Australia have regained the Ashes on the back of Steve Smith, a brilliant bowling attack and the batting cameos of the Marsh brothers. England have performed poorly.

Batting still looking very dodgy. History suggests Warner will come good and Shaun Marsh will continue to produce every now and then.

Mitch Marsh has now given himself some confidence and almost definitely the number 6 spot going in to the South African tour. I would not be at all confident at him coming in at 4-100 on a pitch slightly harder to bat on than the WACA was on Day 3.

We need Khawaja to find some real form going in to the South African tour.

Renshaw and Handscomb, who were looking like the future by the end of last Summer are now on the outer.

Bancroft the jury still very much out.

Maybe Smith is that good (and backed up by the bowlers) that we can ride them through to the next Ashes series. It would be nice to add another couple of world class batsman to the side though.

Good wrap. The unanswered question for me is who is the #2 spinner? Swepson, or will the selectors look at Maxwell for the Sydney test.

Bancroft not cemented yet, but he gets 2 more tests to prove himself.

Starc injured, do the rest him now we have the urn? Do they bring in Bird. Do the even consider Sayers?

I think the 4 frontline bowlers at the moment are far and away above anyone else available so regardless of conditions in Sydney, they go with them again. However, if there is a slight niggle in one of the pacemen, it would be great to get a look at Swepson and have Mitch Marsh as the 3rd seamer. Fawad Ahmed a possibility? Would be great to see a leggie in tandem with Lyon.

If Starc doesn't make it for Melbourne, Bird would be the obvious replacement, as much as I'd like to see Sayers play (and he very much deserves it). Bird has proven performance at Test level and recent form.

In a major blow to the Eagles, Leigh Drennan is heading back to his home state of Qld effective immediately due to work and family commitments.

What a great contribution he has made, both on and off the field, in his time at the club. Perhaps unheralded, especially prior to his Hookes medal, but one of the best and most important recruits the club has had in the last 20 years.

Renshaw with 170 today. Get him over there to take Bancroft’s spot!

Renshaw with 170 today. Get him over there to take Bancroft’s spot! Good to see him finally get a big score after a rough patch.
The only player I can remember to be dropped on Shield form. Goes to show you have to be on your game all the time if you want to be an international professional cricketer. Hopefully he gets an opportunity again soon as he has a Test match temperament and the skill to go with it. Plus he can catch in slips.

The zone question will be interesting if informal discussions regarding Uni and Port combining juniors is happening. "Rumour" has it that Uni to play Junior reds sides and Port play whites sides, games played at West Beach. Call gone out to the former "bookworms" :lol: to see if they have kids interested.
Are people jumping at shadows? There were rumours like this last year when the merger was on the cards and the West Beach development was happening. From memory though this was categorically denied by AUCC. Pretty sure there was something on their website refuting the rumour. Will try to dig it up

It was denied by AUCC, but something fishy was going on. Being very kind, perhaps AU and AUCC had their wires crossed and who knows what SACA was saying to them.

With strong junior clubs in Adelaide, West Torrens and Glenelg all circling the newly built Uni cricket grounds at West Beach - I'm not sure what adding another district junior cricket club in that area provides South Australian cricket. Hence the SACA trying to get rid of West Torrens a couple of years ago.

Well done to Port Adelaide on the One Day Cup win. Their A Grade team is certainly a lot stronger now and has been for a decade or so.

Instead of looking critically at what they have had to do to be competitive at A Grade level, perhaps they should be assisted (along with Northerns, Woodville and Southerns) in getting more kids involved in playing cricket who might otherwise not be able to afford to do so.

Booney wrote:Good luck to the WWT midfielders with Powell-Pepper in the centre square.

They are prepared. I believe they have some Powell-Pepper Spray in case he tries to put his hand up their shorts.

This should be good!

http://www.saca.com.au/news/adelaide-to ... 2018-07-02

Just saw this on the SANFL website:

Each non-AFL aligned SANFL club will field a team selected from their Country and Metropolitan zones in the Under-15 competition while also choosing an Under-17 (Youth) side of players from both zones.

