Edwardstown still looking

[The Yetti]

Hey I will say it again the comp is judge at senior level so to make the comp stronger by having the towns seniors in it. Its easy to sit back and say no juniors your not welcome but until that applies to every club you can say stuff all. Tell me how long do we give to the clubs to create junior sides?

Question is then why do we want to add to the problem?
Great if they are a strong team now, but by the sounds of things they are going to be another dud team in a few years when all their juniors move on to their old scholars teams.
Again we are just taking the other leagues' offal - SFL is becoming the dumping ground of SA Footy.
I assume next it will be Ovingham, Wingfield Royals, Callington and McLaren.[/quote]

Not sure what you mean by including McLaren in this list
Especially when they are mentioned as offal.
Can you explain your point please?

[GO THE PUNT]

Im not involved in any club at the moment and havn't been for 7 years. I watch alot of different games on weekends. Let me ask you when you open the paper sunday are you looking for results of the juniors or seniors in any comp? You look at the seniors and if a thumping has taken place it becomes a point of conversation. Some people laugh at the result some feel sorry for the teams but most of all people will judge the team. If you have 3-4 games going that way the comp looks bad. Now if you look at the juniors results and teams are being thumped people tend to wonder how the kids keep going and credit must go to those kids for loving the game so much.  So thats my point about the comp being judge on seniors. Lets think about it the lower clubs say we are blooding juniors for the future but how many of them would actually be looked at in a top club. If they are quality footballers they normally move on from lower clubs.  People say this comp is ordinary and a below standard competition. So lets attract some stronger senior sides into the comp. And in saying that when the quality teams come you then have the 2 divs and then work on the juniors. It will allow the lower clubs to attract juniors when they can see a future in the seniors. If it stays the way it is the lower sides will just keep finding it harder to attract the quality juniors that are required to filter thru into seniors. 

[asert]

well said

[HH3]

Or you could work on getting the current teams stronger. Its not like we're sitting on our arses waiting for something to happen.

[shoe boy]

Im not involved in any club at the moment and havn't been for 7 years. I watch alot of different games on weekends. Let me ask you when you open the paper sunday are you looking for results of the juniors or seniors in any comp? You look at the seniors and if a thumping has taken place it becomes a point of conversation. Some people laugh at the result some feel sorry for the teams but most of all people will judge the team. If you have 3-4 games going that way the comp looks bad. Now if you look at the juniors results and teams are being thumped people tend to wonder how the kids keep going and credit must go to those kids for loving the game so much.  So thats my point about the comp being judge on seniors. Lets think about it the lower clubs say we are blooding juniors for the future but how many of them would actually be looked at in a top club. If they are quality footballers they normally move on from lower clubs.  People say this comp is ordinary and a below standard competition. So lets attract some stronger senior sides into the comp. And in saying that when the quality teams come you then have the 2 divs and then work on the juniors. It will allow the lower clubs to attract juniors when they can see a future in the seniors. If it stays the way it is the lower sides will just keep finding it harder to attract the quality juniors that are required to filter thru into seniors. 

GTP I will say it again you are so far of the mark!!!

YOU read the paper and look at the seniours only
You say this is an ordinary and below standard comp.

GTP speak for yourself and not me or others as I believe you dont have a clue!!!

[GO THE PUNT]

Shoeboy read my post correctly first I said people not myself think the comp is ordinary and below standard. My meaning of the reading of results is that you are buying the paper for a look at the seniors and then you may browse over the juniors.
Hh3 I never said to not work on getting clubs stronger but at the moment the lower clubs can't achieve it. Yeh clubs recruit a few quallity players and think we will improve but the improvement will come when you have depth and at the moment you and others are struggling to create that depth. Simply because footballers want to win so they look for winning teams and the lower clubs can't. My theroy is that they are playing out of their league so lets get them back in the standard they are and to do this we need more sides of quality as playing div 2 with five teams wont work. You say your working on it and I rate that highly but it needs to happen now than later.
My question is to all the middle and lower clubs do we not want the towns in because that means its another quality opposition we need to beat to maybe scrape into a finals series and believe we have had a good year?
I will say it again please prove me wrong.

