Thanks Rusty, that makes more sense!

Anyone invloved at West Torrens care to elaborate on a rumoured internal trial yesterday afternoon? I hope it wasn't compulsory.

Was not compulsory, but only couple did not want to play.

We had our Quiz night last night, so was a lead in to that.

Was an awesome day and great to get all the players together. We rang SACA as did not want to disrespect anyone, and they were fully supportive and thought it was a great idea.

We had a 63 second silence, lined up all the bats and caps, players all in semi circle around the David Hookes Pavilion (quite appropriate). Got some fantastic photos that are being posted on various places.

We played couple of 20/20 games, mixing up players from A thru D Grade by selecting out of hat, had BBQ and few beers. To get everyone together and have a lot of laughs was brilliant.

We thought it was best to have the whole club together, what would everyone have done otherwise, sit around moping all day doing nothing?

Hope you can respect that Heater, there is no right or wrong answer, even a couple of the players who were against it said it was just what everyone needed, and one A Grader who did not want to do it, came along and umpired later and changed his mind, saying he thought it was excellent day.

Interesting results today make for an exciting finish to the season in A Grade.

TTG chase down 396 with two overs to spare. Will rue Redbacks taking Lawford to Perth and making him 12th man, plus with Neate injured meant they were missing two of their three best bowlers, made it tough for them.

Northerns upset East Torrens and Sturt defeat Kensington outright, dents both of their finals chances a little bit.

Port and Uni keep their seasons alive with easy wins against Woodville and Glenelg.

Interesting one was Southerns and Prospect having a draw. Southerns needed to win to have any chance of playing finals, and after making over 330 last week made the amazing decision to bat on this week. They then have Prospect 8 down at stumps, if only they had those overs left they wasted at start of days play! Bet they are spewing about that decision now, very negative cricket as who cares if they lost with Prospect on the bottom of table, crazy stuff!

Jackson Bird

Not in a million years would he leave a result pitch every game to come play on a road.

And there in lies the problem! Why would any bowler want to come to Adelaide and bowl on roads they prepare at AO and the Bay?

Georgey played one Shield game last year (Round 1 at the Bay) and struggled to take wickets like all the pace bowlers, never played again. How he is loving it up in Queensland and bowling on pitches like the Gabba and other District pitches that have a bit of life in them and makes it fair for both bowlers and batters. Surprise, surprise, he is taking lots of wickets again and having a great year.

Until they do something about making our pitches here fair for both bat and ball, all our bowlers like Ryan Harris and Georgey will move interstate!

Trav out for run a ball 28 - 6/104 all out caught behind the wicket

Now Ludeman out caught in slips also, 7/110.

That is 5 catches to Forrest in slips, would that be some sort of record?

One of Berry's worse decisions was getting rid of Georgey, had a great year and was always going to do well against us today.

Would have enjoyed getting his good mate Kelvin out too!

On the game, interested in the opinion of those there, was Allan's game as amazing as his stats or were a lot of them ineffectual?
Looks damn good on paper.

37 disposals
18 kicks
6 marks
6 tackles
6 clearances
6 Inside 50s
0 score
Imo, his role has changed dramatically since leaving North. I felt he was more of an outside player at prospect, however, he is often at the bottom of the pack and getting the hard ball.
Hasn't changed but its amazing how peoples perspectives change

Warren Partland has never rated James Allan, openly admits it.

Gave him 6th best in the paper today, just shows his bias.

He was clearly best on ground to me, shows what credibility some journalists have at the Advertiser!

Footy Smart wrote:

Bulls forever wrote:Grade cricket movements.

Nobes - Adelaide (where it all began)
Hoffmann - Woodville
C. Sayers - Woodville

Siddons - SA new coach.

Port also looking for a coach?

Heard Dean Sayers applied, Finnie gone.

Wonder if Aaron would be captain then!

Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate with Vegemite.

Kids wanted to try it, so we all just tried one piece, and everyone nearly vomited.

The worse tasting thing I have ever had, god knows what they were thinking!