Minor round matches have been conducted from Tuesday July 15 through to Thursday July 19 before the Under-15 Grand Finals are held at Thebarton Oval on Friday.

Teams are split into two divisions:

Crows Division – Central District, Glenelg, North Adelaide, Sturt
Power Division – Norwood, South Adelaide, West Adelaide, Woodville-West Torrens

Whoever named those divisions should be hung, drawn and quartered, wtf have the AFL teams got to do with it! Norwood in the Power division! Makes me want to throw up.

Country zoning very much suggests Norwood should be under the Port Adelaide banner. A Port Lincoln lad, play juniors with Norwood, on to the Port Adelaide AFL list - that is true Port Adelaide - as pure pathway as it gets (besides maybe a Semaphore kid doing the same via the Eagles)!

Hard to believe the Eagles as a merged entity have played more seasons than Woodville did in the SANFL. Nice to see them recognise the history of Woodville and West Torrens in this way. Being a very young kid in the 80's - my best mate was Woodville and I was West Torrens and we'd have many battles in our respective back yards, in full kit, wearing these two guernseys. We never swapped at half time.

Eagles going in their usual season trajectory. Have they got any hope against Sturt or Norwood in September or just making up the numbers? If they fail again it's surely time for a new coach. I don't see any players besides Poole who have the intestinal fortitude to win games when it matters.

Heard this odd fact from the 2nd game this morning.

Sturt laid 101 tackles and received only 1 holding the ball free. Eagles laid 86 tackles and received 10.
Glad this backs up what I thought on the day. Three glaring high tackles that weren’t paid, two in our F50 that were deemed HTB, the last free and resulting goal to WWT pretty well summed up the umpiring for the whole game.

The two in your F50 were because the Sturt players ducked in to the tackle trying to win a free kick. HTB every day of the week.
What a load of crap. I’m sure the vast majority of neutrals watching would disagree with you.

The ducking part or the if you duck it is play on, therefore holding the ball? Both times they definitely ducked.

McAdam was paid a mark in the last right in front of goal after he dropped it. He even played on and hand balled knowing he dropped it.

The worst decision of the day was the non-holding the ball when Poole was tackled running in to goal. That should have been a free kick to Sturt given they were hot on holding the ball all day.

The SANFL. What a shit show it’s been since Olsen took over.

another grub wrote:I ask you all this ....

Who would have won if Norf had have only had 18 on the park for the match?

End of thread.

It’s arguable. Eagles 20 points up at 3qtr time. First 5 minutes of last quarter North have 19 on the field. In that time they get it back to 12 points and have all the momentum.

What still bothers me is how the commission sent this to an independent umpire who could not apply a result that that he said it should have been. They could have made that decision themselves. Olsen has to go.
This is the most disturbing factor in all of this. It absolutely stinks. The admin of the SANFL/SA Football Commission are at best a total basket case and at worst corrupt cheats. The decision the QC was forced to make, whichever way it went, could be argued forever. No team deserved victory. A replay was the only fair option.

19th man didn’t cost the eagles, blowing a 40 odd point lead did. More should be talked about that

Agree totally. All this drama has done has meant Godden's failures as a finals coach and his game plan in finals has been glossed over. All the attention on other matters. Have not heard him accept any responsibility for what really was a massive choke, just focussing on the 19th man fiasco.

I do think Eagles were affected early in the last quarter as the Coaches box were in chaos, but also think the right decision was made in the end. Cant imagine how Eagles players would have got up for the game knowing they were beaten last week.

It’s such a fine line though. He was a genius in 2011 for defeating Central in one of the best Grand Finals ever played. But had Spurr kicked that goal, it would’ve been disaster. Had North not had 19 men for the start of the last quarter, Eagles may have won in a similar fashion. I had the pitchfork out before reading North had 19 men on Sunday night. That was such a crucial point in the game, you simply don’t know what would’ve happened if it was an even playing field. Eagles kick the first couple, like they did in all the other quarters, and it’s game over.

A strong team, but would be better off putting Kirkwood on to the ground and just having the 2 on the bench.

