National 2nd Tier Competiton Discussion

[JK]

SANFL club sponsors tend to be local businesses, and probably don't have much to gain from "national exposure".In fact they may feel they are getting less value for money as there may be less local exposure if the clubs gave this competition priority.
Thus, only SANFL clubs with nothing to lose in the SANFL competition will embrace the idea of joining this competition as we have seen.
Its purpose is only to enhance the AFL's image of being all there is to football, while weakening that of the state leagues.
And yes, they will drop it as soon as the two new teams are there to fill up the TV scheduling spots.

Holden, Coopers,Gliderol,Fielders,Mistral,Scotts Tranport....

Fairmont Homes are the Legs sponsor bud

I know. I just think Norwood, then Coopers....great, now I'm thirsty and will get nothing done.

Thanks for taking me down* with ya mate

[Dutchy]

Yes many of the SANFL clubs sponsors extend their business beyond the state borders.

My info is they wont have any exposure on the jumper anyway, however Red&Black tells us this wont be the case and they will have jumper exposure.

[sjt]

Yes many of the SANFL clubs sponsors extend their business beyond the state borders.

My info is they wont have any exposure on the jumper anyway, however Red&Black tells us this wont be the case and they will have jumper exposure.

He guarantees it, it's fact:

"Instead of speculation and guessing, how about some facts.

This is extra exposure for sponsors.

Their logos will, repeat will, be on the guernsey.

National exposure, free.

Move on to the next 'problem'."

[redandblack]

SANFL club sponsors tend to be local businesses, and probably don't have much to gain from "national exposure".
In fact they may feel they are getting less value for money as there may be less local exposure if the clubs gave this competition priority.
Thus, only SANFL clubs with nothing to lose in the SANFL competition will embrace the idea of joining this competition as we have seen.
Its purpose is only to enhance the AFL's image of being all there is to football, while weakening that of the state leagues.
And yes, they will drop it as soon as the two new teams are there to fill up the TV scheduling spots.

Apart from the possibility (probability) that it might be dropped next year, the rest of that is nonsense, mate.

[rd]

Do I agree with Graham Cornes for once in his Saturday Advertiser column? Yes it is the responsibility of every club to represent SA when given the opportunity. State matches between South Australia and either the VFL or the WAFL no longer generate state pride for me BUT if Central District defeated Claremont to claim the Champions League Premiership, then I would be thrilled with that result. Weird seeing I barrack for Sturt.
Our leading SANFL clubs have declined the invitation to contest the 2011 Champions League for various reasons. They are not happy in giving up their byes from the SANFL program. Are they making the modern players look a bit soft?
In 1976 Port Adelaide was one of four SANFL teams contesting the National Football League Cup – played primarily as a mid week competition at Norwood Oval under lights in addition to the regular SANFL season conducted on Saturdays. Their football program for the month of June 1976 (after belting Torrens at Football Park by 68 points on Saturday May 29) was – June 1 defeated Footscray by 34 points at Norwood Oval, June 5 victory over South at Adelaide Oval by 34 points, June 12 a tight 161 point win over Central District at Football Park, June 15 a 50 point loss to North Melbourne at Norwood Oval and then a rest until June 26 when they won by 20 points over Glenelg at the Bay. Yes a heavy schedule yet Port still played in the 1976 Grand Final and I doubt their loss to Sturt in that game can be attributed to the extra games they played three months earlier.
The good players respond to the challenge. Russell Ebert was high in the best players for Port in all those games except the North Melbourne clash which he missed due to being hospitalised with an eye injury suffered during the game against Central District three days earlier.
South Adelaide won the NFL Escort cup during the 1979 SANFL season and yet still played the SANFL Grand Final that year. And they have missed many Grand Finals over the years when there was no additional competition to worry about.
North Adelaide enjoyed a famous victory over Collingwood in Melbourne in 1986 and even got to return to Melbourne later on in the season to get slaughtered by Hawthorn – but was still able to qualify for the SANFL Grand Final in the same season.
As Cornes wrote – all it took was player management.
The fans love these special games. Did Norwood fans enjoy the night their side killed Carlton by 106 points in front of 7500 stunned onlookers at Norwood in 1976?
This new Champions League has the potential to become something special. Yes it is designed for television but that is sporting life these days. Yes players may get injured in a game but they can also get injured on the training track or playing for South Australia in a state game. For young players hoping to enter the AFL system, the chance to travel with your club to an interstate venue to play a game of footy in front of an unsympathetic crowd would give them a real taste of the AFL lifestyle.
Both camps need to give a bit to get a bit with this competition. The organisers should have the opening rounds played pre-season so then the impact would be lessened on the various state leagues regular season as the Champions League would be done and dusted by June so then everyone could rightly focus on their respective premierships without any distractions. An early March Friday night double header at Norwood Oval featuring WWT Eagles & Central District playing their opening Champions League matches would draw at least 8000 to the ground.
Our SANFL clubs are acting very precious. South Australia’s tradition in defying national trends and ideas always looks so silly – the SANFL comp will never outperform the AFL circus so it is much easier to just go with the flow, get a bit of prize money if you’re good enough and give the kids at your club a chance to taste the big time and also let everyone involved at your club represent South Australia for a game.
Go for it SANFL clubs – boost your profile for a season and see what happens…

