition.
Seriously, we hardly travel at all compared to some leagues.
Currently Paringa and BSR have to do the most travel, but if it doesn't bother us, it shouldn't bother the towns in between.

From Paringa:
Lyrup 15km
Cobdogla 40km
Moorook 50km
Wunkar 70km
Brown's Well 75km
East Murray 115km
Blanchetown 125km
Swan Reach 145km

Sedan 170km
Cambrai 180km