Bailey Hann would be a good fit for uni after losing Agar and Hilditch.

Re juniors, I would think priority would be to not have the SACA comp clash with school cricket. So schools on Saturday, SACA and Turf on Sunday. One U15 and U17 team would be fine with fluidity between SACA club and Turf club. Perhaps every player is registered and pays subs to their turf club and the SACA comp is funded so juniors don’t pay two lots of subs.

Re seniors, again, if there is fluidity of player movement between SACA and Turf clubs, less teams would be fine.

I’d have a Premier League of the top 8 clubs playing each other club in all 3 formats plus finals.
Then a District League of the remaining 5 clubs and the 2nds of the Premier League.
Then the 3rds, with an option for those not in Premier League to field two teams if they wish.

The premier of the District League, if not already in a Premier League, would replace wooden spooner of Premier League in promotion/relegation system.

This would improve standard of top level and make current 2nd Grade/District League far more competitive and important.

Where that falls down is any player with serious state aspirations has to move any time the club is relegated. Becomes a revolving Much simpler to get rid of three teams altogether imo. Keep 4 grades with 10 clubs should raise the standard of 4th grade and clean out some of the players who have no prospect of playing higher.

Get rid of 16 whites. Lots of kids in it who are not much good and are only money makers for the clubs. Keep 14 whites but very much bowlers bowl and batter bat. Seeing 14s teams where every bowler gets a bowl regardless of ability is no good imo.

How would people rate the clubs overall. Interested in people's thoughts

Leading Clubs
1. Kensington - the standard for a long time. Small but very affluent zone. Churn out elite juniors.
2. Glenelg - Probably should have won another flag or two across all formats in the 1's over the last few years
3. Tea Tree Gully - weighted towards their success in top grade over last 10 years with mostly internally developed talent

Strong Clubs
4. Sturt - great junior development. Very strong over the years.
5. West Torrens - Probably slid a bit from where they were 10 years ago but leading womens club, strong track record of junior development.
6. Adelaide - Developed a strong 1st grade from home grown talent. Very strong juniors currently as well.
7. University - Great facilities, very good in the grades that they have but lose points for no juniors and reliance on recruiting.
8. East Torrens - Rising fast in all aspects.

Going Okay
9. Woodville - Struggle hard in seniors below 1st grade. Juniors seem to go up and down a fair bit. Not what they were 10 -15 years ago.
10, Southern District - bit of an improvement albeit bringing in a lot of short term recruits. Have struggled to retain good young players

Struggling
11. Port Adelaide - Some credible 1st performances including a flag a few years back . Mostly poor performances below the top grade. Not a growth
area for young people.
12. Northern Districts - Struggled a lot the last 10 years. Seem to lose a lot of heir good young juniors
13. Prospect - Shambles. Relatively small zone.

Geographical Observations - not saying all of these should happen but from the viewpoint of if you were starting a 10 team league from scratch:

- Adelaide between Glenelg and Sturt is not necessary
- Kensington could be set up in the hills.
- Woodville and West Torrens are far too close together to be separate clubs
- Prospect and University are far too close together. Would seem logical to fold prospect juniors in to University. This to me is the most obvious
merger.
- East Torrens and Tea Tree Gully - not necessary to have to clubs in the North East so close together.

Problem here is some of the clubs with small / close zones have been the better performers due to their locating (i.e. relatively high socio -economic areas: East, Beachside and inner south), whilst Southern and Northern have really struggled but make up two of the larger zones. Makes things tricky.

Nick Bertus to Northern Districts. very good pick up for the Jets.

Do people honestly think that simply getting rid of 3 clubs is the missing link that will take the Redbacks to the top of the First - Class system in Australia? Where is the accountability for players, coaches and administrative staff in the cricket department over this period of failure?

I am perplexed with the Hussey report not considering Geography in its merger? Surely it can't be good for there to be no premier club South of Darlington.

Look at the four most successful clubs in grade cricket in recent times - Kensington, University, Sturt and Glenelg. Probably the four most well off in terms of socio - economic terms as well. Cricket is becoming more exclusive and SACA seem to be putting that fact in to the 'too hard' basket, rather than working with the clubs to improve the situation.