I reckon Godden will be excellent for the Crows and I think it is a good time for the Eagles to have a fresh voice at the top.

I reckon you can split in to 3 Godden's tenure at the Eagles:

2010-11 where he took over from Fuller, still with a very strong leadership group. This group did ok during the minor round but excelled in September and ended up pinching the flag from the Dogs (and ending their era) in 2011.

2012-16 where he needed to rebuild after losing the likes of McKenzie, Powell, Cica, Parry, Grocke etc. He went the big money recruits option with Wundke, Boyd, Ainger. They dominated 2015/16 but ultimately failed on Grand Final day both in 2015 and 2016 where they should've won both premierships.

2017-18 where he rebuilt again, this time with locals and the return of some AFL experienced former Eagles. Surprised many with the minor premiership last year, but ran out of puff by the end of the year and hardly a yelp in finals. I thought the Eagles were playing the right brand of football this year and barring some poor mistakes (and some Wilson brilliance) should have beaten Norwood. We'll never know what might have been after the Prelim farce - but given the Eagles history of fading in finals - it isn't a stretch to say the Eagles still had the choke collar on. But the future is still bright at WWTFC.

Nabbed one premiership when he shouldn't have and lost two when he should have.

Interesting comparing to Fuller. Both had 9 seasons. Both won one premiership.

Fuller made it to 4 Grand Finals (losing 3) and Godden 3 (losing 2). Fuller won 12 and lost 12 finals, Godden won 8 and lost 12. Godden won 3 minor premierships and didn't miss finals, Fuller won 1 minor premiership and missed finals once. Godden minor round winning record of 66% and Fuller 64%. If you would've told Eagles supporters 9 years ago that Fuller would be rated better overall than Godden due to his better finals record, they would look at you with dread.

Overall though we've been lucky, both with Godden and Fuller at the helm this century. 2 out of every 3 wins ain't bad to get you through an Adelaide winter.

I wonder who is next? With the tightening of the purse strings in the modern era - perhaps Powell could be CEO, club runner and coach? Wouldn't mind him back on the ball neither tbh.

I agree with points 2,3 and 4.

i did not mean "marketing" in as negative sense as you have perceived it.

His use at Port was/is similar to our use of Emmanuel, a face of the club to promote inclusion.

I don't think our cultural programs need any tokenistic additions.

Unlike your football club!

Could be an interesting finish at Henley as well?

WT 2/178 chasing Sturt's 6/353 dec.

Guessing there is about 36 overs to go. Drew just joined Smith (67*) at the crease. Capel out for 99.

What the result would’ve been had there not been 19 players on the field at the start of the last quarter is unknown. You could make a case for either side winning.

The only fair way to have decided the result would’ve been a full replay, as the QC recommended. The SANFL made it not possible for a replay to occur, presumably for commercial reasons. The AFL indicated if it was their competition, the Eagles would’ve been playing the GF.

The decision was made and North Adelaide won a great Grand Final - one of the great premiership triumphs of all time. That is all that matters and that goes down in the history books.

However, how they could fine and penalise points against North Adelaide and at the same time not give financial compensation to the Eagles for potential loss of income for competing in a Grand Final caps off an all-round embarrassing handling of the situation by the SANFL.

Anyway, bring on season 2019.

Just saw on SACA news Smith. Opie and Cormack gone. Wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them ends up somewhere else for more opportunity (maybe Tas?)
Joke from Tim Nielsen - cut the blokes at the fringes after a winless season.. pathetic!

Limited opportunties for the 3 as it was.. i wanna see some actual ballsy decisions. Hopefully there are some bigger names to come!

Bias view I know, but their treatment of Kelvin has been a disgrace. At 24 years of age he is coming up to the prime of his life as a batter, so they invest all this time into him and discard him now.

Think Tasmania are after him (and Jake Winter), so see what happens. How do they keep under achieving Patrick Page and Alex Ross who are just clogging up the list.

There is nobody in Grade Cricket who deserves a contract over Kelvin, so hopefully Heater is right and they have a few players coming from Interstate otherwise we will get a hat trick of wooden spoons!

