No-one posts here anymore...

[Mug Punter]

I think the only thing that can revitalise the comp is a return to a two team club system and an automatic promotion and relegation, ideally with three 8 team divisions (Div1 - North Shore, UNSW, Balmain, UTS, St George, Manly, Wollongong and Penno) (Div 2 - Campbelltown, Sutherland, SHEagles, Sydney Uni, Mac Uni, Parramatta, Penrith, Wests) (Div 3 - Moorebank, UTS, Sydney Uni, UNSW, Camden, Norwest, Maroubra, Gosford) and one or two one team comps attached. One up one down to Premier, Two up-Two Down for Div 2 to Div 3 - No excuses!!!

I think the divisionalisation was needed at the time and has served its purpose

[Pekay]

It has merit.....but why does it need revitalising? Because of reduced traffic on a forum?

[ShortHalfHead]

We also need to get rid of this ridiculous pathway system. Telling a kid where he can and can't play is detrimental to that players development and his morale. It is unheard of in traditional football states to have this system in place. Most clubs in lower divisions wish their players the best when they decide to have a crack at a higher standard of football. In fact it is encouraged. For some unknown reason it is frowned upon in Sydney footy when a higher club contacts a kid in a lower division to see if they are keen to have a crack at the next level.

.

Been through all this before, Tim. Last year sometime you came up with the same blurb.

Nothing wrong with being an unashamed East Coast member, but you see too much through eagle eyes. The SHE's are only interested in themselves, not the general health of the local competition. It's rubbish about your blurb about lower div clubs and their intentions. Your mob targets outside players in the same 18's division. Even got GWS in your pocket to telling out of pathway players how to get around the system. Recently, Penrith played the the Eagles in 18's, Started 18 aside, Penrith having 19, reduced to 14 in the second half through some bad injuries. Fair enough, rules say other side can still play 18 V 14, but apparently percentages are more important instead of a slightly more competitive match in the almost 300 point win.

[Tim Freedman]

Short HH - I witnessed that game and to be honest I can't understand why Penrith are in that division of U18 football and it wasn't great for the game in general. This is an example of my earlier post in that they should be playing against other sides that their senior side plays against in senior football. Whilst Penrith play against the Eagles now in Div 1, this is not their senior side and in fact it is now their 3rd grade side. I actually admire the Penrith U18 players for continuing to turn up week in week out and having a crack. Bit I digress.

Personally I would always encourage kids to play at the highest level possible and if they are good enough then they may go onto bigger and better things. If they are any good they should go to a premier division / NEAFL side (or interstate) and take advantage of the better standard of coaching, player mentoring, development and overall structure that comes with a higher grade of football. Whilst you may think I have my Eagles goggles on, I am very independant in my views about Sydney Football in general. It wont get any better until they make some fundamental changes to the current system.

Why would a player go and play at Parra, Manly, Sthn Power, etc etc if they are next to no chance at getting into Premier Division? How do they keep the players who have ambitions to play at the next level? Having moved from interstate a few years ago the first thing I did was look up a club that was playing in the top division and was close enough to my area. There were clubs closer but when i looked into it and found out that they don't have a promotion / relegation system then the decision was made for me. Again I can tell you from experience that there are plenty of players in the same boat as me who move to Sydney for study / work / love and make a decision based on the standard of football. SHE pick up very good players every year due to this reason and from what I know other Premier Division clubs do as well. Players who move to Sydney and walk in off the street as they want to play the highest standard. So if Manly, Penrith, Sthn Power or anyone else was to win the flag this year in Div 1 and get promoted then they would be in the same boat. This then helps the standard of the competition.

As for GWS being in the Eagles pocket....please? Their advice to kids is to play at the highest level possible which reflects my points above as NO AFL CLUB rates the Sydney AFL. Therefore GWS and all other AFL clubs encourage players at the moment to play at either SHE or SU so they can play NEAFL. Makes sense to me and if my son is any good in 10 years time then I would be telling him the exact same thing.

[DLH]

But this isn't a traditional football state. If they hadn't gone the division path, you'd
have next to nothing west of Parra.

Spot on Pete, but who cares about them eh?

Fine for clubs close to the city who benefit from the migration of senior players from football states for work and study, or who don't have issues of geography to contend with when trying to recruit.

Those whose only walk ins are blokes who've played league/soccer/nothing and want to give footy a go need to rely on talented juniors to improve, hence the pathway system.

Doesn't really matter anyway when you just circumvent it by recruiting the best U14's to your junior pathway clubs. Or tell Academy kids that unless they move across to a certain club's pathway then they won't be considered. There's no conflict of interest there!

That's alright though, as long as we can get back to that world renowned 'atmosphere' at Sydney AFL games, that's the main thing.

[nugget]

That's alright though, as long as we can get back to that world renowned 'atmosphere' at Sydney AFL games, that's the main thing.

DLH I'm still not convinced on the overall pathway system. I am not as against it as I used to be however I still think there needs to be some tweaking to get it right. Right now it is too restrictive and there is little to no choice for a kid or their parents who are paying their fees. However with a bit more work they may be able to get it right. I am against open slather on recruiting kids but to stop an outstanding junior from playing at the club of his choice to give him the best opportunity to develop is wrong.

I think "atmosphere" is the wrong word but I know what you are getting at. I have played and coached at clubs where we were soundly beaten most weeks and at clubs where you rarely lost. And while success may help, it was the sense of a "footy club" and everything that goes with it that I loved most. Right at the moment you have "teams" playing all over Sydney with very little "club" about them. Having your "club" at the one venue would make a huge difference.