I keep hearing West Torrens name mentioned in merger talks? anyone heard similar? I couldnt imagine Rumbles being happy with possibly merging

West Torrens position has been documented via their newsletters published on their website throughout the season, and this from Presidents Report in Annual Report released on Monday:

"Merger talks with any other Club have ceased for the present but the door has been left open in case new offers are put forward.

Our Board has submitted that it:
• is in a stable financial position
• has agreements in place to protect its future at the Henley & Grange Memorial Oval for both the oval and clubrooms
• is in a favourable position due to junior development programs
• has these programs and as a consequence is now experiencing players developed through them progressing to A Grade level
• has sufficient players to fill and be competitive in each grade, senior and junior, each round
• is in a sound position with Women’s A and B grade teams – both also competitive
• has an excellent junior program the envy of most other SACA clubs
• has an excellent zone program the envy of most other SACA clubs
• is in a position to independently manage its future
• does not have any need to merge in the near future
• merging at the present time is not an option the B of M would promote to WTDCC members

The essential needs of any elite Club are
– talent I.D. followed by recruitment and development of the recruits
- income to exceed expenditure (business management)
- volunteers and/or remunerated workers
- obtaining and upkeeping suitable facilities

West Torrens D.C.C. currently has these in position. However we must be ever vigilant to maintain and improve this position."

Well thats that then :oops: :D

WT for me are a stable club and as pointed out meet all the essential needs for an elite club.

I would suggest that not all cubs can match the following (and im not just reffering to Uni):
*is in a stable financial position
*is in a favourable position due to junior development programs
*has these programs and as a consequence is now experiencing players developed through them progressing to A Grade level
*has sufficient players to fill and be competitive in each grade, senior and junior, each round

But they have a coach that has made a lot of enemies within SACA and Premier Cricket. They do not have a club!

Wow, Bulls Forever, you really do hate West Torrens!! God knows what "they do not have a club" even means!!

As for our coach, he is just a very passionate club person. He would do anything to make WT successful. His record as a junior coach is second to none, and his first year as Senior coach was brilliant, taking the A's from 12th to 4th and not far off a GF berth, with a young team we thought needed a few years to develop. Also finished high up in Club Championships.

He does speak his mind to SACA about numerous issues, and although I don't always agree with his views, the majority of the time he is pretty spot on. His desire is for WT to continue to be a powerhouse club in the competition so it is near on impossible for SACA to force a merger involving WT. We are one of only a few clubs that have teams in all comps run by SACA including Women and have one of the best and most successful junior program's of the last ten years, as shown by our A Grade team currently with 7 players Under 21. The future looks very promising.

Hopefully Bulls Forever this makes sense and you can have a bit more un biased view of WT in the future!

Jim05 wrote:Lost their last 6/15, surely we will send them back in, still 300+ behind

Not sure. Teams don't like to enforce follow on these days, like to give their bowlers a rest. Time to spank a quick 150 and still have 4 sessions to bowl them out for much needed outright!

How quick is NCN?
Sounds like the justification for him is that they need an enforcer to replace Starc and he must be the next quickest?

That seems to be the justification in picking Coulter-Nile, that he bowls at 140 km/h or higher. Lehmann was critical of Siddle last year as his pace dropped to between 130 and 135.

Would be a major reason they won't pick Sayers, as he bowls at similar pace to Siddle. Lehmann was quoted as saying you need to be bowling over 140 to play for Australia. Probably why Cummins and Pattinson were pushed up when they were not ready and their bodies could not handle it, just because they bowl fast.

Don't agree with the logic, good batters can handle the pace, it is the bowler who swings the ball both ways that trouble the batters, exactly why Sayers gets so many wickets. Sayers or Bird had to be rewarded for their Shield performances ahead of NCN, that is pretty obvious you would have thought!

Finished 5/187, great comeback and awesome partnership by Ross and Hodge.

That is exactly why the Strikers targeted Hodge last season, he is so cool under pressure and was able to steady the innings scoring a run a ball, then unleas at the end. Ross continues his great form in all formats of the game, having a tremendous season.

Will it be enough against the most powerful batting line up in the tournament?

Great catch Jayawardena!

