WHEELS&DEALS wrote:Interesting LGIL. If we were that keen to go we would have been the first to join not the last, something you already know. When all the other clubs around us joined up we had no choice. Imagine if C/Beach juniors played in the GSFL when all the clubs around you played in the SFL. What do you think would happen. You wouldn't survive. That's what it would have been like for us. It's about making sure you can keep the doors open and playing in a comp that suits your players and there parents. Only time will tell if the SANFL comp is a success, that will give us something to talk about later.
Edwardstown did have a C grade and an U18's, nice contribution. I'm sure we still had more teams in the SFL than they did. So maybe we have contributed a little more than you think. Also we didn't ask to have other junior games played on our oval in front of our seniors. Happy to help other clubs keep there teams together, but if you think that we are going to make so much more money by hosting 2 U14 and 2 U16 games you are sadly mistaken. Our volunteers will be there to set up the oval clean out the change rooms and give you something to eat and drink if you want. Maybe a Thank you Would have been better than bagging us.
I understand the argument that Marion and Brighton forced your hand, but I don't completely buy it. You had the opportunity to be the point of difference in the area, for the past 29 years you have avoided playing in the parklands competitions and remained in the SFL whilst your neighbours were playing in SAAFL/SAFA/MSJFL etc and you have never been "forced" to go. You and Marion were the only clubs in the SFL north of Majors Road for 4 years and during that time you won an A-Grade premiership, Marion were extremely strong and your juniors grew during that period to become very competitive by the time Mitchell Park joined and then Brighton joined.
I have heard people saying that losing Morphettville Park and Brighton is positive for the Sunday comp - that is fine except we have lost the U/16 comp and now have to deal with the clusterf**k that is the Reynella White situation with wanting games on Sundays and yet again dragging our clubs apart.
I am angry at what is happening to our league, it is in the process of collapsing yet no one seems to care. We need to consolidate it back to communities playing against communities, whole clubs playing together against other whole clubs - that is what our league is based around and why we are not just the 8th division of the parklands league. In 1987 our league gave your club a lifeline when the Southern Metro league folded, now we have the SANFL trying to divide and conquer us and you have taken the bait rather than holding out and allowing us to have greater bargaining power. When you needed a Sunday option to suit your demographic, it was provided, yet at the first opportunity it has been thrown in our face . I am struggling to see a future for the SFL beyond the next five years in its current format. Unless we can recover and retain our clubs as a united unit rather than the soulless senior/junior split you get in town then there is no real point to us remaining a separate competition.
I am not bagging you, you just have completely different requirements to the majority of clubs in the SFL, and it is having a detrimental affect on the league. We are not a standalone senior competion, that is a different league, if Morphettville Park and Marion need to be collateral damage to salvage our league, then it is time for the SFL clubs to look after their self-interest, just like you have done with your juniors.
The example you used above if CBs juniors were playing in the GSFL, the key with that is that they would be playing with our seniors and our club could be one - I am hoping that does not need to be the solution and that we can have that in the SFL.