Here boys... "Relegation in the HFL". The rules have been made clear and concise and all club officials are aware. Simply put... the club with the least amount of points in Central Div will be relegated to Country Div. Accept it and move on... there will be no 11 team competition in Central Div.

Have to agree with you there ATS. Having been involved with the SFL I would have to say our competition was best when it was a 10 team comp in Div 1. Increasing the so called Div 1 comp back then only left the Div 2 comp to rot and in the process we lost at least 4 clubs (One club Kangarilla to your Country Div). Now we have one big comp but only 4 or 5 real contenders for the flag, honestly its not a healthy competition. Hopefully the HFL don't make the same mistakes as the SFL. If a club has to go down for 2 or 3 years it can only do them good and give them a chance to rebuild before coming back up. The likes of Aldinga and Hackham have nowhere to go and are faced with 20-30-40 and sometimes 50 goal drubbings on a weekly basis. The League has to come first not a single club wanting its own way.

It's the elephant in the room.

Should have always been Div 1 and Div 2 with promotion/relegation. Wouldn't have the problems being seen in recent seasons.

But there would have been 30 goals drubbings for the 20 years before TV and Kersbrook got as strong as they are now. Got proven when Birdwood, Echunga and Nairne tried their hand at Central (or Div 1 as it was known). Ironbank after copping drubbings came down and dominated. The gap between comps was greater, and it has only been in the last few seasons where you can definitely say that the best team in Country is better than the bottom team in Central (plus possibly a few others) . With TV staying down, all other Country clubs (bar Callington) would now say that their A Grade sides are better than they were in 2000, regardless of where they finished on the ladder their respective years. I don't think you would say the same for Central, as the standard, although proabably getting better over the last decade, has not improved on it's standard to the extent that country has. I know some people who would say it is not as strong as it was in the 90's. Now is the right time to look at relegation on a regular basis, but it was never a realistic option in the past.

Great work ATS now maybe our threads can get back to discussing games , results ect.............

Ironbank's A grade actually made the elimination final in Div 1 two years in a row immediately before relegation. Not so sure the gap between the two div's has closed that much, Birdwood haven't exactly dominated in Central. I guess we will find out a bit more with TV coming up this year.

Yeah right did not know that. I had heard of them having a couple of rough years, was that before they made the elimination finals or have I just got the wrong info? Howcome they came down?

The year prior to Birdwood entering Div 1, they actually came 5th in Country and the team didn't change much from that year so that makes it a little more difficult to scope the gap between Central and country.

I am all for a automatic relegation/promotion system as it should (in theory) make for a closer competition across the two divisions. What I am interested to know is whether people think colts etc should be taken into account if something automatic was put in. You would hate to see a situation arise where the A Grade made the finals but because your b's and everyone else sucked you had to go back to Division 2.

Surely if it was a yearly thing it would go purely on the A Grade like Amatuer League (If I am correct on that, have been wrong once already today).

BP - My understanding is they rushed into coming up following a 5th place finish in Div 2. Birdwood had been dominating Div 2 and decided to go up and the HFL asked if anyone else was keen to go up to avoid a bye in Div 1. IB decided to have a crack despite having previously been down the the bottom in Div 2 for a number of years.

All grades got flogged 1st year up. A grade made elim final following 2 years after a major recruiting spree but B grade were terrible and were struggling to fill all junior grades. HFL relegated IB telling them to work on improving senior depth, filling full compliment of juniors and facilities.

IB initially unhappy and there was some talk of folding but then put together a plan to build depth in seniors, developed one of the best junior programs in the HFL and saved cash to expand clubrooms and changerooms. After 4 A grade GF's in a row, 2 flags and 2 B grade flags went back up and have won a U14's and U17's premiership, B grade has made finals 4 out of last 5 years and A's have finished 6th, 5th, 6th, 6th, 9th, 5th, 7th, 7th or something like that.

Looking at that I would say if Birdwood do go down again, just focus on having real senior success for 1 or 2 years and then give it another crack, they have most things on the right track.

A-Grade grand finalists get promoted.

I'm inclined to think that for promotion/relegation in HFL and SFL it would only be the Premier that gets promoted.

As I'm told both Birdwood and Lobethal are challenging the HFL constitution. They are trying to get it changed so the Central Div becomes an 11 team competition. Rather than make positive changes at their repective clubs at senior level they are trying to get the rules changed to allow them to remain in the Central Div. As I understand all 10 clubs in Central Div would have to vote this in and I'm not sure the votes would stack in their favour. Hopefully the correct decision is made and the Central Div remains a 10 team very strong competition.

I think with the vote it will depend on when it is held and who looks like going down. I think if it is Birdwood who looks like going down I doubt the vote will pass in their favour.

Rock, I don't think you could say that these bottom few clubs aren't making positive changes to their clubs at senior level. I'm sure that all committees at all clubs are working extremely hard to do the best for thier respective clubs.

Some clubs are at the mercy of the mistakes made of committees past, smaller populations, distance from Adelaide/Freeway, corporate and commercial opportunities for sponsorship by local businesses in tough economic times and no wealthy benifactors like TV to help them out. So these clubs i'm sure are on the improve but just at stages that us outsiders don't have a good knowledge of, and may not see for a year or two.

will be an interesting vote..i would say all Country div clubs will vote for a team to be relegated.
( some have already expressed there intention)..thats what the bylaw says..therefore it will only need a couple of Central div clubs to join them and it will be 10/10.

What a ridiculous concept... an 11 team competition just won't work. The HFL are crazy to even entertain the thought. If it's your turn to go to Country Division accept it and go there, rebuild and come back.

The topic is certainly getting hot. I personally got a bit sick of all this relegation talk but the thought of an 11 team Central Division is nothing short of stupid. All this to please one club does not seem in the best interest of the HFL itself. How can it work? Surely everyone can't play each other twice otherwise we're in for a long season as well as encroaching on cricket season. Or will it be the case not everyone plays each other twice... again stupid particularly if a club misses out on the double chance or 5th spot by percentage when the club above them played the bottom team twice and they only played them once. Where does it end? Maybe Echunga or Kersbrook will want to go to Central Division in the next few years... What then? A 12 team competition. I would hope common sense comes into play when all this is decided and Central Div remains a 10 team competition. Yes... I do feel sorry for the unlucky team that has to leave Central Div but its not like we were not warned, this has been in the pipeline for a long time now.

I wonder if the team to get relegated would still be complaining if and when they win a Country Div premiership in 2011?

Believe a certain president is contacting all the clubs to get an indication of how they would vote. And it's not a club pesident. This is becoming farcical. The fact IB have got their act together has stuffed up their startaegy. The HFL thought the bankers where odds on to go but now not the case. Good on ya banker boys.

I think the HFL would have been happy if Ironbank or Bridgewater got relegated. The fact that it's likely to be Lobethal or Birdwood would be annoying them.

Like you, I'm happy to see that Bridgewater and Ironbank appear safe. I hate to see the situation prevail where the quality of your changerooms become the the major factor in deciding if you're worthy of playing in Central Division.