The bowling of Laughlin and Richo the key, but still Stars favourites from here.

stampy wrote:if you need a snooze before the festivities just turn on the WBBL on one

Bit harsh Stampy. Nothing on tv and quite enjoying it. Might be only win a Strikers team get today!

Eagles , whats the go with Rumbles.... pushed, walked??? Official announcement tomorrow?

Unfortunately, I was not at training tonight as working late, will speak to my son when get home later tonight.

Rumbles resigned as Coach, as you can imagine with all the Merger stuff going on, everyone is under a lot of stress. Him in particular is putting in so much time and effort to try and save the Club, and doing a lot of the preparation for our meeting with SACA next month to help us survive.

He decided it would be better off if he stepped down as Club coach, but will still be around and doing a lot of the work needed so that West Torrens gets the best possible deal we think we deserve. The hours going into this are ridiculous, and not good for peoples health. That is what makes me so mad, that I believe SACA have already made up their minds!!

We have had a large number of State reps over the last five years in the junior squads, think all of them played College cricket ( except Bailey Capel currently). Think this shows we do support them and play them in the correct grade for their development. They are required to attend one session a week only, or at worse one a fortnight. Unfortunately, Joel never attended. Bit hard for the A Grade captain to select him when he has never faced him or seen him play. One of the parents issue was other kids being selected ahead of him, but these were all one day games, and Joel gets carted in that format, the other lad has variety and a great yorker, excellent death bowler, and was therefore rightfully picked ahead of Joel. He wants to go to Bays as his Scotch College coach is David Scholz who is involved there, and his Dad is Chairman I think.
Don't get me wrong - West Torrens do a lot right. A few pages back I said they were an example of how a grade club should be run.

That doesn't mean everything is perfect and also every club - whether run well or run poorly - is occasionally susceptible to a player moving on to what they perceive to be greener pastures.

There's a big difference between a kid who goes to St Michael's popping out to the odd West Torrens training to keep his hat in the ring and a country kid who boards at Scotch College on the other side of town and doesn't necessarily have access to transport.

If Joel isn't that good and you've got other prospects who are better than him, then that's great. Credit to your depth and development. But you shouldn't be disappointed Joel is moving on. You should be happy you have all these far superior, more committed (in your eyes) prospects.

I respect what you are saying TC, you always make a lot of sense whenever you post on here, and I normally agree with everything you say. You seem to look at things very neutrally and fairly.

Our Club just took offence to the claim on the clearance request citing "lack of Opportunities". This was totally inaccurate, and after our Chairman Andy Capel spoke to Joel's Dad, he said that was Glenelg's words and they did not agree with that comment.

Sometimes you just need to make a stand, Joel is a required player, and we have put five years into developing him into an A Grade player, hoping over the next year or so he will continue to develop and start to perform at that level. Cant see him playing 1st grade at the Bays at the moment either.

If they still want to move to Glenelg next year, then we will clear him then.

What's the hidden agenda?

That the SACA Board have already made up their mind and the presentations on Monday night are a waste of time (and there has been a mountain of work go into them!).

Hearing Andrew Simcock abstaining from vote as he is totally against what they are doing, as are a couple of other board members.

Apparently Channel 9 News doing a piece tomorrow night, re "why western suburbs being targeted". Great question!!

FFS!!
Unbroken 6th wicket stand of 120 gets them over the line.
Now down to 4th on the table and barring a big change of form it's looking like another waste of a year
Depth appears to be a major issue. Lose Sayers and Ferguson and we are in big strife.

Mennie and Worrall are no strike bowlers

Bit harsh on Mennie, he is leading the Shield wickets by about 10 wickets! And Siddons this week predicted the next Redback to play for Australia would be Worrall, bowls at 140 Kms and swings it both ways. What makes them more potent is having Sayers there as well, so will be stronger against WA next game.

And everyone knows (except WHUFC of course!!) that Ferg is our only A Grade batter, and we really miss his consistency and leadership out on the field.

Plus Andrews is not damaging as a spin bowler, so that puts more pressure on the quicks without Zampa.

