Round 4 Game Day - The Season So Far

[mrns]

Checked the act comp and its worse there than in Sydney. 6 team comp (boring) and the bottom two teams have won 11 games between them in 4 years. How crap is that. Started that way again this year.
Simple.
4 clubs slide up there and 4 slide up in Sydney. Ressies play local 1’s, 3’s play local 2 etc.
Fix two comps at once.
If Tom Wills is right it wont really fix either one but it would buy the AFL time to do something with the struggling clubs
Give me a job at the AFL!!

This was my understanding of how a potential "state league" comp would work. ressies would suffer for a bit, but with the current trajectory of these successful clubs they should be able to match with Syd Prems eventually

[saviour01]

Simple.
4 clubs slide up there and 4 slide up in Sydney. Ressies play local 1’s, 3’s play local 2 etc.
Fix two comps at once.

We could call it NEAFL Eastern Conference 2012.

[Mechanic]

We could call it NEAFL Eastern Conference 2012.

Right were those 8 teams the neafl?

[Mechanic]

We could call it NEAFL Eastern Conference 2012.

Right were those 8 teams the neafl?

[Old Puppy]

Lots posts for newbie mechanic, bit more insider trading from the posts!
You do realise ex afl employees are exempt from posting Henry!

[saviour01]

4 sydney. 5 canberra.

[justabaraker]

mrns:- "I do fear for Camden, I couldn't imagine registering each year knowing that you're going to lose a lot of games. If there's no belief in playing finals then what is the result ?"

We were at Fairfax yesterday and wondered how the atmos would be....but I can report that The Cats turned on a terrific day.
As people on here have said, it must be tough for them to have to turn up week after week knowing that they might get belted, but credit is due to all concerned down there...on field they played it out to the end and were trying all the way; off-field, the pies were hot, the ground was in great condition, there seemed to be plenty of helpers around and their attitude seemed fine to me - five or six helpers to operate the ressies scoreboard !
But they lost points for not having any hot coffee !

Well done to you all and keep hanging in there until things pick up for you

[Old Puppy]

Agreed great bunch who continue to do it themselves with little help.
Two grounds massive growth area in time will be fine.
Got to wonder why AFL leaders don’t just anoint camden as pathway for entire area whilst nothing against Campbelltown their promotion to Platinum undermined a lot recruiting to Camden for better standards.
Camden also have quite a lot local players playing at other PD clubs or south coast comp they will be fine in time:
If you look at junior competition AFL have allowed mergers so clubs become stronger together which takes leadership and an open mind and that may be an opportunity to bring this growing region together.

The AFL need to make the competition better by making these type things happen and encouraging conversation and pulling clubs together with a clear regional approach similar to A League and McArthur bulls. There pathway is clear and you can see this at the strong AFL PD clubs.

But this won’t happen overnight whilst the area is devided.

[5yearplan]

Concur

[bomber.]

Agreed great bunch who continue to do it themselves with little help.
The AFL need to make the competition better by making these type things happen and encouraging conversation and pulling clubs together with a clear regional approach similar to A League and McArthur bulls. There pathway is clear and you can see this at the strong AFL PD clubs.

But this won’t happen overnight whilst the area is devided.

Yep. It will take quite a while and a lot of work to get the pathway humming even if it isn't divided. Decisions need to be made on a few fronts.

[Clubman]

All the talk is about Camden. Just a new Prems club and off the field is doing a great job. Just a couple of years ago it was all about West.
Now we should be looking at the big problems that is on the north side. Manly forfeiting/playing players under wrong names. Why would play at Manly when you can play lower grades at Norths.
As Puppy was talking about with mergers? Campbelltown/Camden or maybe it could be Manly/Norths - I don’t think so but North seem to have the monopoly on numbers. Norths on the other hand have worked very hard on building up their club but the way they are going they will have 2 teams in each division and should their be a limit. Maybe the AFL could help build up new senior side. Clubs like St Ives / Forrest / Mosman

[Tom Wills]

Maybe the AFL could help build up new senior side. Clubs like St Ives / Forrest / Mosman

Clubman this is a great point that is not spoken about enough. Sydney AFL would be the only business in Australia that invests in securing more customers in the most challenging environment. Business 101 is find out who are your customer are (where they live) and invest in selling to them.

The AFL strategy has been to to find out who are the hard customer to sell to (who actually don't want or like the product) and sell to them - ha no wonder the results are so poor.

[Jupiter]

Clubman this is a great point that is not spoken about enough. Sydney AFL would be the only business in Australia that invests in securing more customers in the most challenging environment. Business 101 is find out who are your customer are (where they live) and invest in selling to them.

The AFL strategy has been to to find out who are the hard customer to sell to (who actually don't want or like the product) and sell to them - ha no wonder the results are so poor.

So so true. If they could look after their heartland properly and do the whole West and GWS thing in parallel that would be great but they don't do they. Very good points above - at some stage you need more clubs not just more teams in certain areas - of course they will NOT all be Premier Div or State League clubs but they will increase participation and feed talent through.. In terms of the West, sans anyone in Moore Park or Melbourne having much of a clue, clubs have to do it themselves unfortunately but perhaps more inter-club cooperation (alliances not just mergers) could move the needle.

[Tim Freedman]

The current “state league” proposal is for a 6 team Sydney only competition. It does include Camden as one of the 6 so based on current form it’s not really about elevating the best teams to a higher level or reducing the unevenness of the competition.

The talk of another "state league" is laughable. I really don't get what everyone's issue is with the state of the competition and the difference in standard between the the top teams and the bottom teams. It has been this way for more than 20 years in Sydney and will always be this way. It's how most leagues around the Country are including the very top - Nth Melbourne anyone??.

The current top teams - UNSWES, Syd Uni, Nth Shore, Penno, Inner West etc are great to watch. Go and watch them play each other and it is impressive footy and well worth the price of entry. It's up to the bottom teams to rise to this level by improving either A) - their talent pathways or B) their recruitment strategies.

I've said this before but I think the biggest impact on Sydney footy has been allowing clubs to create too many teams which doesn't allow an even distribution of talent across the league to improve club depth. Depth is the biggest issue at the lower clubs - not top end talent. However, well done to the clubs who have all of these teams and can retain their players who are more than happy to play in reserve grade (or worse) rather than play first grade footy. Personally, if it was me I'd be going to a club where I could get a game in first grade but hey, some blokes just aren't that driven to play at the highest level they can and are happy to kick around in the twos etc.

I also don't get the points system and how that is meant to help the bottom clubs climb the ladder at pace. The points system has never worked in any league and it is not working currently so why persist. Just go back to allowing clubs to pick everyone on their merits and recruit to improve.

[tara]

Ive got a novel idea.

Introduce a pathway that rewards clubs who actively engage and develop the juniors with their pathway.

Oh wait my bad - that will never work because it means that clubs from outside the pathway will no longer be able to recruit those players they have never had any involvement with and that certainly is not fair.