Sydney Uni + Collingwood U/18 Team

[Junior]

dazzled by the black and white/blue and yellow lights .

Are you suggesting that west coast have tried to blind young players as well?

[Dunger]

Are you suggesting that west coast have tried to blind young players as well?

West Coast? I'm talking about Sydney Uni.

[Junior]

sorry, I mistook what you said. my mistake.

[ShortHalfHead]

I had to laugh when I read the latest on the Sydney Uni website about their "commitment" to developing their juniors.

"The club has always provided a place for participants of all abilities, shapes and sizes and in-line with the significant work it has done in recent years to support local junior clubs to further develop the code, it will provide a significant participation and talent pathway for local juniors"

I guess if you call raiding the cream from Hornsby, Campbelltown, Penrith etc as "supporting local junior clubs" then they have a very wide range of feeder clubs.
To my way of thinking, the Sydney Uni education the author has demonstrated, that he/she is majoring in "fantasy"

I have heard the odd rumour or two that some of the clubs may be "unable" to field a team on the day they play Uni in challenge cup due to players having "other commitments"

[goswannie14]

I have heard the odd rumour or two that some of the clubs may be "unable" to field a team on the day they play Uni in challenge cup due to players having "other commitments"

Reading this as an outsider with some interest in Sydney AFL, the above quote is what crossed my mind. As a real protest, every team could forfeit their games against Sydney Uni.

[tara]

Reading this as an outsider with some interest in Sydney AFL, the above quote is what crossed my mind. As a real protest, every team could forfeit their games against Sydney Uni.

Thats a pretty piss weak option to be honest. They still have to get a side on the paddock performing week in and week out and what message does it send to a teams developing players if you pull the pin just cause the going gets tough. Teams will get a lot more out of getting the best out of their kids in these games and taking it right upto and hopefully away from them.

[ShortHalfHead]

It certainly has some moral issues. However, you can be 100% assured that Carter & Co will be at all the challenge cup games with pens in hand writing down any star players who they will be offering more boiled lollies to.
I don't have an issue if they are offered scholarships, but we all know that they are just wanted as cannon fodder to prop up the scholarship lads. Rod Carter is being paid cash to develop his players and brownie points to make Uni successful with whoever he can entice with hollow promises offering harbour bridges. His interest in developing club football or club footballers outside the above two is zilch.

[The Student]

It certainly has some moral issues. However, you can be 100% assured that Carter & Co will be at all the challenge cup games with pens in hand writing down any star players who they will be offering more boiled lollies to.
I don't have an issue if they are offered scholarships, but we all know that they are just wanted as cannon fodder to prop up the scholarship lads. Rod Carter is being paid cash to develop his players and brownie points to make Uni successful with whoever he can entice with hollow promises offering harbour bridges. His interest in developing club football or club footballers outside the above two is zilch.

How many scholarships do you think SU Sport or Collingwood have to give away? You don't hear SUANFC cry poor about not having the ability to pay players - maybe if it was a level playing field for everyone your whingeing would be understandable. I know in an ideal world for most of the people here ECE, North Shore, St. George, Penno, Campbelltown and Easts would fill the top six every year - that doesn't really sit well with us, so we're trying our best to be as successful as those clubs.

Some of your earlier assertions aren't even worth responding to. If you hate the club, fair enough - just try to be a little more judicious in choosing which lies you make up.

RPM - our Blues side is our third grade team - which was in Second Div - and Reserves players returning from injury may have played a game or two there to improve their fitness. We had nowhere else to play them - in no way were we exploiting any loopholes. In any case, we got run off the park by a very good Penno side in the GF - and I will suggest that they had quite a few players with Reserves experience playing as well.

Tara - I have been present at games where SW have beaten our 4th (and 5th) grade sides by 25 goals and carried on like absolute pricks. If SW players weren't mouthing off, they were trying to belt blokes off the ball. Maybe it was boredom having to play against clearly inferior opposition, I don't know - but it is good to see that you have two teams this year and your club is on its way back up.

[Hard Times]

Student, don't let the notes put on this site get to you, better to cop the odd sledge here than be ignored. The views and predictions of your bored opponents are not that relevant. Demonstrating commitment on the paddock now and the results in coming months are what counts. Of course if the results are not good then as a Collingwood supporter told me there is always next year.

[ShortHalfHead]

Thanks for your insightful reply, student. I now realise by your reply that success on the field is the only thing that matters to you. Thats fine and thanks for your open and honest views. I thought that when you were lumping unending love to your President and committee, that you shared their views of "just giving the opportunity for kids to play footy" and the "significent work it has done to support junior football" and the other rubbish that the magnificent men in their tweed jackets preach. But you have a firm grip on proceedings....SUCCESS !

Funny how the colts prospectus on the website changed from the ones handed out to the kids. Where is the mention of the extra 5 UAI points that the players are getting? Or the $10k SU scholarships? Or the Collingwood scholarships that they were baited with?

Ask Rodney and get back to me !

PS. You can have my son's extra UAI points....I think ya gonna need them more than him !