Heard Northerns pom was up to his old tricks yesterday against Sturt. Been carrying something in his pocket all year, everyone wondering how he can swing the ball so much. After Uni complained couple of weeks ago (have seen the picture of the ball, amazing), the umpires finally caught him and been reported for ball tampering. Hope they throw the book at him and don't let the cheat back to play next year. Karma meant they missed the finals after being in second spot about a week ago! Rumours of his captain knowing about it all year just as disturbing, no wonder he can't make a run at higher level!

stampy wrote:think it should be free, the amenities arent what you would call world class

Charging $10 Adult and $5 Concession, SACA Members free.

Reckon they should just open up the gates and let everyone in for free, but not surprised SACA made this decision!

Harrity is a really good appointment, as is Young assuming he's involved.

Why wasn't Harrity in the mix last season out of interest?

SACA have a rule that if you are coaching a Premier League club, you can not have an involvement in a District Club. As Hags was coaching Western Grit this year, he was not allowed to be involved with WT, last year he was bowling coach.

So when the Premier League finished in mid October, he was sitting around twiddling his thumbs (he helped out at a College, PAC I think).

We asked for permission from SACA to have him as Senior Coach once his Western Grit commitments are finished, and they approved it. As long as we are still in the comp next year, he will coach us with Dan Cullen his assistant.

It was important to get a high profile coach and he is a fantastic bloke and coach, as we needed a reason for all our players to stick with the Club through this testing period and not take the easy option of moving Clubs. We feel this will achieve these goals.

Nice two page spread in the SACA stumps mag on AUCC. Great PR for the club on the back of SACA media. No mention of the back room deals with Council and SACA about shafting western suburbs with new grounds to effectively force mergers to make it fit. The stench is getting stronger.
I guess we will find out if your allegation is correct on November 30.....

Seeing the Parliamentry Enquiry results are due Nov 30, can SACA please do the right thing for once and tell both Clubs ASAP that they will be in the comp for next year at least, so the players know where they are playing and can get on with planning for this season. Think that's the least they can do!

C Horse, you are so wrong on so many points, but that will all come out in the PE.

That document put out by SACA has more holes than swiss cheese, again, that will all come out in the PE.

SACA are not telling the truth claiming we agreed to merge, this is totally false. All correspondence to them has started with "Our preferred preference is to remain as a stand alone club, etc, etc".

As Bulldogproud said, we would not be doing our Members justice if we totally dismissed it and our Club was gone forever, especially when talk was going to 10 Teams. If that was definitely going to happen, then common sense says West Torrens and Woodville would be an appropriate merge like Football.

Tony Clifton is right - Clubs need to have plans as talk of mergers by SACA were occurring. That's all our Board did. The criticism of them by C Horse is totally not warranted. I think the PE will make a difference, and going by the mis truths put out by SACA, they are really worried about it!

Luckily my pop corn has a long expiry date, believe SACA have made their decision, parliamentary inquiry a waste of time.

Better get a lawyer son, better get a real good one ;)

Once again Hound, you are so far off the mark it is not funny!

Will still be 13 teams next season, guaranteed. More likely than a merger now is there will be 14 teams soon, with Mt.Barker the likely option.

Don't worry Hound, there is an excellent lawyer involved and West Torrens and Port will be around for many years to come, be rest assured.

SACA believe they can go ahead and kick a team out this season, even with the Parliamentry Enquiry not concluding till November, but they have been discreetly told all the millions of Government money they want to do up Railways Oval will no longer be on the table if they do!

Hopefully the Redbacks have another good season. Criticism of the grade competition will die down if they do alright.

I might have mentioned it before, but I wonder whether the biggest issue is the odd number of teams (bye) or that there are too many grade clubs for Adelaide's population?

If it's the former then what steps can be taken to add a 14th club to the competition? Where does it come from? Gawler, Mt Barker? Hard to squeeze another one in the metro area but the Ingle Farm/Pooraka area has always been a bit of a funny area in that it's a long way from any grade club.

Their biggest issue is the Bye. They want solutions to the problem. They seem quite receptive to going to 14 teams in 1st Grade. With the announcement of new turf oval at Mt.Barker that seems the logical answer.