I posted this 2 months ago and see no reason to change my mind. As a Sturt FC member I am really annoyed that Sturt declined the chance to participate in a competition - that if given the chance - could end up being a highlight of the state league footy season. I am so envious of West, North and Port fans now that the fixtures have been released.

[baggy8]

Right with you rd. But as Sturt members we shouldn't even have had the luxury of feeling annoyed. There should be a lot of Centrals, Norwood and Eagles people out there who feel even more let down by their club.

[csbowes]

I'll say it again... I think the top half of the SANFL just didn't have the balls to compete. Not the players, but the administration and boards left their bollocks in their wives handbags and ran away... should one of the non-SANFL clubs take this out and I think the WAFL sides will, they will have earnt the right to say they're the best club in the land.

[redandblack]

Yep.

Whoever wins it, let's not hear from any of the non-competing clubs that they would have won.

They didn't compete.

[spell_check]

18 minute quarters with time on only for the last three minutes? How did they work that out? If that's the case, they may as well just play two twenty minute halves with 9 points for a super goal.

[Dutchy]

I'll say it again... I think the top half of the SANFL just didn't have the balls to compete. Not the players, but the administration and boards left their bollocks in their wives handbags and ran away... should one of the non-SANFL clubs take this out and I think the WAFL sides will, they will have earnt the right to say they're the best club in the land.

According to the GFC the players wernt interested.

18 minute quarters with time on only for the last three minutes? How did they work that out? If that's the case, they may as well just play two twenty minute halves with 9 points for a super goal.

And what happens if scores are tied at the end of the game? they cant play overtime because that would delay the AFL game which wont happen.

[redandblack]

I think the Glenelg players were very interested until they had their minds changed.

Today's paper makes it clear the West, North and Port players were very keen, as I said some while ago.

[Dutchy]

We will argue until the first week in October whether who made the right decision on this. If North, West or Port win the flag then Ill happily conceed they made the right choice.

[smac]

I'll say it again... I think the top half of the SANFL just didn't have the balls to compete. Not the players, but the administration and boards left their bollocks in their wives handbags and ran away... should one of the non-SANFL clubs take this out and I think the WAFL sides will, they will have earnt the right to say they're the best club in the land.

According to the GFC the players wernt interested.

18 minute quarters with time on only for the last three minutes? How did they work that out? If that's the case, they may as well just play two twenty minute halves with 9 points for a super goal.

And what happens if scores are tied at the end of the game? they cant play overtime because that would delay the AFL game which wont happen.

Or worse still, due to time on and any other delays the timekeepers will be forced to blow the siren at the 13:27 mark of the last quarter so that they are off the ground at the time specified by the AFL.

[redandblack]

That's a clever, but irrelevant statement, Dutchy.

Those clubs are at long odds to win the flag, so you're not proving much whether they played in this comp or not. Improvement in premiership position would be a better indicator.

On the other hand, if one did win the flag, it would destroy your argument.

PS: smac, if the quarters are that short, it wouldn't harm our preparation for the SANFL game, would it?

Also, those saying West would have a SANFL game the day after the final have gone quiet as well.

That's not fact either.

[Hondo]

It won't be able to ever be proven if it helped or hindered the placing in the SANFL premiership season because you can't be sure how those teams would have gone if they hadn't participated. You can't run 2 seasons, one with Foxtel Cup and one without, to run a proper test. It is however a supporter friendly excuse if ever I heard one. Nothing like giving your fans something to pump their chests about when their team isn't in the new competition. Clever.

