Down the hill football

[LaughingKookaburra]

EV - people at Metro South don't like hearing about Edwardstown's juniors moving to southern league. I believe they will be in MSJFL in 2011 and plan to stay there.

LK - I disagree, there is enough kids to play in single year age groups, gets a bit tougher in the older age groups though. The reason the MSJFL has turned to single year age groups is due to the increase in number of participants rather than out of fear of losing players.

My sources tell me different. My sources would know too.

[Jetters]

EV - people at Metro South don't like hearing about Edwardstown's juniors moving to southern league. I believe they will be in MSJFL in 2011 and plan to stay there.

LK - I disagree, there is enough kids to play in single year age groups, gets a bit tougher in the older age groups though. The reason the MSJFL has turned to single year age groups is due to the increase in number of participants rather than out of fear of losing players.

My sources tell me different. My sources would know too.

Bringing it back to 2 years per age group would almost halve the numbers at half the clubs in the league.

[LaughingKookaburra]

Also that post does not make sence. "There is enough players,but it gets tougher throught the older age groups"?? I'm confused.
"The reason why there are extra grades have been made is because the increasing numbers"....Why are we struggling to fill these grades then??
Some leagues have 5 sides in them and some of those clubs struggle to put 18 on the park each week. Not a healthy balance for competative competition.
Metro South do a fab job, but this is one thing I do not agree with.

[Jetters]

In the older age groups you are competing with colleges and sanfl sides etc for players, so it is harder to fill the older grades. Hence why there is an u16.5 rather than u/16. Kenilworth are struggling to fill sides for other reasons.
When you said leagues did you mean grades?

[White Line Fever]

I can understand the points being made but seriously half of these statements are a tad glorified.

Marion and Morphettville Park have not been anything near a junior powerhouse in the last 15 years and in that time surrounding clubs from the SAAFL have established their juniors and have overtaken them. Powerhouses play in grand finals....How many grand finals have Morphettville Park,Marion and Keniilworth played in at Junior level in the past 20 years??
SAAFL clubs did not have juniors 15 years ago...... The main problem is that there are too many grades and not enough juniors. The player numbers have increased dramatically compared to even 10 years ago, the issue is that there are not enough players to play 1 different age group from U8s-u18s across all clubs.
Too many parents are precious and say they dont want their kids playing against kids sometimes 2 years older than them and they may get hurt. So then they turn to other sports. In fear to this some leagues have resorted to making age groups jump yearly rather than every 2 years.
Clubs dont have to merge, just need to have a more sustainable junior program to spread the juniors. But unfortunatly some parents are too precious and some leagues are getting the pressure to bend their rules to satisfy their issues.

My first junior year at Marion we lost 2 games for the year and just lost the grand final.
Next year we lost prelim.
Marion had very strong juniors au U17 U18 level early 2000s....

[LaughingKookaburra]

my point exactly. Playing in one or two grand finals across your entire junior grades hardly makes you a power house. SFL under eighteens has a bit of a different culture to other leagues too. The best players are playing As and its encouraged. If not they are playing college football or SANFL juniors and because they play on Saturdays also most clubs do not field as stronger sides as they would like. Its almost like a reserves competition

[zedman]

In the older age groups you are competing with colleges and sanfl sides etc for players, so it is harder to fill the older grades. Hence why there is an u16.5 rather than u/16. Kenilworth are struggling to fill sides for other reasons.
When you said leagues did you mean grades?

hi jetters..what reasons?

"In the older age groups you are competing with colleges and sanfl sides etc for players"

colleges and sanfl sides dont play on sundays in the older age group so thats a bit of a fallacy..sanfl sides may tell their kids not to play on the sunday yes but most college kids can handle 2 games on a weekend..

[Jetters]

A lot of kids around the 16yo age group are content to play 1 game a week and are forced to play for their colleges, those playing 1st 18s are also are often not allowed to play for their club as well. Many obviously play 2 games and are able to cope. For quite a number it can be their 3rd game for the week if they play in the u16 SANFL comp which, last yr anyway, played games mid week and the the development squads normally play Fri night. Also there is obviously other life reasons for kids around that age not playing.

No need to share my personal opnions on the Kenilworth juniors on here.

[zedman]

then why say that,out of the blue,to LK if you cant back it up?

"Kenilworth are struggling to fill sides for other reasons."

were you trying to score a point on him?

[Jetters]

Out of the blue.... LK said was talking about there being too many junior grades, grades should be every 2 years rather than each year and that this was the reason why Kenilworth is struggling to field junior sides. I disagree, but I don't want to go bagging them.
Why do you give a sh!t?
How is that trying to 'score a point with him'?

[LaughingKookaburra]

Nobody on here is scoring with me. Unless you like to cuddle after you finish. Im sick of being used....

