2013 - The Pre-Season. Pump your tyres here

[BIGSHOW]

One coach is gone, but the other is still there. I hear they've lost some players, but it's hardly as catastrophic as what some have hinted.

Who's Ben Taggert was he the senior captain of Balmain?.

[chatovadafloor]

With club spokesman speaking one would say that he would be trying to pump there tyres up, I would say likely more gone than not. However one would soon tell in a few weeks anyway.

One coach is gone, but the other is still there. I hear they've lost some players, but it's hardly as catastrophic as what some have hinted.

[tara]

Few changes I didnt see coming.

Auburn now back in Div 2
Norwest in Div 3 (only senior team)
Mac Uni in Div 4 (new)
Sydney Uni Div 5 (new)
Moorebank Div 5 (sort of new but not unexpected)

Pekay whats going on mate - I know the RAAF has an effect but has another magical influence hurt?

[BIGSHOW]

Few changes I didnt see coming.

Auburn now back in Div 2
Norwest in Div 3 (only senior team)
Mac Uni in Div 4 (new)
Sydney Uni Div 5 (new)
Moorebank Div 5 (sort of new but not unexpected)

Pekay whats going on mate - I know the RAAF has an effect but has another magical influence hurt?

Where did u get this info mate can't be try!!

[tara]

From afl.

Spoke to Pekay. Got to say the support the jets gave me and the club when we nearly folded was first class. Disco even came to training an acted as my runner in the finals in 2007. Wonder how many other clubs outside western Sydney would receive and accept support from the outside.
Anyway I digress. The biggest factor to hurt the jets is the deployment of raaf to ensue the safe withdrawal of our troops from afghan and Iraq.

Hopefully wont be long before we see the jests bounce back

[BIGSHOW]

From afl.

Spoke to Pekay. Got to say the support the jets gave me and the club when we nearly folded was first class. Disco even came to training an acted as my runner in the finals in 2007. Wonder how many other clubs outside western Sydney would receive and accept support from the outside.
Anyway I digress. The biggest factor to hurt the jets is the deployment of raaf to ensue the safe withdrawal of our troops from afghan and Iraq.

Hopefully wont be long before we see the jests bounce back

Dam!! on the flip side how can auburn go back up surely blacktown must of gone up.

[ShortHalfHead]

From afl.

Spoke to Pekay. Got to say the support the jets gave me and the club when we nearly folded was first class. Disco even came to training an acted as my runner in the finals in 2007. Wonder how many other clubs outside western Sydney would receive and accept support from the outside.
Anyway I digress. The biggest factor to hurt the jets is the deployment of raaf to ensue the safe withdrawal of our troops from afghan and Iraq.

Hopefully wont be long before we see the jests bounce back

Surely you jest

Agree Tara. They have had a great few years with promotion and competitiveness. It's a tough area with dependence on the RAAF boys and the local gun juniors they have produced wanting to play a higher level down the Windsor Road. Pekay and Disco have given it their all and more to stay afloat and although it must have been a tough call they are looking into the future. They'll bounce back.

On another note, Blacktown seems to have picked up another handy player.
Bolton joins AFL NSW/ACT - Sydney AFL - SportingPulse

[Pekay]

We've lost a swag of players to deployments/postings/retirements over the off season so were left with little choice really. Not nearly enough for two teams and those left certainly not at Div 2 level, nor the depth behind it. Mainly locals this year. Unfortunate, but better to lose a team than a club.

[justabaraker]

We've lost a swag of players to deployments/postings/retirements over the off season so were left with little choice really. Not nearly enough for two teams and those left certainly not at Div 2 level, nor the depth behind it. Mainly locals this year. Unfortunate, but better to lose a team than a club.

Sorry to hear all this Pekay, but we all know that you guys have a stormy and uncertain existence - hang in there and wait for the better times to come back. You're going ok !
This is life for grassroots footy in Sydney isn't it ? All of us are only a departing player or a lost sponsor away from oblivion and we just have to keep picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off and starting all over again. It must be a little harder for Norwest with the lure of the SHEagles just down the Windsor Road a bit.
People write on this forum, bagging out the AFL for cannabalising and not caring, and that might be partly true, but there's not much the AFL can do in this situation - grassroots clubs have to do their best to keep on truckin when the proverbial hits the fan because there just aren't enough football players to go around.
Until our footy gets more established in Sydney/NSW, we are going to struggle to have solid grassroots competitions.

We're ALL going ok, and we just have to be like Norwest and use the lemons to make lemonade. Go Pekay, you're doing ok.