I guess at the end of the day he has had 20 first class matches and scored 4 half-centuries averaging 20 and he'll have to cop that himself. However, I don't think the Redbacks have done him any favours.

He was given the last two games before the BBL break and then the last two games of the season this year. The only extended run he seemed to get was the first half of the season a few years ago when Weatherald came on to the scene. From memory, they did well as an opening partnership and Kelvin got a couple of 50's, but then was discarded when they came back after BBL.

I don't know why they persist with the likes of Cooper at 6. That spot should be used to bring in the likes of Smith and give them some experience instead of feeding them to the wolves at the top of the order.

I hope he gets a chance to continue his first class career somewhere else like Peter George did. He is a prolific scorer of centuries in all forms of cricket up to 2nd XI. I feel once he gets that break, he'll go on with it. His record at West Torrens' is incredible. Even if he's played his last game for the club at age 24 - he'd have to go down as one of the all time greats given he's been carving out centuries season upon season since he was 16. I hope it works out for him and he still has a hunger and enjoyment for the game.

Port Natives definitely the same club as West Torrens.

1894 - Port Natives formed by players broken away from Port Adelaide, won premiership in Adelaide and Suburban Association
1895 - won 2nd premiership in Adelaide and Suburban Association which disbanded at end of that year
1896 - Renamed Natives and accepted in SAFA - finished 4th of 5 teams (Port Adelaide wooden spooners)
1897 - Renamed West Torrens with introduction of district football
1990 - Merged with Woodville to become Woodville-West Torrens Football Club

https://wwtfc.com.au/west-torrens-football-club-history/

Similarly; West Torrens District Cricket Club were renamed West Torrens due to introduction of district cricket in 1897 - but were previously Hindmarsh Cricket Club and have played uninterupted since 1865 (besides the war years I guess).

So after yesterday's announcements, the SANFL could start playing (without spectators) from June 5? Will they take advantage and start the weekend before the AFL kicks of?

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.

Lindsay Head mentions the 1963 WT side to be the best he played in and stronger than the 1953 premiership

West Torrens decimated by the inclusion of Woodville in 1964.

Then since the merger, WWT has an overall winning percentage 2nd only to Port. Unfortunately seem to have the same problem in the major round as the old Eagles.

Woodville should never have come in. Admitting Central was a good move.

A special committee formed in 1962 to decide on the future of Central and Woodville who had been admitted to play Reserves since 1959. It was recommended the league stay at 8 clubs, but South Adelaide relocate to Elizabeth. It was recommended no more clubs in the west and that by 1975, two more clubs should be based at Noarlunga and Tea Tree Gully to make 10 teams. West, Port, Sturt and Torrens voted for this. The other 4 clubs voted against, so the Chairman, Tony Kenny had the final say and the rest is history.

Re rivalries - there has only been one huge crowd at a minor round game in recent memory and that was Glenelg vs Sturt. Not sure why that game in particular? All the stars must have aligned.

In terms of support - Norwood would be fairly comfortably the biggest club I'd imagine.

Then Sturt and Glenelg.

Then North and Central.

Then Eagles, West and South.

Enough history between all the clubs for the top few performing teams to generate public interest.

If I was in charge of fixturing a rivalry round, I'd have:

Glenelg vs North
Norwood vs Sturt
Eagles vs Central
South vs West

With the potential clash of SANFL Grand Final with the cricket at Adelaide Oval - why are the SANFL not beginning their season a week earlier on June 20? Is there any good reason why this still can not happen? June 20 and June 27 at Adelaide Oval and then crowds back at suburban venues for Round 3.

I’ve mentioned this a few times, but still think it is worth pursuing.

Have a Premier Grade of 8 clubs.

Have a District Grade of all 13 clubs, which would contain the 2nd Grade of each Premier Club and the 1st Grade of the rest.

If one of the 1st Grade teams wins the District Grade they replace the wooden spooner of Premier Grade.

Some clubs may fall away, some clubs may merge and that’s fine if it’s necessary. Forcing a merger isn’t right. There is nothing to suggest a merged club will be any stronger down the track - especially if a club already has a good program and good people running the club.