Mark Jackson is cooked. What a flog

Definitely went too far,especially with his constant personal attacks on Mike Sheahan.

Sad thing is, he actually made a few good and valid points during all the ranting, just did not get the message across very well at all. Remember when he played for Melbourne and they were bottom, people only went to their games to see Jacko play, and all his antics!

I can 100% see why that umpire got punched, I don't condone it but can see why it happened.

Today in the 2nd 1/4 a bloke hip and shouldered an opposition player in the motion of kicking absolutely nothing in it. The same umpire then sprinted and I mean sprinted 60-70m got in the players face and said 'Any more and you'll be off the rest of the day and better not have plans Wednesday night' :shock:

All this was said about 30cm from the players face.

Disgrace. Power trip of the highest order. Like I said I don't condone umpire contact at all but, We as players are at times that pumped for the contest and to have a power trip happen 30cm from your face he is asking for trouble.

Totally get where you are coming from. Did hear after the Rumbles incident, the umpire admitted he said/did some things wrong in the way it was handled, whatever that means. Think the above story explains a bit, and that he has not changed at all how he goes about it.

Heard from someone at the Rosewater game (not from Rosewater), that in the first five minutes of game, umpire asked Rumbles to come back two metres on the mark, he then took two massive steps back, the umpire then said, no back here, another metre or so, Rumbles then said, "I came back two effin metres", then got yellow carded. He then went off at him again which resulted in the red card, then the rest is history. I can imagine Rumbles would have been that worked up over his 300th and to be sent off so early in game he just snapped.

Agree totally with Carey, the umpire should never be touched or hit, and there is no excuse for what happens, but maybe the umpire involved needs to slightly modify his actions, especially after what happened a few weeks ago.

Does anyone know why the first couple of rounds of grade cricket were swapped around?

We raised the issue with Delegates and programming committee, but did it very delicately. We did not want to be seen to be complaining, with everything we have gone thru the last nine months trying to survive, were just grateful to be in the comp at all!!

BUT, it is really a disgrace. Talk about the AFL having a compromised draw, this is exactly what has happened here. Every year the draw is moved two weeks forward, everyone knows that, and we had planned for the Bye in Round 1, only for it too be swapped around with Woodville.

Several points why it matters:

1. Now we play a one day game on Oct 15, then get two weeks off. Would be much better to have the Bye in Round 1, then start the season for better flow.

2. In a two day game, you potentially have the chance to win outright, therefore getting valuable extra points, not available in One day games.

3. In the one day comp when you have a Bye, you play the SACA Under 19's, normally a win occurs then.

Now Woodville get all these benefits. The worse thing of all is Geoff Turley from Woodville is in charge of Programming Committee, and gave no valid reasons why it was changed, ovals was one thing mentioned, but this can be sorted with Park 25 ovals, talk about a Conflict of Interest!

We made the decision not to challenge SACA on it, personally I would have, but we have more important issues to sort out this year to make sure we are around for many more years to come!

Colin Murray is one of them. Ex Port Adelaide player. Currently involved down there I'm pretty sure. Good bloke, knows his cricket. Would be really good.

Colin will get all the votes from anyone with links to Port Adelaide and West Torrens, will stand up to SACA re merger debacle. As for Gentle, complete opposite as happy to reduce number of Clubs. Sinclair pushing for more Yes men on the Board, so voting for Murray, Harms, Kerber(?) the way to go!

valleys07 wrote:Feel for Enright. Knows that was his last shot.

How can you feel sorry for Enright? He has won three flags, six All Australians.

You feel sorry for someone like Bob Murphy, potentially missing a flag or Grand Final after everything he has done for Bulldogs.

Literally the exact same thing has happened with blokes who will never make it as bats. Good batsmen still make runs against those bowlers, but getting lesser batsmen out when they can camp on the front shoe and dead bat the ball for 30 overs is a whole different kettle of fish. Like I said before, Australia are flat track bullies and the last thing it needs is grade cricket mirroring that.

A few draws yesterday :o

Lots of runs around the place. Makes a nice change from a few years ago when teams were often knocked over for <150 (and were still in the game!). The new curating system and the change of ball at A Grade level having a positive impact?

