by false » Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:06 pm
Here are my personal thoughts on the whole relegation situation. I’m not saying they reflect the wider Birdwood organisation bit it’s more my feelings as someone who has been there a while.
First of all, I want to stay in Central Div. This is mainly due to the reasons everyone knows already.
The better colt’s competition – we’ve always had strong colts and the standard of Central will make them better players than Country… also the consistency of the competition in Central is better for development. It’s also better to retain players who want to play in the top comp. Over the years we’ve lost many promising younger players to Central because (and fair enough) they want to play in the best comp possible.
The professionalism – Maybe it’s just that everyone is happy playing Birdwood because they tend to beat us (; but I think I could count on my hand the amount of fights and acts of thuggery I’ve witnessed since being in Central. This is contrary to country where it happens against a number of teams every time you play them. There is a far greater emphasis on the football in Central which is a massive positive.
Having said all that the decision is not really in our hands (aside from winning games which we’re obviously trying to do!) so I think there can be positives from going back down to country.
I believe playing in Central has made the local guys better players. We’ve played against the best teams in the country, not always with success but it will undoubtedly make us a better team. We are well coached and I believe we have the commitment of most of our top players for next year regardless of where we play so we will be far more successful in terms of position on the ladder next year if this happens.
The history and rivalries is also something of a positive. Aside I guess from Lobey we don’t really have the history and rivalry we have with teams like Gum and Kersbrook. As much as a loath playing the brookers, I’ve never seen a bigger crowd at the Velodrome then when we play them and that will be something great for the club.
Well, that’s my essay for today… just felt like getting it off my chest.