Keeping in the October-March time-frame, I reckon you could do something like:

Premier Grade - 8 Teams - Three Trophies
- 3-day comp (Sat + Sat/Sun) 7 Rounds plus 4-day Final (Sat/Sun + Sat/Sun) to finish season
- 1-day comp 7 Rounds (Saturdays) plus Final done by January
- T20 comp 7 Rounds (mid week evenings) Final done by February
- All senior state level players or players aspiring to play state level for that season or the next would play for Premier Grade clubs

A combination of the three competitions above to determine who would have a possibility of being relegated by finishing bottom.

Players playing Premier Grade would play 7 Sunday's, plus Sunday Finals for all 3 competitions over the course of a season.

District Grade - 14 Teams - One Trophy
- Combination of 1-day and 2-day games, 13 Rounds, all played on Saturday's, except for Sat/Sun Semi Final and Final.
- I would add a new team at Mt Barker with the new facilities being currently built - servicing the Hills/Strathalbyn/Murray Bridge etc.
- The 8 Premier Grade teams to field their 2nd Grade in this competition.
- If a 1st Grade team won the premiership, they would be promoted to Premier Grade to replace the bottom team.

Reserve Grade A - Optional Entry to be determined before start of season by each club
- Essentially 3rd Grade/2nd Grade teams, up to clubs if they want to submit a team or their Reserve Grade players play for local clubs.

Reserve Grade B - Optional Entry to be determined before start of season by each club
- Essentially 4th/3rd Grade teams, up to clubs if they want to submit a team or their Reserve Grade players play for local clubs.

Every club to also have a Womens team in a similar set-up.

Juniors, just one U17, U15 and U13 team playing each weekend with fluid player movement between local clubs and grade clubs to ensure everyone is getting a game and the most committed and talented are playing in the Grade teams.

Agree Mr Fuller. Foote was fantastic, as was Rowe and Redden. Eagles have had a great start to the season. Thought North were very good with the pressure in the 1st quarter in particular, forcing Eagles to handball under pressure, but Eagles eventually ground out the win. That goal just before quarter time for the Eagles was very important.

Watched on the Digital Pass. No complaints from me. Works 99 percent of the time and great to have all the matches available to watch live every week. Such a great addition to SANFL coverage and has made up for the loss of the traditional radio. Nankivell is the best commentator IMO and would comfortably sit amongst the best play by play commentators in the country. Big Phil excellent also.

The competition is so much better without the AFL Reserves teams. I can watch my team knowing they’re playing on an even playing field and not subject to the fortunes of a couple of AFL teams.

Tough in the selection meeting for the Glenelg coaching group this week. I heard they started early morning, it took all day. It got to the point where they were waiting, watching the clock, it got to four o'clock and they had to stop and they couldn't find a spot for Finn Betterman.

Thought Glenelg started the game well, the Eagles going the length of the ground to kick a goal against the run of play and then breaking the game open a little bit. Again in the 2nd it was a bit of an arm wrestle until the Eagles broke the game open in the last part of the quarter. The game had some similarities to the infamous 19 man Prelim Final. Eagles got out to a 45 point lead halfway through the 3rd before Glenelg started to get on top.

A brilliant chase down by Mansell preventing a certain goal to Glenelg just before 3 qtr time was crucial. There were enough desperate moments like that, a Hall mark back with the flight another example, to suggest this Eagles side has a bit more ticker, to suppress what was a storming comeback by Glenelg. Led by Bradley, Glenelg closed the margin to 15 points 10 minutes into the last term, before Rowe and Carcuro sealed the win with back to back goals.

I thought the Eagles played a pretty good team game - “all played well”. Foote very good again. Pudney was clean in his first game, a late in for Goldsworthy I presume, who’d prefer to play his 200th at home? Jones, Seymour and Giuffreda did well in Thompson’s absence. Jones taking on Glenelg’s main/only avenue to goal, the giant McBean and doing a fair job, even though McBean ended up with 5. Much of the play went in his direction.