Don't know if 'positive' is the right word. Makes it a lot easier for batsmen with the turf ball rather than the regulation ball. Add to that the fact wickets are a bit all over the shop after all that rain and you get a bunch of flatties with a ball that goes soft in the 40th over and doesn't swing. Sure, you don't want to see sides being skittled for 150 every week, but that looks like more of a skill level thing and there just being more bowlers around who can get the job done. Sides making 400 every week on roads is no good for SA cricket, it's the same reason Australia play terribly away from home, no turf ball, no road, no runs.
It's positive IMO. Can no longer have medium pacers who will never get near 1st class cricket take bags of wickets every week. Now need a bit of pace or height to have a regular impact. Or spinners that give it a rip. It's closer in style to what first class cricket is

Agree with Backoftheroom here totally, the pitches are absolute roads and mask over some batters deficiencies. Same happens at Shield level, and a major reason why Australia always struggle in England when the pitches actually give the bowlers something.

Port clean sweep Woodville with not 1 of the chasing teams avoiding the follow on totals.

Good thing that WDCC are safe with results like that

A possible case of Karma after Woodville 'massaged' the draw so that their bye would be a 1-day game in Round One rather than in Round Two as it would have been under original SACA programming?

Careful what you say Bulldogproud, rumours around that SACA officials and Mr.Turley from Woodville read this forum and are less than impressed with the criticism of the draw. Maybe they need to justify how they can change a draw that is set every year, talk about a compromised draw. Resulted in most Clubs having four weeks home in a row or four weeks away, what a joke. Karma for Woodville for sure, well done Port!

Washouts are inevitable.
It was a fair call IMO. Not fair if 2 games get away and the rest don't.

Why does that matter though? It's not fair if you get the bottom team in a one dayer instead of a two dayer. It's not fair if you get allocated a dodgy umpire. It's not fair if Week 2 is washed out when you were heading for a win but your rivals were headed for a loss. It's not fair if you play opposition teams when they're at their strongest but others cop them when they have injuries/holidays/weddings/footy trips affecting their numbers.

It's just the luck of the draw! Rain is just another thing.

Why on earth would a club get covers, try to improve their facilities and hire switched on curators who put in the hours to get a deck up? Unless the clubs with the worst pitch square and the worst drainage and the worst or non-existent covers and deadbeat curators get away then it's all wasted effort. Clubs should be reimbursed for their curating costs this week. Every club who got a deck up should be reimbursed $500 by ATCA.

Assuming ATCA is like Grade Cricket, but the big problem is if one game gets under way on the first Day of a two day game, then all the other matches still have to play under two day rules on the second day, making it impossible to get a result unless you do declarations.

If they changed the rule, and allow any game that does not get started on the first day can revert to a one day game with 50 overs each, would be much fairer.

Ferg probably will play, Mennie a 50/50 chance I was told today

Heard different Intel to that, only named 12 at this stage.

If Aussie game goes the distance, depending on rain, will finish late on Wednesday, Shield game starts early Thursday. Don't know how any Aussie players will be able to play for their States.
Plenty of time ;)

Yes, very true. You may have been on the money all along!

Agree all the Aussie batters except Smith should play Shield cricket this match, put them all on notice!

Heard Lehmann making the whole team play Shield cricket this week (except the three pace bowlers). Think this is a great idea, makes a few Shield teams a bit stronger, NSW get four back! Ferguson back for Redbacks, assume Ross goes back to the Second X1 game in QLD on Monday.

Handscomb century for Vics, reckon he has sewn up his Baggy Green next week!

Has there ever been nice weather for a Tuesday night Twenty20?

Well... last week was ok I know but it sure seems there are a lot of grey overcast days when any other night of the week would be perfect
Surely tonight is the final nail in the coffin for Mid-Week 20/20 matches....no way a red ball match or white ball 50 would be playing in these conditions.

Sack Geoff Turley as head of the Programming Committee, has no idea. How many years have people been complaining! What are the Club Delegates doing, surely they bring this issue up. Too busy getting their free food and drinks and tickets into the Test Match to fix something so bloody obvious. Typical SACA mess! Although WT did chase successfully in the dark two weeks in a row!

