heater31 wrote:Tony Clifton wrote:Is it definitely Woodville, Port Adelaide and West Torrens that are the three being looked at? I heard Woodville, Port and Prospect.
Either way it sucks. I hate the thought of losing a club and don't believe it will be the panacea for a stronger grade competition anyway.
I really wish SACA had made the smart call and got rid of University. It is just so blindingly simple. Leaves us with 12 clubs, 11 rounds, every club with a metro and country zone, every club with juniors. Uni could continue to exist in Adelaide Turf, the same as the Blacks Football Club play in the amateur league.
The dumbest thing ever was the country zoning. Prospect had been struggling for a while - they got given Broken Hill! Not many cricketers and about an 8 hour drive. Port struggling for longer - they got Eyre Peninsula! Just a 6 hour drive. Neither club gets any benefit from their country zone. The clubs with strong metro zones should have been given the smaller, far flung country areas. The clubs with the weaker metro zones should have got the larger, closer country zones. It would have helped balance the competition.
Merging two western suburbs clubs will simply make Grange, Woodville Rechabite, Flinders Park... stronger.
Southern Districts/Northern Districts is a different issue altogether. South Australian cricket needs both clubs to be strong however the dynamic has changed in the northern and southern suburbs. Used to be a strong cricket culture - now urban sprawl, more migrant families, social issues, lower participation in cricket.
It's defiantly WT, Woodville & Port. Andrew Capel, Nick Benton and Aaron Sayers are all having a whinge on Twitter this morning.
Throughout this whole mess we have been getting mixed messages from West Torrens. Depending on who you speak with the club was looking at a Merger or no they will stay as they are.
Yes the simple solution is to relegate University to the ATCA but I bet the SACA were scared off by the threat of Supreme Court injunctions.....
It is a very difficult situation for everyone involved. The Board at WT have been unified in their decision all along to try and do everything possible to survive on its own with no merger. The President may have had different views, but as someone that has been involved in the Club for 60 years, he probably has the right to voice his opinions.
The SACA Board have gone about this very secretively, I just hope we don't have to go thru this whole process, with countless hours of work by volunteers, when they have already made up their minds!!