The Eagles good start continues, albeit with a bit of a reality check in that last quarter.

zipzap wrote:Right, first order of business for the new CEO then: change it back to the ******* S.A.N.F.L.

Yes, and 2nd job to keep it at 8 teams!

Usually when a new coach comes in to a club for his first stint at coaching at league level the season appears to get lost with the new coach assessing his players and what they can do. Putting in place new structures that the players have to learn and getting a coaching group together along with recruiting. This I feel was the senario for the Eagles in 2019.

Jade Sheedy hit the ground running from the first training session, he must have done a lot of homework straight after his appointment. He is well organised, has a simple but exciting game plan that the players have quickly adapted to and enjoy playing to. From the start he knew what players he wanted in the team and where they would play. Explored different football competitions to find likely league players ( Seymour and Carcuro). Reviewed the player list to find players that might not have been given great opportunities in the past but had skills he might be able to utilise (Wehr, Comitogianni and Lee). But best off all he has given the youngster a go (Jones, McNeil and Mansell) plus playing many players in the reserves from the 2018 and 2019 premiership teams. Jade Sheedy has been a breath of fresh air for the club.

Most of the players he has brought in - Seymour, Wehr, Mansell, Jones particularly - can all the kick the ball really well which has been a change from previous years. With three of these players playing in our defensive half this allows us to set up play down back and push forward confidently. Von Bertouch up forward has been a great move and probably a couple of years overdue. It does feel like we will see a 6-7 goal game from him in the coming weeks.

Too early to tell what sort of player Tsitas will be for us after one game. It will be interesting to see where he is at after getting used to Sheed'y gameplan and the rest of the team.

With Thompson, Goldsworthy, Foote, Lonergan (and potentially Lowson) coming back in the next week or so the Club has will be in the nice position of wondering how they will all fit in and who to drop. If they all came back in next week I think the unlucky ones might be Lee, Firns and Pudney. Then the remaining two spots might be any of Rowland, Wehr, Comittogianni and Hall.

The Club hasn't had this much depth in a long, long time.

Agree with you both. Tsitas tested the best in field kicking back in his draft year as well - so presume that will be one of his strengths.

Back in 2006 it took the recruitment of Luke Jarrad, with his long raking left foot, to really add that extra dimension to the team. Jones, Wehr and Seymour are all nice long penetrating kicks and McNeill is also a very good kick. Makes the world of difference having replaced the likes of Boyd, Petrenko and Johansen - who were good players, but had b grade level foot skills and no penetration.

Tsitas is a great get and presumably will only get better.

Rowe very good. Used more in the midfield, although still kicked 4 goals. Perhaps a precursor to how he’ll be used with the addition of Lowson to the side. He has all the tools to be a gun midfielder. Foote again played well and Hall ran all day. The defence again held water tight, under plenty of pressure.

South won just about all the stats except tackles. Eagles better skills for the most part.

Eagles have now beaten all teams and on paper at least, will only get stronger. The captain and vice captain returning from injury to play Reserves today and VFL star Lowson spending his last weekend in quarantine. Redden and Poole also to fit back in.

Time for a best ground poll!

Will run a couple. Please post your 5-4-3-2-1 votes for main ovals and also 5-4-3-2-1 votes for second ovals.

You can factor in pitch, outfield, changerooms, clubrooms, viewing for spectators/players, surrounds... or whatever you value most highly.

5 votes (best ground)
4 votes
3 votes
2 votes
1 vote

Main ovals - Bice, Campbelltown, Glandore, Glenelg, Henley, Parkinson, Pertaringa, Port Reserve, Price Memorial, Prospect, Salisbury, University and Woodville

Second ovals - Adelaide High, Broadview, Bulkana, Camden, Colonel Waite, EP Nazar, Henley High, Paddocks, Park 23, St Clair, University #2, Unley and Windsor Gardens

Played on almost all these ovals, but my opinion will be out of date...