[Mug Punter]

Sorry to hear all this Pekay, but we all know that you guys have a stormy and uncertain existence - hang in there and wait for the better times to come back. You're going ok !
This is life for grassroots footy in Sydney isn't it ? All of us are only a departing player or a lost sponsor away from oblivion and we just have to keep picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off and starting all over again. It must be a little harder for Norwest with the lure of the SHEagles just down the Windsor Road a bit.
People write on this forum, bagging out the AFL for cannabalising and not caring, and that might be partly true, but there's not much the AFL can do in this situation - grassroots clubs have to do their best to keep on truckin when the proverbial hits the fan because there just aren't enough football players to go around.
Until our footy gets more established in Sydney/NSW, we are going to struggle to have solid grassroots competitions.

We're ALL going ok, and we just have to be like Norwest and use the lemons to make lemonade. Go Pekay, you're doing ok.

That's a fair call but it certainly sits in the craw a bit when the muppets at NSWAFL-HQ throw buckets of cash at their latest plaything (2011 - Lebanon United, 2012 - Blacktown Starz, 2013 - Macarthur Rams) when they should be shoring up their existing clubs.

Agree that there's not much that can be done about Norwest's situation but I bet my bottom dollar they have been given zero meaningful support by the NSWAFL - all the whilst they throw tens of millions at that bunch of media clowns at Homebush.

From the nominations it looks like we've effectively lost a comp from 2012 to this year and Balmain and a couple of other clubs must surely have a huge ???? over their futures. Not to mention the scandalous treatment of Bankstown Juniors....

You seriously could not write a worse script. Then you see what the WS Wanderers have done with a small budget and a huge amount of good intention and it makes it even worse....

[Mug Punter]

We've lost a swag of players to deployments/postings/retirements over the off season so were left with little choice really. Not nearly enough for two teams and those left certainly not at Div 2 level, nor the depth behind it. Mainly locals this year. Unfortunate, but better to lose a team than a club.

Keep fighting the good fight champ, the game in Sydney depends on blokes like you. The day Hawkesbury die will be the day that the game should pack up its tent and leave Sydney IMO

[Mug Punter]

I know a lot of us criticise Sydney Uni at time but they must be doig something right. SIX senior teams at that club, surely only a matter of time before they start harnessing that in terms of sponsorship etc.

Must be asked why clubs like North Shore, with their huge junior nursery, do not field as many. Reason is simple, North Shore and their ilk have always made you feel like it was a privilege to pull on their jumpers with cliques of billy big bollocks players (anyone remember the most average player to have ever played first grade SFL football, Matthew Boys) whilst Sydney Uni, like UTS, welcome everyone. There are numerous stories at these clubs of newcomers starting in the fourths or fifths and becoming good first graders.

I think clubs in Sydney could learn a lot from the includive culture of clubs like Sydney Uni and UTS...

[justabaraker]

Agree that there's not much that can be done about Norwest's situation but I bet my bottom dollar they have been given zero meaningful support by the NSWAFL - all the whilst they throw tens of millions at that bunch of media clowns at Homebush.

From the nominations it looks like we've effectively lost a comp from 2012 to this year and Balmain and a couple of other clubs must surely have a huge ???? over their futures. Not to mention the scandalous treatment of Bankstown Juniors....

You seriously could not write a worse script. Then you see what the WS Wanderers have done with a small budget and a huge amount of good intention and it makes it even worse....

Yes but..........the AFL doesn't see it as their job to prop up Sydney grassroots footy - never has been and never will be; you can tell that by reading their mission statements and so on. And their general lack of interest. Their job is to identify elite kids and lock them into our code rather than soccer, tennis, basketball, league, etc. Then give them the best possible training to produce future stars (Academy, scholarships, RAMS, NEAFL).

And their job is to create AFL-standard footy in Sydney so that people will want to watch it on TV.
Grassroots footy is not their area of interest and our comp has to rise and fall like Pekay's Norwest is doing. And like Balmain.
Then we say..."but there can be no nursery for the stars of the future without grassroots footy"....and that's a different argument.

[Pekay]

Keep fighting the good fight champ, the game in Sydney depends on blokes like you. The day Hawkesbury die will be the day that the game should pack up its tent and leave Sydney IMO

I reckon this is the best thing about the implementation of the divisions. As it happened in 2004/05, and now in 2012/13, where we went from 2 Mens teams to one, if it was the old SFA structure we'd be gone. Well, long gone actually. So we have the option of consolidating our ranks and keeping an identity, and 'brand' as it's called in business terms, out in this tough area. I reckon that's the most important thing, an AFL presence in a rugby & soccer dominated district.

We don't really need financial help out here, it's access to players, and there just aren't enough potential recruits. Most of our players just play for fun, and/or are new to the game, and/or are just too old to be playing Div 2, that's a highly competitive level. There's no housing developments bringing new people to the region, and any talented juniors get lured to the stronger clubs....point in case, we lost Josh Cass to Balmain in 2011, now his brothers has followed, and Brent & Ryan Johnston as well. Since 2004, we have lost around 10 players to Balmain (......is there a direct bus line to Balmain, coz that's a @@@@@@ of a trip in my experience!) I played all my juniors for Seven Hills (Blacktown) and we've traditionally drawn players from there, but they put a new club in around the corner. So between Parramatta and Richmond, potential players go past the Ponds and Purser before they can even think about the extra 20km to Bensons. That doesn't help us at all.

