Re: HFL Division 1 (Central)
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 1:38 pm
cracka wrote:Barkeroo wrote:That Under 18s grade seems to be struggling for numbers all over Australia at the moment. I've seen facebook posts from some clubs over in Vic offering free Xbox's to any new kids that sign up to play! Cant totally think of Mt Barker as a one club town because a lot of people live there and play for other nearby clubs but yeah we also 100% shouldnt struggle to fill any grades.
I live in WA now and the league I play in all clubs fill every team except for the U18 grade where only 5 of the 8 clubs have a team and even those who do have a team are borrowing players from the U15s to fill the team. So I don't know if it's just kids those ages would rather be doing other stuff these days but something needs to be done across the board to get them back in to footy I think.
A lot of kids are now working from that age group too & cant afford to get injured. My son broke his leg last year in the last game of the season & it ended up costing him about $12k in lost income. He's not playing this year because he has a contract with a downhill mountain biking team that doesn't allow him to play but he wasn't going to play this year anyway because of his broken leg & losing money.
A lot of guys when I was in the colts system 15 - 20 years ago worked part time, and even had apprenticeships but still played footy.