Main ovals:
5 - University (loved it was close to Adel Oval, the church bells, the old scoreboard which kept your score and the nice outfield).
4 - Henley Oval (a bit biased, nice sea breeze, never too hot)
3 - Woodville Oval
2 - Parkinson Oval
1 - Salisbury Oval

Second Ovals
5 - Unley Oval (better than Price)
4 - Henley High (better than Henley Oval to play on)
3 - St Clair
2 - Camden
1 - University #2

He was most definitely a champion footballer. Fingers crossed he recovers quickly and fully.

Godden let go by the Crows. I wonder if he and Mattner will coach SANFL again next year?

Well played Central. Plenty of spirit shown to fight back and get the win. Hoskin was everywhere - could not contain him.

A fairly poor effort by the Eagles. Moved the ball well at times, but lacked hunger. It won’t just happen over the next 3 weeks. I hope that is a reminder and kicks the Eagles in to gear. They’ve just been cruising for most of the last month after blitzing sides early and haven’t shown anything as yet to suggest they’ll fight tooth and nail when it’s not going their way. There will be times in the next 3 weeks they’ll have to do this if they want to win finals.

Don't forget about the sacrifice Jake Comitogianni made for the club. Volunteered to be the emergency for the league team despite having the opportunity to play in the Reserves premiership. Was pretty unlucky to be squeezed out of the league team but his committment to the club was admirable.

Wow, that definitely can't go unmentioned. Thats exceptional committment from the young lad

That suggests he missed receiving a medal in both grades. Does anyone know if the SANFL present additional medals? In the EPL they give medals to squad players with certain amount of games played. Poor form by the Eagles if a fitness test was required after the reserves started.

There's been plenty of occasions when a player has injured himself in the warm up. With a few under injury clouds - it was the smart thing to do to have a player on standby.

Both Commitgiani and Seymour were very unlucky to miss out on a league premiership, having played most of the season. Also Chris Hall who injured his shoulder late in the season. Full credit to Comma for putting the team first. He thoroughly deserves a medal. At Adelaide Oval in Round 2, having lost to South in the first game and trailing Sturt, Comma went back with the flight to contest a gutsy mark, took the hit and I reckon that act and moment set the tone for the Eagles to win that game and go on from there.

The SANFL competition is so much better without the AFL Reserves.

If they do come back:

- Port should pay the same as the Crows.
- That amount should be increased as there were no extra crowds or extra effort by the Crows or Port to promote the competition.
- No marquee players.

When the Reserves concept was originally voted on (with no member input), the vote was 6-2, with only South and Central voting against. What would the vote be if it could be done again now, for next season?

I think so, Tea Tree Gully certainly was.
Another example of the SANFL screwing over Torrens.
We developed the area and it was even mooted that we set up home out there.
Then they gave the area to Norwood

Not sure you can say that the Eagles have been 'screwed over'. After all. you received the areas of two clubs: Woodville AND West Torrens. It was only right that some of your very old area was taken away.
The club has worked very hard in making success happen since then, but there is no way they were treated harshly by the SANFL.
Cheers

All 9 SANFL clubs have had equal zones well before the turn of the century. The Eagles don't have double the zone of everyone else.

It is no coincidence the lowest supported clubs (Eagles, South and West) have been shifted around the most over their history.

You can begin when Woodville was brought in in 1964. Then to compensate Torrens was given the north-east. Then it was taken away and handed to Norwood. Then the merger.

In more recent times, the Eagles lost Thebarton and that area to West in the early 2000's. Then when Port was turned into an AFL Reserves team, the Eagles were shifted out of the entire area west of the city and north of Trimmer Parade and even a suburb in Woodville was taken away. Glenelg and West the beneficiaries They have since been given a slice of the coastal area back to Henley Beach, beachside of Cudmore Tce and north of Henley Beach Rd.

The Eagles have taken over much of Port Adelaide heartland (good luck getting Eagles supporters from that lot - especially with the Magpies still in the SANFL) and have even built facilities in Wingfield of all places.

The club has still done a wonderful job of developing juniors and turning them in to AFL and SANFL League footballers, regardless of zones.