[KTigers]

I am often surprised at how few people there are watching PD games. The "atmosphere" is pretty much non existant, as a few others contributing here have noted. Often the U18s games have more people watching. The bulk of them are probably parents and brothers and sisters, and they "get into it" as they did when their kids/siblings were playing at junior clubs. But hey, a crowd is a crowd. At some stage as the players get older (get their own cars etc) these family members stop going. Maybe the way to get more people watching PD games is play more U18s. I'm joking here OK, but the parents of U18s playing in a PD game I saw last month made up pretty much the entire crowd watching the game.

[Offal]

It's a tough one - there's arguments for and against it. Whether Weldon Oval is up to Premier Division standard is debatable; certainly Gwawley wouldn't be.
But the question would be how many teams can Premier Division sustain. In the last eight seasons, we've gone from 8 teams to 11. To have a club going up or down would eliminate the bye, which would be a good thing; but we no longer have everyone playing everyone else twice in Premier Division or Div 1.
Of course it's a lot easier to promote a team than relegate one. Promotion is a good news story, while relegation of a team that's been in the top division as long as anyone can remember is difficult. Although it becomes easier if there's an automatic promotion -relegation, so a club can drop down and play competitive games while they bottom out but have an automatic mechanism to go back up.
Also promotion and relegation from Premier Division would require a redistribution of the junior pathway clubs every year.

Power will likely be at Waratah Oval, Sutherland next year and be off Gwawley permanently.

[ShortHalfHead]

Power will likely be at Waratah Oval, Sutherland next year and be off Gwawley permanently.

Sounds good, Offal. Can we expect full facilities including canteen, botox clinic, blonde bimbo's, half time entertainment by rapper Riff Raff and the channel 10 cameramen to film it all?

[Pekay]

Oh dear...........don't start.

[Offal]

Sounds good, Offal. Can we expect full facilities including canteen, botox clinic, blonde bimbo's, half time entertainment by rapper Riff Raff and the channel 10 cameramen to film it all?

Funny stuff. "The @@@@e" is simply that.

On a serious note, we have raised some coin and the league, local council and a local junior club (the Miranda Bombers) have all come the party and the permanent move from Gwawley to Waratah will be a reality very soon. There will be a new changerooms/canteen/clubhouse built.

The surface is going to be welcome - my ankles are shot to pieces after playing 16 seasons on Gwawley.

[Mug Punter]

Perhaps they could make a reality TV show about your new ground....

[Benchwarmer]

Short HH - I witnessed that game and to be honest I can't understand why Penrith are in that division of U18 football and it wasn't great for the game in general. This is an example of my earlier post in that they should be playing against other sides that their senior side plays against in senior football. Whilst Penrith play against the Eagles now in Div 1, this is not their senior side and in fact it is now their 3rd grade side. I actually admire the Penrith U18 players for continuing to turn up week in week out and having a crack. Bit I digress.

Personally I would always encourage kids to play at the highest level possible and if they are good enough then they may go onto bigger and better things. If they are any good they should go to a premier division / NEAFL side (or interstate) and take advantage of the better standard of coaching, player mentoring, development and overall structure that comes with a higher grade of football. Whilst you may think I have my Eagles goggles on, I am very independant in my views about Sydney Football in general. It wont get any better until they make some fundamental changes to the current system.

Why would a player go and play at Parra, Manly, Sthn Power, etc etc if they are next to no chance at getting into Premier Division? How do they keep the players who have ambitions to play at the next level? Having moved from interstate a few years ago the first thing I did was look up a club that was playing in the top division and was close enough to my area. There were clubs closer but when i looked into it and found out that they don't have a promotion / relegation system then the decision was made for me. Again I can tell you from experience that there are plenty of players in the same boat as me who move to Sydney for study / work / love and make a decision based on the standard of football. SHE pick up very good players every year due to this reason and from what I know other Premier Division clubs do as well. Players who move to Sydney and walk in off the street as they want to play the highest standard. So if Manly, Penrith, Sthn Power or anyone else was to win the flag this year in Div 1 and get promoted then they would be in the same boat. This then helps the standard of the competition.

As for GWS being in the Eagles pocket....please? Their advice to kids is to play at the highest level possible which reflects my points above as NO AFL CLUB rates the Sydney AFL. Therefore GWS and all other AFL clubs encourage players at the moment to play at either SHE or SU so they can play NEAFL. Makes sense to me and if my son is any good in 10 years time then I would be telling him the exact same thing.

TF i must admit i have done a 180 on the whole pathway thing. I was in absolute favor of the pathway system but not now.
It may be time to abolish the pathway system all together , along with the under 18's competition.
Let the junior clubs run through to the under 17 age group
( i think they are generally better at it)
then let the kids go to which ever senior club they choose and go straight into senior ranks.Currently players can go to the club of their choice at 18 anyway.
17, 18 same same..
Also imho
All competitions should be limited to 10 teams and eliminate the byes and balance the fixtures.
One up, one down PD,D1
2 up 2 down all other grades.

Perhaps relook at how the lower/social footy is fixtured and eliminate some of the miles they need to travel for what is basically social footy.
Div 5 north 6 or 7 teams
Div 5 south 6 or 7 teams
15 game season.

I'll get off my soap box now

[ShortHalfHead]

OK, let's focus on the promotion/relegation system. One thing bought up early this year was who should be promoted. Should it be premiers/grand finalists or minor premiers/top two H & A ?
Keeping in mind that premiers/grand finalists may not be the best teams of the year.

[Tim Freedman]

SHH - Always the Premiers IMHO. Some sides struggle through injuries / unavailabilities throughout the H&A season but get it all together come finals time. Example 1 - Geelong. Example 2 - Brisbane

Benchwarmer - very good idea on the lower division structures in North & South etc.