[shoe boy]

Shoeboy read my post correctly first I said people not myself think the comp is ordinary and below standard. My meaning of the reading of results is that you are buying the paper for a look at the seniors and then you may browse over the juniors.
Hh3 I never said to not work on getting clubs stronger but at the moment the lower clubs can't achieve it. Yeh clubs recruit a few quallity players and think we will improve but the improvement will come when you have depth and at the moment you and others are struggling to create that depth. Simply because footballers want to win so they look for winning teams and the lower clubs can't. My theroy is that they are playing out of their league so lets get them back in the standard they are and to do this we need more sides of quality as playing div 2 with five teams wont work. You say your working on it and I rate that highly but it needs to happen now than later.
My question is to all the middle and lower clubs do we not want the towns in because that means its another quality opposition we need to beat to maybe scrape into a finals series and believe we have had a good year?
I will say it again please prove me wrong.

[Esteban Vihaio]

The comparisons to Mitchell Park and mockery of Edwardstown future are flawed. Of the top of my head, reasons why Edwardstown will suceed
Juniors
=> Strong in metro South
=> Closest club to two local primary school
=> Far lower percentage of juniors would attend college compared with Brighton

History
=> Div 1 - 2 SAAFL for 10+ years

Sponsorship
=> V. strong
=> Has paid approx 12K in fees from SAAFL in the past compared to the 1 or 2 of the SFL this year

Support
=> I understand it has a stronger following that most SAAFL teams, although admittedly lower than what you would hope for at a SFL team.

Perhaps Jayne can add to or elaborate further?

[Esteban Vihaio]

Shoeboy read my post correctly first I said people not myself think the comp is ordinary and below standard. My meaning of the reading of results is that you are buying the paper for a look at the seniors and then you may browse over the juniors.
Hh3 I never said to not work on getting clubs stronger but at the moment the lower clubs can't achieve it. Yeh clubs recruit a few quallity players and think we will improve but the improvement will come when you have depth and at the moment you and others are struggling to create that depth. Simply because footballers want to win so they look for winning teams and the lower clubs can't. My theroy is that they are playing out of their league so lets get them back in the standard they are and to do this we need more sides of quality as playing div 2 with five teams wont work. You say your working on it and I rate that highly but it needs to happen now than later.
My question is to all the middle and lower clubs do we not want the towns in because that means its another quality opposition we need to beat to maybe scrape into a finals series and believe we have had a good year?
I will say it again please prove me wrong.

Struggling clubs and for that matter, lower division clubs in the SAAFL, find it harder to recruit players and often have to pay a premium.

[Look Good In Leather]

The comparisons to Mitchell Park and mockery of Edwardstown future are flawed. Of the top of my head, reasons why Edwardstown will suceed
Juniors
=> Strong in metro South
=> Closest club to two local primary school
=> Far lower percentage of juniors would attend college compared with Brighton

History
=> Div 1 - 2 SAAFL for 10+ years

Sponsorship
=> V. strong
=> Has paid approx 12K in fees from SAAFL in the past compared to the 1 or 2 of the SFL this year

Support
=> I understand it has a stronger following that most SAAFL teams, although admittedly lower than what you would hope for at a SFL team.

Perhaps Jayne can add to or elaborate further?

If they are so strong at junior level, why are they struggling to fill Saturday sides?
You have just said that Brighton would have more kids drawn away by the colleges, why then have Brighton consistantly filled strong Saturday junior sides in the SFL for the past 15 years?
I suspect that there are other issues at this club, and the signs are usually there when a club starts struggling to field its junior teams.
Edwardstown should not be allowed to enter teams within Metro South, this will now set a precedent and next year you will find teams like Morphettville Park and Marion moving their underage sides out of our competition to Metro South.
Welcome back Mitchell Park!

