Divisionalisation of Sydney Footy

[wise one]

Not sure what everyones view of the divisionalisation of the league after it has had a few years to settle down is, but it seems that we are still getting as many lopsided scores as we did before its introduction, but on top of this, it stretches the clubs volunteer help, training & medical staff to breaking point.

Div 1 13/34 games decided by more than 10goals
Div 2 8/34 games decided by 10 or more goals
Div 3 23/34 games by 10 or more ,with many by 100 or more.
Div 4 22/35 games with margins of 10 plus goals
Div 5 13/28 by more than 10 goals.

There seems to have been very little evening of the leagues, but far more pressure on teams to filed numbers and required support staff when playing away.I know of several clubs who have not had medical staff at away games, not good if their players get injured.

Your thoughts.

[ShortHalfHead]

Not sure what everyones view of the divisionalisation of the league after it has had a few years to settle down is, but it seems that we are still getting as many lopsided scores as we did before its introduction, but on top of this, it stretches the clubs volunteer help, training & medical staff to breaking point.

Div 1 13/34 games decided by more than 10goals
Div 2 8/34 games decided by 10 or more goals
Div 3 23/34 games by 10 or more ,with many by 100 or more.
Div 4 22/35 games with margins of 10 plus goals
Div 5 13/28 by more than 10 goals.

There seems to have been very little evening of the leagues, but far more pressure on teams to filed numbers and required support staff when playing away.I know of several clubs who have not had medical staff at away games, not good if their players get injured.

Your thoughts.

Some interesting stats there no doubt, but you know what they say about stats !
On the other hand, you could say that there are 50 teams playing in those divisions. Only three of those teams have failed to sing their song this year. That's a better average than the AFL.
It's true what you say about resources, they are certainly strtched to, and sometimes beyond the limit. The previous structure was seriously flawed, gave clubs little incentive and thwarted expansion. A "thirds" side for any club would throw the draw into disarray anyhow.

The simple fact is that last year 8 different clubs won the 8 flags. It was 7 the year before from memory. That's gotta be a big tick for the current system.

You just need to look at Premier Div and it shows similar figures. Quick look sees that 15/35 are 10+ goal wins. About half of those have been 100+

I just hope that they divisionalise the women's comp next year. The single tier comp has a few different levels in it this year.

[Norris Lurker]

I agree with SHH.

Overall, more people are playing AFL in Sydney than ever before. Every year, we see more teams being added. The university clubs have always had numbers to field multiple teams, but a lot of the other clubs now field three open-age teams; but at vastly different skill levels. The divisional structure makes a way for clubs to field additional teams when their numbers justify it.
We've also seen the introduction of Saints AFC, Auburn and now Gosford and Blacktown. Previously, it was impossible to get a new club formed unless they were immediately able to field two grades at the same standard as the existing clubs.
When NorWest had a crisis with numbers several years ago, they were only able to field one team; which under the structure at the time meant they could only play in the old Second Division - even though the one team they could field was clearly too good for that division. Under a divisional structure, the one team could have played at their level rather than belting university thirds teams every week.

I understand the point about stretching club resources - there's no doubt that happens. But by now most clubs accept that's the way it is, and have developed their ways to make it work.
It's interesting that the clubs that are most affected by it aren't the Premeir Division clubs, but the "lower" tier clubs. But it's those clubs, particularly the likes of Penrith, NorWest, Moorebank etc, that are split more often than any Premier Division club, that are the biggest supporters of the system.

SHH makes a good point that the premierships have been shared around - 8 different clubs won premierships last year, 7 the year before. It's an interesting, but unintended benefit of the divisionalised structure.
The best barometer for the morale around a club is how its senior team is going. The divisional structure does seem to favour senior teams over reserves teams - maybe there's more happy clubs, and that's why we're getting less forfeits than we did under the old structure.

