SANFL Junior codes

[The Bedge]

Those would definitely entertain those kids coming in but would the kids and parents want to go there?

Herein lies the biggest problem I believe - the ability for parents, and kids to a lesser extent, to handpick their club.

Not saying that is a problem to be fair, but what it does create - or at least feels like - is a vacuum where majority of the kids just go to the "big" or "good" clubs and the remainder of the clubs in the area are scrapping for the rest.

I actually hate having to compete with clubs like Para Hills for young juniors.. and I hate even more when I lose kids to the bigger clubs, or being actively poached by other clubs.

No real remedy that I can think of, and I am against capping sides or hindering clubs from growing, but reality is the big clubs continue to get bigger and the rest live on a life line.

[The Bedge]

Ah fixturing. Just noticed our u12s play Broadview 3 x times (twice in 3 weeks ) and don't play Marion at all.

Does your club have a petrol sponsorship?

Classic. Good one LM.

[The Bedge]

What is also difficult is the standard of footy and cattle that flows into senior footy.

Big clubs have the luxury of having the best of the best kids in their main team, and the rest in a lower division - once they finish jnrs they're cherry ripe to go into a higher division senior team even if it's only B or C grade and cut their teeth.. whilst the smaller clubs have to work hard to further develop and scrap away.

It's really no surprise that the top divisions of SANFL Jnrs pretty well reflect the top divisions of AdFL.

And what's the reality for the Ingle Farms of the world? Well we produce a handful of good kids each year, and pretty quickly they're snapped up or lured elsewhere to brighter prospects, or the carrot of money they wouldn't get with us.

It's a never ending battle to grow, develop and retain.

[gadj1976]

Those would definitely entertain those kids coming in but would the kids and parents want to go there?

Herein lies the biggest problem I believe - the ability for parents, and kids to a lesser extent, to handpick their club.

Not saying that is a problem to be fair, but what it does create - or at least feels like - is a vacuum where majority of the kids just go to the "big" or "good" clubs and the remainder of the clubs in the area are scrapping for the rest.

I actually hate having to compete with clubs like Para Hills for young juniors.. and I hate even more when I lose kids to the bigger clubs, or being actively poached by other clubs.

No real remedy that I can think of, and I am against capping sides or hindering clubs from growing, but reality is the big clubs continue to get bigger and the rest live on a life line.

I'll disclose, I'm at Modbury. We get kids from 'smaller' clubs like Para Hills and Ingle Farm because kids want to play higher grades. On the flip side, we lose kids regularly to 'bigger clubs' like Golden Grove and Tea Tree Gully because kids want to play higher grades. It doesn't stop.

There are a few ways to grow your club. But there are also lots of things at play, just one of them being demographics and how old your area is. The other thing that hinders is the inability to poach. But I think that's also a good thing. Just means its harder to build a side from scratch if you can't poach at least one or two players..

[Arch44]

How would it go with zoning? The old days you would just play at the nearest club to where you lived in juniors.

My lad wouldn't be overly happy though we live at Osborne, so North Haven or Port Districts would be the closest and he wants to play for Fitzroy.

[The Bedge]

The other thing that hinders is the inability to poach. .

Inability to poach is interesting - we have lost several kids to another club in recent years who have been promised things ranging from boots, to fees covered, to opportunities to SANFL clubs.. plenty of clubs actively poaching.

Also heard from families involved with cricket who are at what I always thought was a strong junior club, they cop the same things from one of the clubs near them.. promises of bigger things for the kids if they jump ship.

I'm anti poaching.. all for just trying to build it.

[gadj1976]

How would it go with zoning? The old days you would just play at the nearest club to where you lived in juniors.

My lad wouldn't be overly happy though we live at Osborne, so North Haven or Port Districts would be the closest and he wants to play for Fitzroy.

That's what we've found too. Pretty much kids wanna play with their mates from school and private schools have kids from all parts. Mind you, if it was zoned, it could make it harder for some clubs with demographic issues. I'm not picking on TTG or GG for one instant, but their areas are booming, so you might sway it the other way and have 4 and 5 teams in a grade.

[AdelaideSaint73]

I reckon it's all about the work put in to have kids fall in love with their club.

If kids want to watch the seniors play, and can see a connection there, a pathway to playing senior footy, a vast majority will stay.

You'll always lose a few who think they are going to be an AFL star (aged 9), but I'm not sure losing those families is a bad thing. It's definitely the best and most sustainable way to build a solid senior program as we all know. So clubs who seem to have lots of juniors exiting also seem to correlate with clubs who've had a bit of a fall from grace (whether that be Div 1 down to 2, or Div 4 down to 5 etc). Also no surprise that most of the perennial Div 6/7 clubs are also clubs with no junior program, or a faltering junior program.

[whufc]

Don't over complicate it 'Opportunity and Improvement'

If a parent sees these two things, if a kid feels these two things ....................they are staying.