[Esteban Vihaio]

If they are so strong at junior level, why are they struggling to fill Saturday sides?
You have just said that Brighton would have more kids drawn away by the colleges, why then have Brighton consistantly filled strong Saturday junior sides in the SFL for the past 15 years?
I suspect that there are other issues at this club, and the signs are usually there when a club starts struggling to field its junior teams.
Edwardstown should not be allowed to enter teams within Metro South, this will now set a precedent and next year you will find teams like Morphettville Park and Marion moving their underage sides out of our competition to Metro South.
Welcome back Mitchell Park!

Not knowing their actual numbers, but as an example, would you prefer to field 20 kids on a saturday or a stronger team of 25? City clubs face different issues; you can either accomodate that or move towards a solely sprawl league.

Brighton have a successful junior program for 2 reasons. A) They run it very well and on more than one occasion have coaches with SANFL or AFL experience B) Look on google maps and their position relative to other clubs, nearby primary and high schools. Now compare the same for the chicken and cheese twisties and edwardstown.

Just because they field sides in Metro South, doesn't make them weak!!! However, I do agree with your point that both twisties will play in Metro South with this precedent as both have explored it in the past.

Tell me LGIL, what steps would you take to resolve the parity issues in the SFL?

[Look Good In Leather]

Not knowing their actual numbers, but as an example, would you prefer to field 20 kids on a saturday or a stronger team of 25? City clubs face different issues; you can either accomodate that or move towards a solely sprawl league.

Brighton have a successful junior program for 2 reasons. A) They run it very well and on more than one occasion have coaches with SANFL or AFL experience B) Look on google maps and their position relative to other clubs, nearby primary and high schools. Now compare the same for the chicken and cheese twisties and edwardstown.

Just because they field sides in Metro South, doesn't make them weak!!! However, I do agree with your point that both twisties will play in Metro South with this precedent as both have explored it in the past.

Tell me LGIL, what steps would you take to resolve the parity issues in the SFL?

To be totally honest, EV, football is a very cyclical sport with many variable that can attribute to success. At the moment there are 6 clubs that have been consistantly strong over the past few years, in all six cases this source of this success can be seen as starting around 10 years ago with strong junior setups that have resulted in this flowing through to their current senior sides. For all these clubs this structure has been maintained in the main and as a result it can be expected, without major issue, that this strength will be sustained for the next ten years. The next tier of clubs seem to either have strong junior setups or at least half competitive teams in these grade - these clubs will sort themselves out. The three struggler (for want of a better term) clubs; Aldinga, Hackham and Lonsdale; have struggled to fill the core sides (14, 16, 18) over the past few years, this will set them back for a few more years yet with hopefully gradual improvement. Where they are gaining, and in an area that was not available to the current strong clubs when they were building, is the current Mini-Colts structure. This is going to start providing a steady stream of first year U/14 player which if they can retain, will provide them with the structure for years to come. This was one of the good moves by the SFL.
Marion, Morphettville Park and now Edwardstown need to sort out a proper Saturday structure else they will find themselves in the wilderness, Marion are close to getting a good structure in place.

What does need to happen:
1) Abolish the Panther League - this competition has run its course and is now irrelevant and past its use-by date. Schools do not put the resources into coaching kids in the way that clubs are prepared to.
2) Penalise clubs that do not field at minimum U/16 & U/16 on a Saturday, forfeit 1 junior side, forfeit your B-grade, forfeit 2 sides, forfeit the A-Grade. This would force clubs to enter sides. Another option would be to double affliation fees for each grade not fielded or not allow a B-grade side to be fielded.
3) Possibly break into two divisions, however clubs would only be eligible for promotion to Div 1 if all Saturday grades are entered and facilities are at a minimum standard. A club would be removed from this competition to the lower grade at any stage one of the core teams is withdrawn.
4) Under the points system, any player who has played less than 2 seasons of junior football at your club is permanantly minimum 2 points.

[HH3]

The three struggler (for want of a better term) clubs; Aldinga, Hackham and Lonsdale; have struggled to fill the core sides (14, 16, 18) over the past few years, this will set them back for a few more years yet with hopefully gradual improvement.

Hackham juniors are looking good with good numbers in every grade so in the next 3-6 years these players should all be seniors and we are presently working on making a competitive side for these players to play for in the future.