Not that I give a rats toss bag about Central missing out.

But doesn't it seem a tad suspicious that the clubs that had their womens team application rejected were the two clubs (Central & South) that voted against the AFL reserves teams entering the SANFL.
Surely the Northern & Southern suburbs are two huge potential growth areas for a fledgling womens comp.

Payback ?????

Conspiracy theory - but maybe on the ball!

You surely need a team out south and north if it is going to work?

I know it's only a small thing, but it annoys me how that last shot of Lehmann's went for four, but it only went down as a single, he should have been 50 not out. Not sure why that is?

Handy win. Will be sitting clear second going into the two month break. Hopefully some batters, like Ferg, get some form back during the Big Bash.

Heard a whisper today - no merger next season. Instead a 14th team at Mt Barker.

No idea whether there is any validity to this whatsoever!
Makes absolutely no sense when 2 neighbouring clubs can't field full compliment of teams......

Heard similar rumour, bit hard to kick out the team on top of the ladder!! Don't think 12 teams is the issue, their main issue is getting rid of the Bye. 14 teams looks like the option.

I'm pretty happy that the Strikers aren't playing that sack Craig Simmons. He is no good, done f**k all for the Strikers since coming here.

He is in the last year of a three year deal, fair to say he will not be around next year. One of the Strikers worse signings, he is one of the highest paid players in the team and may not play a game!

Sam Heazlett to replace Smith, did not play one Matador Cup game for Queensland this season. None of the top 18 run getters from the Matador Cup are in the Australian squad
Really odd selection.

Ridiculous selection.

Really showing how much say Greg Chappell is getting, keeps picking these young guys he has had in his care thru Cricket Aust Under 19 squads. Heazlett played one good innings in BBL, played a few good shots, but does not deserve this. Probably wont play a game, but still.

Be a few really pissed off players around after that pick!

When are our batsman going to learn how to occupy the crease rather than trying to get it over with ASAP?
We had 5 and a bit sessions to chase 200 and we are trying to win it before tea today. We lasted 91 overs for the whole game yet WA batted for 138 overs!
The worst part is we would of gone top with a win and still have some breathing space and now we will be more than likely sitting fourth after tomorrow

Agree with this comment a lot, all our batsmen seem to want to score so quickly, how about getting yourself in and taking your time. Last time we played QLD, Renshaw was 17 off 95 balls, saw off the new ball, still made century off 200 balls. Cowan for NSW this match made a patient double ton. I know Siddons likes attacking cricket, but to face only 90 overs in a match is disgraceful batting.

How did Glenelg pull off adjusting the date of their semi and therefore the final at the last minute? Do they run the show?

Now the final won't feature any Redbacks players as a Shield game is on and Glenelg get the added bonus of having Sayers and Carey playing for them against Tea Tree Gully in the Semi-Final, who presumably won't have Head as he's playing T20 for Australia.

Careful Aerie, you will upset the Glenelg Supporters on here like "The Hound" and "back of the room"!!

It is a disgrace, if I was TTG I would be spewing, they now get Sayers and Carey to contend with, swings the game massively in their favour. Don't know why all Clubs got to vote on this, but the other three Clubs still involved in semis (Port, TTG and WT) all voted no, all other teams voted Yes, they did not give a crap. Too much power with Snewin from Bays in charge of Grade Committee.

The date was set, should of played at Park 25 if they could not provide oval. Makes a mockery of comp yet again when they change rules as they go.

Or, SACA could take it out of the clubs hands and give them two years to create a merger agreement with another club or you're out.
Well that went well recently.....

Bonney makes a great point. The difference is, going from 13 to 12 teams makes no difference whatsoever. If they said we are going to 8 teams in 2019/20 season, gives clubs two years to sort it out. Merge or gone. Think clubs would be more receptive to this, rather than trying to bully a team out because their neighbouring club can't field 16 Whites.

