Zartan wrote:Hats off to Mawson Lakes B Grade, geez they've got it tough! Don't know if they started with a bench or not, but early in the 2nd quarter to lose their best player (who had casually kicked 3) definitely hurt them greatly, and they were always going to be up against it after that.
Can not be easy coming out each week up against it so much, their first quarter was exceptional though - in fact i think they kicked 3 of the first 5 goals of the match!
They battled all day gallantly though, never dropped their heads, never stopped worked, never gave in. I felt a bit bad we still managed 51 scoring shots - never my intention, and i moved things around so randomly to try and avoid almost a total demolition, and picked a few C graders who missed out on a game with our C grade.
Who ever the ruckman was, he was pretty handy too - given what I saw in the later game, he should definitely be up playing in the A grade - he would take a lot of pressure off Bennett in particular.. he was one of the most dominant rucks i've seen this season in this div.
To the club though, it is by far and away the worst place to play footy. There is zero atmosphere, the change rooms are poor and obviously the line marking needs improving haha... you could a pin drop basically all day - i could hear the cars driving past over any "noise" from the football game or the crowd. Made it very tough viewing - almost felt like a Saturday afternoon relaxing at a local cricket game.
Lot of calls Lakes need to head to D7 - and plenty people who shot that theory down pre-season.. but i actually think it needs to go further, i think Lakes need to do a Smithfield and reduce to one side, build a solid group of players, bring in some fresh, younger blood and start again. Continue to invest in their junior program, and perhaps try and find a partner in UniSA next door or something to work with.
Could almost form a "B grade" out of the older lads and play them in the Masters comp on Sundays so they're still getting a game.
Otherwise they're dying a slow death... time to think outside the box.
It was always going to be hard forming a new club amongst an area with probably more than 12 clubs in a 10km radius and then given the SPOSFC split it was going to be tougher.
To their credit they have survived without being relegated thus far in their history.
Mawson Lakes is the largest susburb in the metropolitan area so perhaps they need to go to the people, get some auskick or a couple of age group teams happening, I've never seen anything at all in the letterbox or at the local shopping centre alluding to the fact that a football club even exists there.
If the local government can inject money into a continually struggling club that has other clubs just minutes away, surely they could inject some money into the Mawson Lakes sporting complex and make it a bit of a sporting mecca amongst all the modern day new houses, schools and shops that surround the area.
The facilities stick out like a sore thumb as you enter Mawson Lakes boulevard, it brings back memories of Radiator Springs after they built the Interstate.