The closest you would be able to get to prove it one way or the other is if one of the state league teams from any state league win their league and play in the Foxtel Cup. The top 5 of 2010 in the SANFL have probably prevented that from happening here as history says not many teams come from outside the top 5 and win the premiership. Then those 5 clubs can say, see I told you so. As I said, clever.

[CK]

I've been watching this debate for a long time and don't see what a lot of the fuss is about.

The most optimistic Port fan would have to concede it is fairly unlikely they will win the SANFL Grand Final this year. If this competition gives their team the experience of playing in front of a larger crowd, travelling interstate, and gives them an insight into what it is like to play other teams in other competitions, then I don't see how that can be negative for them. It can be said that they may suffer a serious injury to a player/players in the competition. This can also happen in the regular season too. For a young squad who would be considered behind the top two or three clubs right now, this can only be a positive step for them to compete on the national stage.

North and West would probably not, realistically, be considered among the top two chances to win the SANFL Grand Final this year, but like Port, they seem to have considered that their participation will benefit their players and club this year also, in a similar manner to Port.

For the clubs that have declined the opportunity, many of them may consider that their preparation could disrupt their chances of winning the SANFL Grand Final, and they would prefer to focus on that. That is their choice, and whether it may/may not affect existing sponsorship agreements or the like, may not be their main reason for declining. At their stages of where they sit, it is probably considered to be more beneficial to concentrate on what would have been their main focus after last year's Grand Final - to win the 2011 Grand Final.

If the club you support chose not to compete, then consider – what would you rather they focus on for 2011. A competition that would be nice to win, but may not, ultimately, help you in the goal that most supporters would like to take, given the club’s stage of development. It may be a romantic notion to compete in this competition, but it may not be what your club wants at this stage. I think it’s fair to say that the club’s boards etc probably know more about what they want and can realistically hope to achieve as a club, more than what some supporters do.

IMHO, it’s a matter of stages of a club’s development, what will benefit them more in the short to medium term, depending on where they sit in the 2011 regular season and finals series scheme of things. Each club has their reasons for competing, or choosing not to compete, and whether this competition lasts one, two, five or fifty years, I don’t really understand a lot of the emotion this competition seems to be stirring among so many on the sidelines.

[redandblack]

Nice work,CK, but are you saying that the SANFL clubs not competing are wiser than the WAFL and VFL clubs who are?

[mighty_tiger_79]

i wouldve liked to have seen Glenelg compete

apparently the players arent keen on it

so if we dont win the SANFL premiership then its been a wasted opportunity imo, if the players did indeed get their own way

[CK]

Nice work,CK, but are you saying that the SANFL clubs not competing are wiser than the WAFL and VFL clubs who are?

No - I neither said that, nor implied it.

[redandblack]

Nice work,CK, but are you saying that the SANFL clubs not competing are wiser than the WAFL and VFL clubs who are?

No - I neither said that, nor implied it.

For the clubs that have declined the opportunity, many of them may consider that their preparation could disrupt their chances of winning the SANFL Grand Final, and they would prefer to focus on that. That is their choice, and whether it may/may not affect existing sponsorship agreements or the like, may not be their main reason for declining. At their stages of where they sit, it is probably considered to be more beneficial to concentrate on what would have been their main focus after last year's Grand Final - to win the 2011 Grand Final.If the club you support chose not to compete, then consider – what would you rather they focus on for 2011. A competition that would be nice to win, but may not, ultimately, help you in the goal that most supporters would like to take, given the club’s stage of development. It may be a romantic notion to compete in this competition, but it may not be what your club wants at this stage. I think it’s fair to say that the club’s boards etc probably know more about what they want and can realistically hope to achieve as a club, more than what some supporters do.

I'd say that's a fair implication that you're saying the Boards of the non-competing clubs know best for their club. The boards of the WAFL and VFL clubs in exactly the same situation have come to a different view, so they can't both know best.

I know your post was trying to be even-handed, but I think the reason supporters of the competing clubs have put their views is in response to some of the patronising comments (not from you) about them being non-contenders, so therefore they can afford to play in this comp. It is then derided as a Mickey Mouse Comp to support that argument.

So the argument goes round and round.