Gaelic Football in South Australia

[wristwatcher]

With soccer and footy seasons over for those not playing finals (me included in the category) our attention once again focuses on Gaelic to get us through summer....how are the respective sides looking? Recruits? Coaches? Predictions?

As per previous posts we have a reputation of promising the world and delivering nothing but we have explored a few different recruiting avenues to hopefully overcome our post Christmas blues.....

My predicted ladder at the end of the minor round
1. Onkas
2. Western ireland
3. Flinders
4. St brendans
5. Na Gianna
6. Port district
7. Irish
8. Mitcham

Na Fianna will finish higher than Na Gianna is predicted and Brahma lodge did is my only tip.

[Neville Bartoss]

Bloody predictive text.....edited now, sorry wristy...

[Neville Bartoss]

My predictions are based on playing each side twice last season and as there as not been any info for the coming season I can't really take this into account..

Onkas - easily the best team I played last year, and they have some promising juniors getting some games under their belt and the return of gabe will make them almost unstoppable. Have a good mix of running midfielders, and clinical finishes up forward. These forwards killed the game off early, especially in our first game when I thought we were more than competitive around the ground

Western Ireland - very similar to st brendans in their style of play due to the fact they consist mainly of football players. Fittest team I played by a mile. Remember playing them in the lightning carnival and being amazed by their running abiliy and rotations off the bench. Consistent performers, capable of beating onkas on their day

St brendans - dangerous around finals time, like to catch them early in the season or when hungover. Most unpredictable of the top three but capable of beating anyone on their day. Good run and size. Their weakness is their finishing in the final third.

Na Fianna - there is talk of a new coach and some new Irish players and their captain out for the season. I'm assuming their captain is Kenny Fay. Always get the job on him and have found him the hardest guy to play on in the league and is the heart and soul of na Fianna. Are a consistent side. Their best is good not great and they are rarely bad. I don't think they have the side to knock off the top two unless they recruit well. Kenny keeps them in most games with his ground kicking and have a solid defence and midfield which is slower but smarter than most

Port districts - expect them to be the big improvers and just miss finals. With another season under their belt they will only get better. If they continue to improve I expect them to become regular finalists in the coming year. Much like wi and st b's have size and run but their real downfall is their kicking skills, especially at goals.

Irish and Mitcham - I see them fighting for the wooden spoon unless they improve on last season. Irish showed some improvement but need more to compete. Great team and bunch of blokes and I hope they prove me wrong

Flinders - capable of beating or losing to anyone. Struggle post Christmas and rarely get a full strength side on the park, but watch out when we do .

[the milky bar kid]

It's ok Nev, you still get to line up on Kenny Fay

You do have to catch up on your knowledge of local gaelic football club captains!!! These kind of questions have been popping up in Quiz nights all around Australia

[Neville Bartoss]

Haha I'll be sure to remember that for my next quiz night....na Fianna to sneak into the four now I know he is playing

[Cheese Twisties]

St Brendan's chooses its captain on a weekly basis - the player who rocks up with the longest line of nightclub stamps going down their arm is thrown the captain's arm band for that week... which is always Jordan or Johny Pegoraro!

If my SA Gaelic knowledge is accurate i believe Dan "Milko" Bryant was the Fins skipper? Sad to hear about his injury, and wishing him a speedy recovery. I suppose all that calcium from milk is good for the bones, but does nothing for the joints!

[lutz]

With soccer and footy seasons over for those not playing finals (me included in the category) our attention once again focuses on Gaelic to get us through summer....how are the respective sides looking? Recruits? Coaches? Predictions?

As per previous posts we have a reputation of promising the world and delivering nothing but we have explored a few different recruiting avenues to hopefully overcome our post Christmas blues.....

My predicted ladder at the end of the minor round
1. Onkas
2. Western ireland
3. Flinders
4. St brendans
5. Na Fianna
6. Port district
7. Irish
8. Mitcham

Hard to tell this far out, especially with how much teams change from week to week, let alone season to season, but this is good for conversation.
I'm not sure if Flinders can finish that high. They were disappointing imo in the second half of the year, and would have battled against any of the bottom sides by the end of the season iirc.
Will be interesting to see how Port fare this season. Hard to know with an unknown squad, but showed good signs of improvement in the 2nd half of the season. Im sure they're going to expect a good, consistent year. I feel they may finish fifth though.

[the milky bar kid]

Correct CT, Dan Bryant is our captain. I believe he gets on here & has a read occasionally so i'm sure he'd appreciate the well wishes!
Ladder positions are difficult to predict, but I'd say it'd be difficult for a club to improve by the 4-5 wins to make it into the four. I've been wrong before & it depends on personel changes for the upcoming season.
I did see in the last meeting notes that there was talk about 2 divisions??? Anyone know anything more about this? Surely we need more than 4 teams in a division to make this work?