With the H model Herc being retired, the 37Squadron here on base was split in half, so we get no new recruits for at least a few years until the new platform is brought in. The amount of postings out of here is huge, and nothing coming in. That's hurt us. And they want to make further cuts to the SQN. I can't see us getting a 2nd team up for a few years, we'll be using the locals that have busted their asses over the years, and trying to bridge the gap between local clubs (Quakers, Hawkesbury, Blue Mtns etc) to strengthen the 18s, but who knows what the plans are for that next year?

It's been said before, but the landscape of footy out here, and for most of Sydney to be honest, isn't as strong as its made out. It's weak, and numbers are sporadic at best, particularly at 15-18yo. All we are going to do out here is provide a place for blokes to have a kick, any aspirations of Div 2 glory and Div 1 promotion have been put back in the cupboard after losing 30 of the 47 from our Div 2 players last year. And, a chance for an old hack like me to not line up on a juiced up monster fullback for once.

As for Juniors, my mail from Quakers Hill is that Kellyville has taken the lions share of their players, through recruitment, better structure, whatever. So, a club at Rooty Hill, Quakers Hill, Kellyville, Baulkham Hills, Hawkesbury, St Clair, plus the Penrith districts, all within roughly a 40km radius, all pinching players from each other. Far from healthy.

[DLH]

I reckon this is the best thing about the implementation of the divisions. As it happened in 2004/05, and now in 2012/13, where we went from 2 Mens teams to one, if it was the old SFA structure we'd be gone. Well, long gone actually. So we have the option of consolidating our ranks and keeping an identity, and 'brand' as it's called in business terms, out in this tough area. I reckon that's the most important thing, an AFL presence in a rugby & soccer dominated district.

We don't really need financial help out here, it's access to players, and there just aren't enough potential recruits. Most of our players just play for fun, and/or are new to the game, and/or are just too old to be playing Div 2, that's a highly competitive level. There's no housing developments bringing new people to the region, and any talented juniors get lured to the stronger clubs....point in case, we lost Josh Cass to Balmain in 2011, now his brothers has followed, and Brent & Ryan Johnston as well. Since 2004, we have lost around 10 players to Balmain (......is there a direct bus line to Balmain, coz that's a @@@@@@ of a trip in my experience!) I played all my juniors for Seven Hills (Blacktown) and we've traditionally drawn players from there, but they put a new club in around the corner. So between Parramatta and Richmond, potential players go past the Ponds and Purser before they can even think about the extra 20km to Bensons. That doesn't help us at all.

With the H model Herc being retired, the 37Squadron here on base was split in half, so we get no new recruits for at least a few years until the new platform is brought in. The amount of postings out of here is huge, and nothing coming in. That's hurt us. And they want to make further cuts to the SQN. I can't see us getting a 2nd team up for a few years, we'll be using the locals that have busted their asses over the years, and trying to bridge the gap between local clubs (Quakers, Hawkesbury, Blue Mtns etc) to strengthen the 18s, but who knows what the plans are for that next year?

It's been said before, but the landscape of footy out here, and for most of Sydney to be honest, isn't as strong as its made out. It's weak, and numbers are sporadic at best, particularly at 15-18yo. All we are going to do out here is provide a place for blokes to have a kick, any aspirations of Div 2 glory and Div 1 promotion have been put back in the cupboard after losing 30 of the 47 from our Div 2 players last year. And, a chance for an old hack like me to not line up on a juiced up monster fullback for once.

As for Juniors, my mail from Quakers Hill is that Kellyville has taken the lions share of their players, through recruitment, better structure, whatever. So, a club at Rooty Hill, Quakers Hill, Kellyville, Baulkham Hills, Hawkesbury, St Clair, plus the Penrith districts, all within roughly a 40km radius, all pinching players from each other. Far from healthy.

I certainly understand where you're coming from Pete, we have a similar demographic of player at Penrith who have a lack of background in the game and just want to give it a go. Obviously from those guys you get a few with physical attributes and an aptitude for the game who end up becoming handy players. It's not often you get a blow-in with a football pedigree unfortunately. I guess the advantage we have is that Penrith is an ever growing region with new estates bobbing up around the place, it would be much harder having to rely to a large extent on the vaguaries of the RAAF. Disappointing too that you've lost a couple more to Balmain, which as you say is a fair old hike.

That being said, one thing the Jets have proven over the years is that they're a resilient club, so I'm sure you'll be back to last year's levels sooner rather than later.

I agree as well on the 15-18 year old issue, although I'm sure it's a problem for every club to a degree. This year our numbers in the U/18's are softer than they've been for a few years, and we'll no doubt be calling on some U/16's to help out at times.