[Shotties]

It's stretched resources for sure, but it's given a chance for new players to come down and try the game out in a team where they won't be getting pounded week in, week out like our lower grade teams were a few years ago. When players enjoy the game they stick around and become part of the club.

It's been three full years of divisionalisation and I may be wrong on this but hasn't a new team / new club come in pretty much every year since it started? You'd have to say that's pretty impressive.

[tara]

Not sure what everyones view of the divisionalisation of the league after it has had a few years to settle down is, but it seems that we are still getting as many lopsided scores as we did before its introduction, but on top of this, it stretches the clubs volunteer help, training & medical staff to breaking point.

Div 1 13/34 games decided by more than 10goals
Div 2 8/34 games decided by 10 or more goals
Div 3 23/34 games by 10 or more ,with many by 100 or more.
Div 4 22/35 games with margins of 10 plus goals
Div 5 13/28 by more than 10 goals.

There seems to have been very little evening of the leagues, but far more pressure on teams to filed numbers and required support staff when playing away.I know of several clubs who have not had medical staff at away games, not good if their players get injured.

Your thoughts.

Our results show our div 2 competitive, 18's and div 5 the same whilst our reserves in div 3 are getting belted by an average of around 100 each week - what your stats dont show is our injury list which after last weekend totals over 30 players now - In my 21 years at the club I have never seen anything like it. Of those injuries 9 are automatic selections in our senior grade and are all KPP players (4 key forwards - 3 key backs and two ruckmen) plus our B&F winner from the past two seasons - pretty sure our div three would have been a tad more competitive if this wasnt the case and those blokes playing seniors we in reserves. You also should take into account are club voted on whether to fold at the end of the 2006 season and only five seasons later we have 4 teams competing each we and have not forfeit a game at any stage during this period. Pretty easy to determine that from our point of view the division structure has helped.

[DLH]

I was president of Penrith when Divisionalisation was first introduced, and I've got no doubt that at that time we were well down the path towards extinction, forfeiting a number of reserves games as guys were just sick and tired of getting belted every week against far superior opposition. In its first year our seniors won five games in Division Three, and only a couple years later we are running third in Division One and are fielding five different teams. Whilst the divisional structure isn't the sole reason for our improvement, it's provided a framework that's made it possible, which is the simple premise that guys can play a competitive game most weeks at a level that suits them, which wasn't the case under the previous system. Sure, it has its problems, but the alternative doesn't bear thinking about from my point of view.

[stellation]

Hi- just wanted to quickly say that even though it only has a handful of posts in it, this is one of the most mature, interesting threads that I've read on here in a while.

Presumably division of Sydney Footy is primarily about sustainability of Sydney Footy; obviously an even competition is a big part of that, but I think that after 3 years the goals to be assessed against would more likely be how many people are involved in Sydney footy than how many blowouts there are (it'd be interesting to look at some of the bigger amateur comps and see how many 10 goal margin games they average, I wouldn't be suprised if some fairly strong regions still have them racked up at a pretty decent rate).

[mountainsofpain]

Not sure what everyones view of the divisionalisation of the league after it has had a few years to settle down is, but it seems that we are still getting as many lopsided scores as we did before its introduction, but on top of this, it stretches the clubs volunteer help, training & medical staff to breaking point.

Div 1 13/34 games decided by more than 10goals
Div 2 8/34 games decided by 10 or more goals
Div 3 23/34 games by 10 or more ,with many by 100 or more.
Div 4 22/35 games with margins of 10 plus goals
Div 5 13/28 by more than 10 goals.

There seems to have been very little evening of the leagues, but far more pressure on teams to filed numbers and required support staff when playing away.I know of several clubs who have not had medical staff at away games, not good if their players get injured.

Your thoughts.

I think you misunderstand what the divisionalization was all about. You can't artificially create an even competition or competitions, no matter how hard you try. The standout example of that is the AFL of course.

It was more about creating a flexible competition structure, which gave clubs a better chance of being competitive and able to grow and develop. This simply wasn't the case under the previous setup.