wild dog wrote: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.
Most will acknowledge that will play a part.....question then are the club aware of this issue and secondly what have they done to try and turn this around? I know from experience with metro Elizabeth club Centrals have generally had a very poor reputation for the resources they have attached to the metro clubs when compared to the Barossa region.