Adjacent country zone cant make up for the issues the major metro catchment is facing. Call the reasons what you want, but without any acknowledgement, comments on the matter such as "excuses" are just petty snipes. You cant compare the massive advantage some metro clubs have to Centrals zone. There is no comparison with junior clubs such as Smosh, Payneham, Unley, Glenunga, PHOS, MItcham, Goodwood, Henley etc.. with not only money, numbers and resources, but the main issue is just the social adhesion they enjoy.

Half of Glenunga footy club (which has over 800 juniors all paying $300 plus subs not to mention weekly takings over the bar) attend the Adelaide elite schools, all with their own footy program. A junior club easily taking a lazy half a mill each year, bursting at the seams with volunteers, ex AFL players etc... Good on them, they are well run and are very inviting places to belong to, I personally love a beer and a chat at the club and have coached etc.. but the challenges that Centrals is facing in its metro zone have to be acknowledged without being called an excuse.

Need to add I just remembered that Golden Grove was included within our metro zone a few years back and when I visited a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night, it was a hive of activity with stacks of kids and supporters. A good club.

What Sturt do do well is develop their own and produce league players out of their system because recruiting has been very low key for a few years now. Challenge is will this approach be good enough to go against the likes of Eagles and Glenelg who supplement their lists with quality recruits year after year. Apart from Tom Lewis who I think skipped Reserves football most of them (Illman, Coomblas, Grivell, Voss etc) spent at least a year or two playing reserves football. It must be a reasonable environment as well to keep them there as even Penfold, a fringe player is still running around for Sturt and I remember him playing reserves footy back in 2014!

Would I be correct in stating that a number of Sturt's players have had the fortune of coming up through St. Peter's College or PAC though? They have excellent school programs that sure help.

On the contrary, we have to reeducate them when they come back from independent school programs into playing their roles instead of running around like unregistered dogs trying to get every kick they can. I don't know what they try to each them at school footy, but, it's certainly not structure...

I would be extremely surprised if that was the case nowadays, particularly when you look at who heads up the football program at the independent schools:

St. Peter's - Josh Francou
PAC - Matthew Slade
Rostrevor - James Allan
Scotch - Ben Nelson
Immanuel - Mark Bickley
Westminster - Tim Weatherald
Sacred Heart - Jon Symonds

Are you truly saying that these veterans of the SANFL system allow their players to 'run around like unregistered dogs' and have no idea how to prepare them for the SANFL???

Beat me to it BP. St Michaels was Andrew McCleod a few years ago, not sure who it is now. Saint ingatius - Panos, Pembroke ?. Its a ridiculous assertion.

Must be a real hassle communicating with the likes of Josh Francou and Matty Slade when dealing with the Private Schools, not to mention the integration of training that they organise with their respective league clubs starting in year 7. The colleges have elite development programs, gyms, pools and physical/mental development as well as scholarships designed to lure the best footballers to meet inclusivity and deliver footy results. No complaint with the latter from me, but saying that the schools are somehow detracting from elite player development is delusional, particularly on a thread that has skewed to discussing Centrals metro zone.

Metropolitan wise, the brightest Centrals have is Golden Grove and the metro campuses of Trinity, but the challenge is that soccer is really well organised and always attracted the migrants and their offspring within the region.

"You’re all not true supporters. Nothing to do with our coach. We played we take responsibility for it, it’s not acceptable. If your not willing to support us through this you shouldn’t support us . But don’t try blame it on one person."

This is the dumbest thing anyone at a football club can say.

Is this what the player said on their facebook page?

That's a direct quote in "marks", yes.

Not a good look from the player

Yep, a 25yo guy, 2 young kids who has come over from Tassie and loves the club and the competition has overstepped slightly within a poxy facebook post while defending his coach. Besides the statement about our more active critical social media supporters, the comment contains an admirable message, taking the blame for poor performance while praising his mentor. The lad is probably earning $15k per year and busting his gut and unhappy with his and his teams form. We are talking the SANFL here, less interest within the public sphere and the local Murdoch rag than the first 18 private old chum college football and associated old scholars teams. If ever there is a time to give the lad a break particularly within the club and its supporters, it is now.

A letter from Greg Edwards to all members of the CDFC.

.....
In addition, behind the scenes we have been working hard on having our development zone expanded to include another country zone and a larger metro zone. Broadly, our current zone is largely made up of the Salisbury, Elizabeth, Munno Para, Golden Grove (which we share with North and Norwood), Gawler and the Barossa Valley areas. To paint a picture, compared to other SANFL clubs, we have the largest population of 9 to 16 year olds, and the smallest football participation in the same age group. There are many reasons out of the control of the club for this situation, in the main it is the impact of society issues in general, plus other sports in our heavily populated areas.

We have 18 clubs to provide us with young talent across our zones, with some of those metro clubs struggling at junior level, a few without junior teams. As a comparison, other SANFL clubs range from 36 clubs down to around 20 clubs. This has been a massive focus for me and our Talent Manager Scott Stevens through 2022, and have presented our case to SANFL. We wait for confirmation, but we believe we have presented our case well enough to earn an expanded zone for our Clubs future. This is critical to the future successes of our club at all levels, including at senior level. As soon as we have confirmation, we’ll let you all know.

We have welcomed Mark Ross to our Club recently, who will take up the role of Football Manager. This is an important appointment, one which will ensure we are well resourced in our football department and have a key focus on the management of our playing list, recruiting processes, coaching structure and player welfare and development. Mark will work closely with Scott Stevens on the promotion of our emerging talent, as well as with our senior coach and coaching/support group regards program improvements and technology.

...
Regards,

Greg Edwards

Chief Executive Officer | Central District Football Club

Well I'm not sure if Meggsy can take the plaudits for the Under 15's however both the country and metro teams came top of their respective pools. I guess the result does not totally back up his push for a realignment of boundaries so it will be interesting how this issue is managed.

you lot are a little strange...
For how many years you are pushing Port and Crows out of the SANFL
As soon as it looks like happening..."how will they afford it?" "SANFL have a binding contract for $400k per year" etc etc
:lol: which one do you want?

Both!!!!! We dont want them to get out of paying the $$$$$ they owe us

Pay US. so they owe you money do they.
Using the pronouns such as 'we' in the context of allegiance is nothing unusual.

When someone on here says "I think we 'll beat you this week", most people that weren't born with cranio-rectal issues understand that the author is most likely talking about respectively supported teams. Personally, I try not to use these pronouns in this context, but that's just me.

Regardless, unpaid debts having flow-on effects to a broader communal 'we' is hardly an abstract notion.

We is justified if you are a club member, voting rights etc... You are part of the club and have a function. Must be hard for a SA AFL supporter to understand, your money buys you entry and some cheap merchandise.