[zedman]

Out of the blue.... LK said was talking about there being too many junior grades, grades should be every 2 years rather than each year and that this was the reason why Kenilworth is struggling to field junior sides. I disagree, but I don't want to go bagging them.
Why do you give a sh!t?
How is that trying to 'score a point with him'?

i give a sh!t because friends of mine have kids out there..you are insinuating that there is some other lurking reason why kenilworth cant fill grades..and you say it yourself..but dont have the balls to back it up with any facts or reasons..i would like to know why or what the problem is..if its constructive criticism how is it bagging?

[Jetters]

Out of the blue.... LK said was talking about there being too many junior grades, grades should be every 2 years rather than each year and that this was the reason why Kenilworth is struggling to field junior sides. I disagree, but I don't want to go bagging them.
Why do you give a sh!t?
How is that trying to 'score a point with him'?

i give a sh!t because friends of mine have kids out there..you are insinuating that there is some other lurking reason why kenilworth cant fill grades..and you say it yourself..but dont have the balls to back it up with any facts or reasons..i would like to know why or what the problem is..if its constructive criticism how is it bagging?

Not appropriate for me to say I don't think. What reasons would you give the clubs junior problems?

[zedman]

what problem? your telling the story..i just want information..

[Jetters]

what problem? your telling the story..i just want information..

Struggling to fill juniors sides...

[zedman]

what problem? your telling the story..i just want information..

Struggling to fill juniors sides...

i knew they dropped a grade in 2010..it was a tough age group that had struggled..but they have 16.5 and 18s in saafl with good numbers..do you mean the very low grades?

[Jetters]

what problem? your telling the story..i just want information..

Struggling to fill juniors sides...

i knew they dropped a grade in 2010..it was a tough age group that had struggled..but they have 16.5 and 18s in saafl with good numbers..do you mean the very low grades?

They dropped 2 grades in 2010 and they had many u/16.5s doubling as 18s and many of the grades that did exist ran very short. Very significant decrease from 2009. Any thoughts?

[zedman]

to many clubs in the area as the original thread comment said..if you stretch his boundary out to msjfl boundaries you stick even more clubs in and the pool is diminished further..personally i would like to see some merging with the more northern sfl clubs to form a stronger msjfl league with only 9 10 11 12 14 16 and forget the 16.5..if the kids are to old they go to saafl amateur 18s or sfl 18s which then boosts their numbers as well..drop off the boutique grades because you wont need them..this will help fill numbers in the grades above..less grades means more club people to spread around and hence better quality coaches and support staff..clubs wont be stretched to try and provide players in grades they cant and can be working with what they have got and trying to hold it at the club..if you get stretched to far you start to drop off,lose games and players move on as whole teams disintegrate through lack of interest or boredom..some teams play each other 5-6 times before finals..5 x team grades rewarding a team with an elimination final when they dont win a game all year?..thats not healthy at all..its a bit radical but perhaps its time to act that way..

[zedman]

thats possibly the cause of kfc's problems..

[Jetters]

to many clubs in the area as the original thread comment said..if you stretch his boundary out to msjfl boundaries you stick even more clubs in and the pool is diminished further..personally i would like to see some merging with the more northern sfl clubs to form a stronger msjfl league with only 9 10 11 12 14 16 and forget the 16.5..if the kids are to old they go to saafl amateur 18s or sfl 18s which then boosts their numbers as well..drop off the boutique grades because you wont need them..this will help fill numbers in the grades above..less grades means more club people to spread around and hence better quality coaches and support staff..clubs wont be stretched to try and provide players in grades they cant and can be working with what they have got and trying to hold it at the club..if you get stretched to far you start to drop off,lose games and players move on as whole teams disintegrate through lack of interest or boredom..some teams play each other 5-6 times before finals..5 x team grades rewarding a team with an elimination final when they dont win a game all year?..thats not healthy at all..its a bit radical but perhaps its time to act that way..

Don't know about the non-MSJFL sides, so can't comment, but Kenilworth aren't particularly close to any other Metro South clubs comparitively.
I don't undersand why you consider u8/13/15s 'boutique' grades, surely they are as relevant as every other grade? Cutting those grades would mean many clubs would lose many players, in some cases approx 80! Not sure that would be a good option for the league.
The number of 'club people' should also be proportional to the number of people at the club, so don't buy that either.
In a 5 team comp 1 team may play 1 other team 4 times, not 5 or 6, but yes it is still far too many.
Not fussed about the finals bit as it is still only junior footy.
Maybe merging clubs is the better options. Let the stronger sustainable clubs consume some of the weaker ones. Maybe less clubs and more gradess the better option than the opposite, however club pride would sstop this happening.