[The Bedge]

Don't over complicate it 'Opportunity and Improvement'

If a parent sees these two things, if a kid feels these two things ....................they are staying.

Says the bloke from the country club where options are very limited...

[The Bedge]

Also no surprise that most of the perennial Div 6/7 clubs are also clubs with no junior program, or a faltering junior program.

I agreed until this part.. not that there isn't some merit in this section, but it's also a little unfair / not full picture.

Clubs like Ingle Farm, Para Hills, Gepps Cross, Fitzroy I'd hazard a guess would put just as much if not more time and energy into trying to build and sustain their junior programs than some of the bigger clubs.

Reality is we are going to remain behind the 8 ball regardless of what sort of programs and opportunities we provide. That's fact. Our best kids will deservedly go challenge themselves at a league club, or a higher division.. but the rest will exit juniors and step into seniors well off the pace still.

We will have a team graduate out of 17s this year - great kids, but they're bottom division of 17's.. they're in the lower grades compared to their peers, whilst the clubs like Golden Grove, Pt District, Henley, TTG, Goodwood etc are going to get an influx of kids at the top of their age group.

That's the challenge - from U11s up, these powerhouse clubs are fortunate enough to be able to split kids into teams and have the best grouped together, whilst the rest get to develop against the other clubs.

From an Ingle Farm point of view, we will continue to try and grow our programs and invest in the kids to build a pathway, but don't ever suggest we aren't trying to put in the work to bridge the gap.. it's not a fair race, and we are working with what we can.

Sidenote, for what it's worth our juniors have grown from 137 in 2023 to 245 in 2025 - off top of my head, none of our premiership sides have missed finals in that time, we have won an U14 premiership, developed 2x girls sides and doubled our U8s. We are busting arse to make it work.

[whufc]

Don't over complicate it 'Opportunity and Improvement'

If a parent sees these two things, if a kid feels these two things ....................they are staying.

Says the bloke from the country club where options are very limited...

Do you disagree.

As a parent any sport my child is involved in i want to see them get those two things.

1. I want them to get game time, im not overly fussed whether the team is winning or losing but i want my child to get the chance to equally participate
2. I want to see that the coaches are taking interest, have a rough idea what there doing and my child is showing some signs of improving over the course of the year. (provided my child's behavior and attitude is also acceptable)

If those two things are happening my daughter will generally be happy and I have no reason to be looking elsewhere.

I will say im talking about the younger years not so much 17's going into senior football.

[whufc]

I will also add we face very similar issues

Examples being that at BSR our towns have a total of 700 people which means a very high percentage of our children go to school at Clare High. Clare High is obviously full of nearly every single kid who plays for North and South Clare, Min Man who due to numbers have traditionally being the 3 strongest club in the junior grades.

We also have the work factor, many of the parents from our region work in Clare and with children at Clare High the ease of which it is for children to just play at the Clare clubs is a huge factor.

We then throw on top we train at all 3 of our towns (Brinkworth, Spalding, Redhill) so for parents living in Spalding or Redhill it is a 40 minute drive to the other town for training. This also means our trainings have to start later as there is no way people can get there before 5pm. Spalding to Clare and Brinkworth to Clare is only 30 minutes so actually closer from home.

Some great initivatives ive seen at some of the clubs in the region are:

-We do FREE thursday night dinners each week for all junior players football/netball so roughly around 100 kids each night. Due to the late starting time we just have no choice but to make the dinner part a big element.

-Blyth/Snowtown have had huge success with their community bus as they train across the two towns and they have a volunteer who takes the kids to training that cant get there with their parents especially around seeding time.

-Obviously we play on the same day as the juniors so every week all our clubs have a junior mascot who runs out on the ground with the A Grade, goes in the changerooms pre and post game, warms up with them.

-Buddy system. All our senior footballers and netballers have a 'buddy' they are expected to go watch occasionally and just generally look out for the kid on game day and at trainings. Once again easier because we are at the same place on game day.

-Blyth/Snowtown having a lot of success with their 'kidsclub' essentially siblings etc can be looked after during training hours so parents can be more involved in assisting with training etc. Bit of work involved with all the administrative side but they are doing it really well.

[AdelaideSaint73]

Also no surprise that most of the perennial Div 6/7 clubs are also clubs with no junior program, or a faltering junior program.

I agreed until this part.. not that there isn't some merit in this section, but it's also a little unfair / not full picture.

Clubs like Ingle Farm, Para Hills, Gepps Cross, Fitzroy I'd hazard a guess would put just as much if not more time and energy into trying to build and sustain their junior programs than some of the bigger clubs.

Reality is we are going to remain behind the 8 ball regardless of what sort of programs and opportunities we provide. That's fact. Our best kids will deservedly go challenge themselves at a league club, or a higher division.. but the rest will exit juniors and step into seniors well off the pace still.