I personally don't think the number of District Clubs has anything to do with it, just a cop out excuse. We have the least number of clubs in 1st Grade than any other State. It all comes down to the High Performance department, it is their responsibility and maybe Tim Nielsen should be moved on instead of trying to lay the blame elsewhere.

Interesting article in this week's Messenger re SACA Under 19 team coming into 1st Grade comp.

Of all the Clubs spoken too, only two thought it was a good idea.

Naturally, Adelaide Uni were for it as they have no Juniors and it will not impact on them, surprise, surprise.

Also, Woodville agreed, but they have hardly developed any good juniors over the years, they just go pinching them from other Clubs, so wont affect them much either. (Sam McNally will no doubt be busy on the phone in the off season as per usual - that's if he still has the job).

Some great comments from Weaver and Brown too, pity SACA don't listen to guys like this that have over 10 years experience in the Comp and make a lot of sense with what they say.
Just grade clubs thinking they are more important than the redbacks again. Just go to 2 divisions and you can all keep your precious grade clubs

Still a bit sensitive Days about not getting your 20/20 game on Adelaide Oval!!

Premier clubs get money for game development activities but that doesn't mean they have to run Milo cricket or anything. Putting their coaches through Level 1 courses, Talent ID in country areas, setting up boys/girls academies through the winter etc all fall under that banner.

It doesn't really make sense for a premier club to run Milo cricket because the kids won't move up to the next level at a premier club because they don't have teams until the kids are 10-11 years old at the earliest. Makes sense for schools or turf clubs to run the Milo cricket so that the kids can progress through the pathways at the schools/turf clubs. Later the premier clubs can pick the eyes out of the talent.
Love the last sentence there Tony.
That's exactly why other organisations have no respect for Grade Cricket anymore.
Self indulgent pigs.

West Torrens have a good relationship with the Turf Clubs in our area. Our Milo program is considered one of the best in the State, all the parents rave about it, and have been to other programs but want to come to ours. We had 20 kids five years ago, now have 60 kids.

We currently have Under 11 and Under 13 teams, but apparently SACA are wanting to take these away from us. Another bun fight coming up. What they don't get is all the Turf Clubs are full in these grades in our area (Grange, Fulham, etc), so where are all these kids going to go play? They wont, they will go play tennis!

We work in with the Clubs and send players to them all the time, so don't see an issue if you all work sensibly together.

West Torrens 160
Kensington 145
Port Adelaide 140
Tea Tree Gully 135
Glenelg 125

Adelaide in 6th spot on 100 probably too far back.

What were Woodville thinking, typical negative cricket by them. Had Uni 9/367 overnight and bat on for 5 overs. Then have Uni nine down, those seven extra overs would have been handy, now out of finals contention.

Ladder tightening up now between the five teams left with chance of playing finals.

Tony Clifton wrote:Travis Head's form is almost as worrying as Ferguson's

Agree, plays like he is in a 20/20 match, goes too hard too early and it comes off every now and again.

So with Dalton getting picked by Redbacks, Kensy's batting looks bit more brittle. Having lost their Pom Hose who made over 500 runs at No.3, they look to be under the pump now. Might swing the game in Glenelg's favour. Will need Alex Ross to find some form, he cant make a run at the moment.

Other game looks very even, Port will not be easy. Batting is strong and if Ludeman gets going will be handy for them. West Torrens bowling been their strength all season so the match up is intriguing.

Done a "phantom" Bradman count, think it will be low scoring and close, so many games where votes could go to five or six different players, so just depends on how umpires see it in the end. With WT and Kensy winning so many games, predicting Drew and Dalton to fight it out. See how close this ends up, top 15!

Daniel Drew (WT) 26
Johnathan Dalton (Kens) 25
Nick Winter (Uni). 23
Finn Hudson-Prentice (Pros) 21
Jake Brown (Kens) 20
Mark Cosgrove (ND) 18
Connor McInerney (Wood) 18
Jacob Dick (St) 17
Leigh Drennan (WT) 17
Phil Neate (Adel) 16
Ben Williams (WT) 16
Adam Somerfield (TTG) 15
Harry Nielsen (Wood) 15
Brad Davis (St) 15
Tom Andrews (Wood) 14