[Esteban Vihaio]

To be totally honest, EV, football is a very cyclical sport with many variable that can attribute to success. At the moment there are 6 clubs that have been consistantly strong over the past few years, in all six cases this source of this success can be seen as starting around 10 years ago with strong junior setups that have resulted in this flowing through to their current senior sides. For all these clubs this structure has been maintained in the main and as a result it can be expected, without major issue, that this strength will be sustained for the next ten years. The next tier of clubs seem to either have strong junior setups or at least half competitive teams in these grade - these clubs will sort themselves out. The three struggler (for want of a better term) clubs; Aldinga, Hackham and Lonsdale; have struggled to fill the core sides (14, 16, 18) over the past few years, this will set them back for a few more years yet with hopefully gradual improvement. Where they are gaining, and in an area that was not available to the current strong clubs when they were building, is the current Mini-Colts structure. This is going to start providing a steady stream of first year U/14 player which if they can retain, will provide them with the structure for years to come. This was one of the good moves by the SFL.
Marion, Morphettville Park and now Edwardstown need to sort out a proper Saturday structure else they will find themselves in the wilderness, Marion are close to getting a good structure in place.

What does need to happen:
1) Abolish the Panther League - this competition has run its course and is now irrelevant and past its use-by date. Schools do not put the resources into coaching kids in the way that clubs are prepared to.
2) Penalise clubs that do not field at minimum U/16 & U/16 on a Saturday, forfeit 1 junior side, forfeit your B-grade, forfeit 2 sides, forfeit the A-Grade. This would force clubs to enter sides. Another option would be to double affliation fees for each grade not fielded or not allow a B-grade side to be fielded.
3) Possibly break into two divisions, however clubs would only be eligible for promotion to Div 1 if all Saturday grades are entered and facilities are at a minimum standard. A club would be removed from this competition to the lower grade at any stage one of the core teams is withdrawn.
4) Under the points system, any player who has played less than 2 seasons of junior football at your club is permanantly minimum 2 points.

1) Yes 2) unworkable and unrealistic 3) Resulting in big fish syndrome 4) Won't happen, but nice thought.

You seem to want a league which will leave only one division, disqualify 4-6 teams and only allow Willunga, McLaren Vale, Blackwood, Mitcham, and PHOS to join (and the latter two wouldn't based on no sunday junior football).

Odds are Aldinga will recover and probably lonsdale and hackham too.... But if they don't, will the likes of Morphetvale and Cove be fielding 3 - 4 sides in every junior comp and 4 - 5 senior teams..... or these kids end up playing soccer

[aceman]

[quote="Look Good In Leather"][quote="Esteban Vihaio"]
Not knowing their actual numbers, but as an example, would you prefer to field 20 kids on a saturday or a stronger team of 25? City clubs face different issues; you can either accomodate that or move towards a solely sprawl league.

Brighton have a successful junior program for 2 reasons. A) They run it very well and on more than one occasion have coaches with SANFL or AFL experience B) Look on google maps and their position relative to other clubs, nearby primary and high schools. Now compare the same for the chicken and cheese twisties and edwardstown.

Just because they field sides in Metro South, doesn't make them weak!!! However, I do agree with your point that both twisties will play in Metro South with this precedent as both have explored it in the past.

b]To be totally honest, EV, football is a very cyclical sport with many variable that can attribute



Absolutely spot on with that comment.

Have a good look around at new or regenerated areas and see what you can find.

One only needs to look North at clubs like TTG, Golden Grove etc with kids falling out of trees to play footy and the renaissance of older clubs like Ingle Farm, Gepps Cross etc, who for years have struggled with numbers, sometimes barely enough to field 3,4 or 5 teams to now fielding 18 or 19 teams.
Why, because the zone has been regenerated with another crop of younger people and the aged people have moved on. New subdivisions on what used to be paddocks at Northgate with 2500 new homes means revitalisation for everything. I think Edwardstown may be heading for a skinny time with kids for similar reasons, you can't expect to stay up the top all of the time IMO.
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