[The Student]

Thanks for your insightful reply, student. I now realise by your reply that success on the field is the only thing that matters to you. Thats fine and thanks for your open and honest views. I thought that when you were lumping unending love to your President and committee, that you shared their views of "just giving the opportunity for kids to play footy" and the "significent work it has done to support junior football" and the other rubbish that the magnificent men in their tweed jackets preach. But you have a firm grip on proceedings....SUCCESS !

Funny how the colts prospectus on the website changed from the ones handed out to the kids. Where is the mention of the extra 5 UAI points that the players are getting? Or the $10k SU scholarships? Or the Collingwood scholarships that they were baited with?

Ask Rodney and get back to me !

PS. You can have my son's extra UAI points....I think ya gonna need them more than him !

It wasn't that long ago you were accusing me of being a long term uni student and now you are suggesting I need UAI points - if you're going to be a child and dish out churlish insults, at least try to be consistent. I'm glad your son performed well enough to get into the uni course he wants if that's the path he chooses to take - clearly he doesn't take after you! Perhaps he might like to come to Sydney Uni - if he's a handy footballer we might be able to swing him a "$10k scholarship" that you speak of so knowledgably? Do you really think the Sydney Uni Sports Union is funding the club to the tune of six figures for an U18 AFL team in the days of VSU? By the way, our footy club doesn't control university admissions - but its nice to know that you think SUANFC is so powerful we can circumvent the NSW Board of Education and the UAC!

I'm not sure how you would expect a team based at a university - which by it's nature does not have any access to kids under 18 - to magic a squad of 30 local kids up out of the ground. One of the requirements for SUANFC to be re-admitted into the Premier Division was that they had to work toward having an Under 18s team in the future - yes, for the time being it is made up primarily of recruits, but the goal down the track is to provide a pathway for the local kids to be involved. I'm not sure if you know much about the demographics of Forest Lodge, Darlington, Chippendale etc. but there isn't a lot of teenagers who play footy around. But with the Newtown Swans growing bigger by the year, and our work with Glebe and hopefully others in the future, this will change. We would love to have the catchment area of the Hills district, Campbelltown, the Shire etc but we don't. That is a fact of life. I don't know what club you are associated with, and to be honest I couldn't care less, but we are working with Collingwood to provide another path toward the AFL and helping kids achieve their goals in reaching university. Is that a bad thing? I'm sorry that you feel threatened by SUANFC trying to develop a competitive advantage. That said, I didn't realise that your club had ownership of every kid in your district and that they weren't free to pick and choose where they wanted to play. We haven't held anyone at gunpoint or kidnapped anyone's pets. Maybe after a couple of seasons with us, kids will go back to their local clubs after having been exposed to the coaching and development put in place by Collingwood and Uni, heck, they might even be lured with the offer of cold hard cash that we don't have - we hope not, but who knows?

Anyway, I think I have said enough on this. I am not here to try and sell this to anyone, nor should I have to justify anything that SUANFC have done in putting this program together. I just couldn't sit by whilst some ill-informed people published half truths and outright lies about a club a lot of people put their blood, sweat and tears into. Our club is made up of people just as passionate about football and the jumper as the traditional powerhouse clubs like Pennant Hills and North Shore. There's no tweed jackets, no rich benefactors or any of the other things that you associate us with. There is at the rugby club, but I digress...

I look forward to reading the forum throughout the duration of the season - it's always entertaining. Best of luck to your respective clubs, hope the season goes well for all. Given the spread of teams in the competitions, I think we play every club from Camden to Pennant Hills in at least one grade so we'll be visiting everyone at some stage or another. Hope to see you all around!

[Pace To Burn]

It wasn't that long ago you were accusing me of being a long term uni student and now you are suggesting I need UAI points - if you're going to be a child and dish out churlish insults, at least try to be consistent. I'm glad your son performed well enough to get into the uni course he wants if that's the path he chooses to take - clearly he doesn't take after you! Perhaps he might like to come to Sydney Uni - if he's a handy footballer we might be able to swing him a "$10k scholarship" that you speak of so knowledgably? Do you really think the Sydney Uni Sports Union is funding the club to the tune of six figures for an U18 AFL team in the days of VSU? By the way, our footy club doesn't control university admissions - but its nice to know that you think SUANFC is so powerful we can circumvent the NSW Board of Education and the UAC!

I'm not sure how you would expect a team based at a university - which by it's nature does not have any access to kids under 18 - to magic a squad of 30 local kids up out of the ground. One of the requirements for SUANFC to be re-admitted into the Premier Division was that they had to work toward having an Under 18s team in the future - yes, for the time being it is made up primarily of recruits, but the goal down the track is to provide a pathway for the local kids to be involved. I'm not sure if you know much about the demographics of Forest Lodge, Darlington, Chippendale etc. but there isn't a lot of teenagers who play footy around. But with the Newtown Swans growing bigger by the year, and our work with Glebe and hopefully others in the future, this will change. We would love to have the catchment area of the Hills district, Campbelltown, the Shire etc but we don't. That is a fact of life. I don't know what club you are associated with, and to be honest I couldn't care less, but we are working with Collingwood to provide another path toward the AFL and helping kids achieve their goals in reaching university. Is that a bad thing? I'm sorry that you feel threatened by SUANFC trying to develop a competitive advantage. That said, I didn't realise that your club had ownership of every kid in your district and that they weren't free to pick and choose where they wanted to play. We haven't held anyone at gunpoint or kidnapped anyone's pets. Maybe after a couple of seasons with us, kids will go back to their local clubs after having been exposed to the coaching and development put in place by Collingwood and Uni, heck, they might even be lured with the offer of cold hard cash that we don't have - we hope not, but who knows?