[wristwatcher]

Correct CT, Dan Bryant is our captain. I believe he gets on here & has a read occasionally so i'm sure he'd appreciate the well wishes!
Ladder positions are difficult to predict, but I'd say it'd be difficult for a club to improve by the 4-5 wins to make it into the four. I've been wrong before & it depends on personel changes for the upcoming season.
I did see in the last meeting notes that there was talk about 2 divisions??? Anyone know anything more about this? Surely we need more than 4 teams in a division to make this work?

As an edgy idea.
Perhaps we could all play each other pre xmas and then after Xmas break into the 2 divisions when teams have established themselves.Top 4 in Div 1 and Bottom 4 into 2. At that point you would then play each other again once in your 2 divisions and have a thorough finals series for the 2 divisions. It would keep post xmas games competitive and avoid blowouts whilst encouraging teams to strive towards Div 1 qualification pre Xmas.
I would be real intersested in feedback from people on this idea as we need to make our mens comp the best it can be to ensure we continue to move forward and not be content with going through the motions. We have flirted with 2 divisions before but i personally still dont think that it has been done in a way to reward the sucessfull teams and keep struggling teams in a comp playing against realistic challenges. This format would challenge the 8 teams to strive towards the top 4 for a shot at the Hannnigan Cup pre Xmas and put them against equally skilled teams post Xmas. Something similar has been tried but never quite took off. I truly believe this year that we can make it work I really hope we can.
My other theory is that pre Xmas we should be awarding the JIM FARNHAM CUP. So the top 2 div 1 qualifiers still play a GF for the beloved JF CUP. A one off game that rewards the top 2 from Oct-Dec. Clearly the current format rewards the 1 dominant team but this format encourages teams to initially strive and then thrive in their realistic surroundings. The 8th placed team playing the top placed team in late feb will not be an important game in anyones eyes but if 5-8th are playing each other for heres an idea (The Norm Murphy Cup-Div2 ) they can be happy with the idea that they will play competitive opposition each week with out being thrashed/embarrased and play for a new cup, a cup that may well become a right of passage....No system is perfect but after 21ish years of watching SA Gaelic Footy i reckon this system rewards, encourages and fairly puts into divisions teams with realistic expectation and chance at real reward in both divisions.
JASON, BEN, MILLSY, ZUES, GABE/WHITTO, MICKY E, MICKY L ,TOASTY, TRENT, MILKO AND OTHERS (GOD ID GIVE A FEW YEARS OFF MY LIFE TO GET A POST FROM O,NEILS ONLY ON THIS IDEA)...WHAT DO YOU THINK???

[Major Gun]

I like the idea of more competitive games. But I still think our top priority in this state should be encouraging more 15 a-side games. Gaelic Football is a 15 a-side sport. Reward teams that play 15 a -side!

Also, it seems as though State trips are becoming more expensive. SA Women's and, I've heard, SA Men's teams are not flush with numbers this year. We have the strongest and proudest State League in the country. It's time we figured out how we not just win Nationals, but dominate them. We have no more excuses apart from cost. We need major sponsors and benefactors like the NSW and VIC associations.

[BFG]

Correct CT, Dan Bryant is our captain. I believe he gets on here & has a read occasionally so i'm sure he'd appreciate the well wishes!
Ladder positions are difficult to predict, but I'd say it'd be difficult for a club to improve by the 4-5 wins to make it into the four. I've been wrong before & it depends on personel changes for the upcoming season.
I did see in the last meeting notes that there was talk about 2 divisions??? Anyone know anything more about this? Surely we need more than 4 teams in a division to make this work?