But yes, the SANFL have screwed over the Eagles, in both their forms, over the last 60 odd years. Hence they've gone from being the 3rd biggest club in 1963 (behind Port and Norwood) to one of the three smallest supported clubs. But, they've survived and prospered and the supporters who remain can be very proud of their club, which keeps battling on.

If the AFL dropped the 2 lowest paid players off each list, that would save about $3m and the state league’s could maintain their very modest salary caps. Or, heaven forbid, the top paid players could empty their pockets of some loose change.

It seems the SANFL league competition gets whacked constantly from all angles.

Not counting finals, a salary cap of $210,000 is an average of $530 per game for only the 22 league players that play.

That is a disgrace, given the commitments outside of game day required.

In cricket, it took the Players Association to see the need for some money to go back to those that participate in the next level below professionals. The same couldn’t be said for the AFL Players Association or the AFL itself. Despite Covid, they are still selfish and money hungry with no vision beyond the top level.

The SANFL administration NEVER stand up for the league competition. They are all just in it for a job or payday for themselves. Some may see it as a stepping stone to a higher off field position in football.

To simplify the concept I put forward:

1st Grade - 8 Clubs
2nd Grade - All clubs (1st Grade team of clubs not in 1st Grade)
3rd Grade - Optional
4th Grade - Optional
Under 17 - one team for every club
Under 15 - one team for every club
Under 13 - one team for every club

Every club should have a Women's/Girls set up too.

If a club wins 2nd Grade and are not already in 1st Grade, they are promoted in place of the team that finished bottom in 1st Grade. Otherwise, no change.

If teams think merging is a better option, then fine. They shouldn’t be forced to though. There is no guarantee that 10 years down the track the merged club would be better off and often it would be worse off.

Don’t destroy something that’s been around for 100 plus years because you can’t get that back. You can tweak the competition though.

The top end clearly needs to be stronger and the best players playing in fewer teams does this. It is also important though, to funnel as many talented kids through a good set up as possible, regardless of demographic, to find that future Test cricketer.

I hate the concept of the marquee player.

Completely agree.

For the AFL sides, all the listed players are on minimum $100k, they have at least a dozen marquee players running around every week.

For the SANFL sides, just add $25k on to the salary cap and let the clubs do as they wish with it. They’ll be hard pressed just to retain players, let alone attract new ones.

The Crows should pay the full fee. And if they didn’t pay anything for 2020 - they should cough up the full fee for this year too.

Might be time to upgrade the merch. Think I’ll replace my Eagles Are Angry t-shirt with the new Menzel As Anything tops. Mutch Mutch!

Only Kensington, Sturt and Glenelg I would say tick all the boxes (Womens/Juniors) and perform consistently above average at 1st Grade Mens level. I would be very reluctant to merge any of these three clubs. West Torrens also ticks all the boxes, but doesn't have the consistency of performance that those three clubs have. Northern Districts and Southern District also tick the boxes, but have struggled to be properly competitive at senior level, only Prospect are worse.

Tea Tree Gully, University and Woodville have recently been strong performing clubs, but lack either a full junior or womens program.

Port Adelaide, East Torrens and Adelaide all are middle of the road senior clubs with no womens program and Port Adelaide struggle to fill their junior quota of teams.

Prospect have really struggled for a long time at senior level and also don't have a womens program.

In terms of mergers, geographically, the closest ovals to each other are:

1. Adelaide/Sturt - 4km
2. Uni/Prospect - 4.5km
3. Woodville/Port - 5.8km

If Adelaide merge with Southerns and plan to move further South - those other clubs merging makes sense to me.

If cutting to 8 teams - you'd look at East Torrens with TTG or Kensington and West Torrens/Woodville/Port a 3-way merger - and move Northern Districts further north.

Which clubs would survive/prosper without the SACA funding? Adelaide Uni? Anyone else?

West Torrens have had the Western Eagles on their logo since the move to Henley.

East Torrens also have the Eastern Reds on their logo.

Could the Adelaide Cricket Club unofficially be known as the Southern Stingrays if the merger were successful and have that on their logo? Would that help preserve the identity better of both. I also think the merged club should be based at Bice Oval until another facility is built.