We will have a team graduate out of 17s this year - great kids, but they're bottom division of 17's.. they're in the lower grades compared to their peers, whilst the clubs like Golden Grove, Pt District, Henley, TTG, Goodwood etc are going to get an influx of kids at the top of their age group.

That's the challenge - from U11s up, these powerhouse clubs are fortunate enough to be able to split kids into teams and have the best grouped together, whilst the rest get to develop against the other clubs.

From an Ingle Farm point of view, we will continue to try and grow our programs and invest in the kids to build a pathway, but don't ever suggest we aren't trying to put in the work to bridge the gap.. it's not a fair race, and we are working with what we can.

Sidenote, for what it's worth our juniors have grown from 137 in 2023 to 245 in 2025 - off top of my head, none of our premiership sides have missed finals in that time, we have won an U14 premiership, developed 2x girls sides and doubled our U8s. We are busting arse to make it work.

I totally agree. The clubs you've listed (maybe Fitzroy aside) are either running good junior programs with strong numbers, or rebuilding something that faltered. That provides the basis for heading up the divisions. If these kids find that they love the club, or connect really strongly with a coach/coaches they are much more likely to stick around. Then the recruiting becomes topping up in areas of weakness.

The growth of 100 kids means that is growing at Ingle Farm, kids are bringing their siblings or mates or both. It's genuinely the most important work of any community club. And if they head off to League Clubs that's an incentive for their mates to work hard and chase the same. Hopefully they come back when they are done or cut. Lots do. Some don't.

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that some clubs aren't doing the work - but some just don't get it. Brahma Lodge won a flag a few years ago with zero juniors from their club involved. Honestly I don't get why they'd bother.

[The Ash Man]

When re-grading happens why don’t ladders reset back to zero?

The same clubs every year start in a lower grade win 4 games then come up a division and go straight to the top of the ladder


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[The Bedge]

When re-grading happens why don’t ladders reset back to zero?

The same clubs every year start in a lower grade win 4 games then come up a division and go straight to the top of the ladder

Gotta be some incentive for a side getting bumped up the div.. in theory should even itself out over the season.

Generally they go up say 4-0 but most sides in that div are 2-2 anyway.

[The Bedge]

Ah fixturing. Just noticed our u12s play Broadview 3 x times (twice in 3 weeks ) and don't play Marion at all.

I don't even know how you're still in D3 to be honest.

Without wanting to sound rude, only took 5min of watching Sunday to see that you're well out of your depth and under developed. Your kids deserve to be in a lower division where they can be competitive.

Exactly what I have been saying. They try so hard too, just aren't as talented as the other sides. Plympton were 2nd to bottom before the match and we were bottom and lost by 10 goals. Wouldn't bother me if it was seniors, but juniors you need them to stay interested.
I would like to see a cap on how many teams each club can have in each grade, but that's a separate issue.

SANFL Jnrs must be reading safooty... Fitzroy re-graded to D4

[Arch44]

Ah fixturing. Just noticed our u12s play Broadview 3 x times (twice in 3 weeks ) and don't play Marion at all.

I don't even know how you're still in D3 to be honest.

Without wanting to sound rude, only took 5min of watching Sunday to see that you're well out of your depth and under developed. Your kids deserve to be in a lower division where they can be competitive.

Exactly what I have been saying. They try so hard too, just aren't as talented as the other sides. Plympton were 2nd to bottom before the match and we were bottom and lost by 10 goals. Wouldn't bother me if it was seniors, but juniors you need them to stay interested.
I would like to see a cap on how many teams each club can have in each grade, but that's a separate issue.

SANFL Jnrs must be reading safooty... Fitzroy re-graded to D4

When all else fails, get on here

[Brodlach]

Ah fixturing. Just noticed our u12s play Broadview 3 x times (twice in 3 weeks ) and don't play Marion at all.

I don't even know how you're still in D3 to be honest.

Without wanting to sound rude, only took 5min of watching Sunday to see that you're well out of your depth and under developed. Your kids deserve to be in a lower division where they can be competitive.

Exactly what I have been saying. They try so hard too, just aren't as talented as the other sides. Plympton were 2nd to bottom before the match and we were bottom and lost by 10 goals. Wouldn't bother me if it was seniors, but juniors you need them to stay interested.
I would like to see a cap on how many teams each club can have in each grade, but that's a separate issue.

SANFL Jnrs must be reading safooty... Fitzroy re-graded to D4

No doubt they do, also those at ADFL

[gadj1976]

When re-grading happens why don’t ladders reset back to zero?

The same clubs every year start in a lower grade win 4 games then come up a division and go straight to the top of the ladder


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think that needs to stay. Often those sides don't win too many games in the grade they're going to, so it stops the 'instant relegation' happening at year's end.