As an edgy idea.
Perhaps we could all play each other pre xmas and then after Xmas break into the 2 divisions when teams have established themselves.Top 4 in Div 1 and Bottom 4 into 2. At that point you would then play each other again once in your 2 divisions and have a thorough finals series for the 2 divisions. It would keep post xmas games competitive and avoid blowouts whilst encouraging teams to strive towards Div 1 qualification pre Xmas.
I would be real intersested in feedback from people on this idea as we need to make our mens comp the best it can be to ensure we continue to move forward and not be content with going through the motions. We have flirted with 2 divisions before but i personally still dont think that it has been done in a way to reward the sucessfull teams and keep struggling teams in a comp playing against realistic challenges. This format would challenge the 8 teams to strive towards the top 4 for a shot at the Hannnigan Cup pre Xmas and put them against equally skilled teams post Xmas. Something similar has been tried but never quite took off. I truly believe this year that we can make it work I really hope we can.
My other theory is that pre Xmas we should be awarding the JIM FARNHAM CUP. So the top 2 div 1 qualifiers still play a GF for the beloved JF CUP. A one off game that rewards the top 2 from Oct-Dec. Clearly the current format rewards the 1 dominant team but this format encourages teams to initially strive and then thrive in their realistic surroundings. The 8th placed team playing the top placed team in late feb will not be an important game in anyones eyes but if 5-8th are playing each other for heres an idea (The Norm Murphy Cup-Div2 ) they can be happy with the idea that they will play competitive opposition each week with out being thrashed/embarrased and play for a new cup, a cup that may well become a right of passage....No system is perfect but after 21ish years of watching SA Gaelic Footy i reckon this system rewards, encourages and fairly puts into divisions teams with realistic expectation and chance at real reward in both divisions.
JASON, BEN, MILLSY, ZUES, GABE/WHITTO, MICKY E, MICKY L ,TOASTY, TRENT, MILKO AND OTHERS (GOD ID GIVE A FEW YEARS OFF MY LIFE TO GET A POST FROM O,NEILS ONLY ON THIS IDEA)...WHAT DO YOU THINK???

i dont mind the idea, would definately even things up post chrissy when there has been some big blow outs in the past. also you may even see the teams in the bottom half be able to retain players post xmas due to games being closer. i.e if i was playing for a bottom side i would be more likely to 1. rock up and 2. enjoy the game. if i knew we had a realistic chance of winning. an interesting proposal though

[BFG]

My predictions are based on playing each side twice last season and as there as not been any info for the coming season I can't really take this into account..

Onkas - easily the best team I played last year, and they have some promising juniors getting some games under their belt and the return of gabe will make them almost unstoppable. Have a good mix of running midfielders, and clinical finishes up forward. These forwards killed the game off early, especially in our first game when I thought we were more than competitive around the ground

add whito as well nev, saw both play on the weekend v reynella. both looked like they were moving well so good signs for onks, especially if we can keep the same side together, which we have struggled with in previous years

[Flinders O'Neills]

Div 2 was tried in the past, and did not work, the way forward isnt to to banish clubs to "develop", what we must remember is with Gaelic in this state, it all depends on who shows up and in what state, you will find the better teams are the ones with a settled line up, we at Flinders on our day can go with the big boys but too often are lacking some quality players post christmas, playing in div 2 would not make this any easier...

this idea was done years back and didnt work and was canned after 1 season....

Apart from wristy how did this come about? as I looked at the mintues and I didnt see any current mens players at the meeting?

[BFG]

any indication on an approximate start date for the season? footy finished two weeks ago for me and im struggling without some sort of competitive sport!!!

[the milky bar kid]

Reckon the season will start either 14th of October with no sunday games that week (Masters games is on) or it'll start the following weekend of the 21st. The tentative dates are on the website.
I think we should all know for certain monday night after the committee meeting.
I know alot of the Na Fianna guys have finished up footy (except a couple) so we are starting to have a bit of a kick around & some come & try sessions in a couple of weeks!

[Major Gun]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/0 ... site=perth

A.C.T in Brisbane?

[Neville Bartoss]

Looks as though there has been quite a bit of recruiting being done at the moment, have had one of our team of the year players approached by a rival club and we have been busy with about 40 players now on our list and the possibility of two sevens teams to go with our state league team. Won't drop any names of our recruits but looks promising.....might have even poached a big name from a rival club also...

[the milky bar kid]

Carn Nev, drop some names! Get some discussion going mate!!! I know you guys have a link with Sturts SANFL under 19's team!

I know at Na Fianna that we pretty much secured one recruit in T Brimmacombe from PNU. Mr Perfect should be of some use at the Warriors. Apart from that we haven't been to active to date unless we've finally convinced Schimma to come on board!
By the sounds of the work that is going on out at the other clubs, Wristwatcher & me better start trying to "get around" some potential recruits!

[Neville Bartoss]

Developed a couple of different sources of attracting players....won't drop any names although we have approx 7-8 players from a very successful div 1 a grade side including their leading goal kicker, former afl listed player and amateur all Australian player....

Also picked up a div 1 amateur goal keeper and some quality players returning to the club.

Still in talks with a disgruntled player from another club. We r not ones to try and poach players from other clubs but don't want someone of his calibre wasted.

Any other clubs care to share their off season recruiting?

[the milky bar kid]

Interesting Nev, not a former AFL listed player expect but it certainly narrows it down to 3-4 clubs.
I'll take a guess at which team they are likely coming from. If true, then some teams could be 'copping' a hiding this season.