Anyway, I think I have said enough on this. I am not here to try and sell this to anyone, nor should I have to justify anything that SUANFC have done in putting this program together. I just couldn't sit by whilst some ill-informed people published half truths and outright lies about a club a lot of people put their blood, sweat and tears into. Our club is made up of people just as passionate about football and the jumper as the traditional powerhouse clubs like Pennant Hills and North Shore. There's no tweed jackets, no rich benefactors or any of the other things that you associate us with. There is at the rugby club, but I digress...

I look forward to reading the forum throughout the duration of the season - it's always entertaining. Best of luck to your respective clubs, hope the season goes well for all. Given the spread of teams in the competitions, I think we play every club from Camden to Pennant Hills in at least one grade so we'll be visiting everyone at some stage or another. Hope to see you all around!

This is where your whole arguement breaks down. The kids on scholarships have been told and dont have a choice if they want any chance of going to Collingwood. Sounds like Gun to head for me

[tara]

Student I was also at the games against your blokes where your president deliberaely baited blokes behind the play or in the last home and away game of 2007 against you where he told all and sundry he was going to cite as many players as he could so that we wouldnt have a side to put on the paddock come finals time - shame the AFL threw his ficticious citings out.

You blokes like putting the holier than thou attitude out there but again it was your President who refused to attend a mediation meeting between our clubs and the AFL to sort out our differences.

Or in last years game at St Pauls where we had two players rubbed out yet at the tribunal the officiating umpire spoke in defence of both and said that the behaviour you your players and officaials on the bench as well as your reserve grade players warming up beind it was disgusting and completely unwarranted. Did you know he also wrote to the AFL slamming the behaviour of your club citing that it made for a very uncomfortable game and that you should be ashamed of yourselves. I have never ever heard of an umpire ever speaking in defence of the player he has reported before let alone suggesting there were strong mitagating circumstances behind his actions.

So please leave your bull@@@@ pious attidute at home when you slinging mud because there are quite clearly two sides to every story.

[Spectrum]

I think we'll all agree that none of our clubs are perfect and certainly most are trying their best to be successful. I'm involved in junior football now and have played in the past in various Sydney teams.

On the Syd Uni article, I think its justified. The club certainly has been about the promotion of the code for a long period and I believe along with UNSW back in 99 and 2000 were the impetus for left over guys getting a game of footy and this became the basis for Second Division as it has been up til last year. The fact that they're looking to be successful at the same time and the understanding that these things work somewhat hand in hand (even where the game grows beyond your capacity to service and becomes the impetus for a new club to be born etc).

On the junior development front, they are one of the few clubs to use all of the AFL-funded club incentive hours to go out to schools and junior clubs in the inner city, inner west and eastern suburbs and develop them, they also do un-funded hours and have provided coaches and various initiatives wherever asked. This has been more prevalent within the last four years where some more significant effort was put in relative to the more ad hoc basis and ebbs and flows with various volunteers in years/decades before. They've consistently put their hands up when other neighbouring clubs said they either did not have the resources or the inclination.

Whats certainly appears the key to growth in Sydney and what we term success is the raw conversion of junior numbers to senior numbers, school participants to junior club participants, fans and occasional tv perusers to physical members and interacting in the grass roots community. Its all about environment - our clubs working hard to create the sort of positive environment that pulls these people in and keeps them. The more you have, the more likely you will have greater depth of talent and administration support, financial options etc etc. I think too often clubs are too worried about protecting their own backyard and not being proacrtive enough within this simple concept.

The Syd Uni initiative is simply providing a better environment and that should be the spure for others to improve theirs also and we'll slowly get a better result if we all get pulled in this direction. What kid wouldn't want the opportunity to be involved with such great resources, support and coaching. On the large scholarships and 5 UAI points, both are basically myths. Mostly the benefits of Syd Uni scholarships are access to the facilities and coaches etc. The Rugby program and bigger sports certainly are better rewarded I think you will find. In a VSU environment, there certainly isn't the funding for this type of cash. They'll attract kids because the environment is simply better than down the road.

Lets stop catering for lowest common denominator. Easier said then done I know, but we in our own clubs have to make some hard decisions as well as those in AFL-house.

[ShortHalfHead]

I have been already called a liar re the scholarships and UAI points by student (or was I the half truth component?)

Now I am told each component is basically a myth. Let me in on the secret then, what does "basically a myth" mean? Is it like being "a little bit pregnant"