Everyone has ignored it so far, so why wouldn't you join your juniors in a league where you know the rules will do their best to ensure a more even playing field?

Because who wants to get to an 8am Under 8 game at Smithfield when they live at Mitchell Park? Why would that be a threat?

Edit - I don't mean going to Smithfield, I mean MP having to play Smiffies

Well, as I live just the other side of Smithfield, I figure the issue would be the fact that if you were from Mitchell Park an 8am game would mean you'd need to be at the ground by 7.15. Which means leaving home by 6.30 at the latest. Which means getting yourself up at 5.50 and getting the kid up at 6. I reckon a few parents would baulk at that.

However, nothing wrong with running north/east/west and south zones for junior footy if SAAFL did take it over.

Calling someone a ped is pretty low. That stuff stains, even if it was pulled out of thin air.

Robb_Stark wrote: clearly you know nothing of the north

Robb Stark channeling Ygritte.

It's a fair point, but I'm sure that constituents were saying, "where are the visionaries" during the Playford and Menzies eras (names I mention, as those gentlemen are very much respected and seen as visionaries). We don't recognise visionaries until well after the fact.

Personally, while South Road has many bumps to iron out, I think the works to get the Southern Expressway multi-directional, the Superway, the Fatchen Northern Expressway, Adelaide Oval and developing a new hospital are pretty visionary. Most of us, however, get caught in the politics of the moment and don't see it that way.
If you look at the Libs original plans for the hospital, rebuild it on the current site, and the Adelaide Oval, build a second stadium, I don't think they were visionary.
It has taken a lot of guts from the State Government to get all of those projects off the ground. Whether we'll all regard it as visionary, only time will tell.

my head's spinning

You've got a thing against people who lisp? Shame.

Work for 9 or Crocmedia, Legs Man?

Curious about that, can you show me a source.

That was one of my arguments right from the start - no one goes to watch reserves teams, at any level. Why would the Crows be any different?

Something innovative...like a Player Retention Scheme.

In this very religious week, it's worth noting that it was one of the Judas' of the competition crucified on the weekend.

It happened right in front of where I was standing (standing in our usual spot just left of the canteen, near the scoreboard)
He went past the footy to provide a shepherd.
I think there was someone running boundary side to pick the ball up.
Barmby got Phillips, who was open for the bump - it appeared to me he got him front on and to the chest.
He had his shoulder low, arm and elbow tucked in.
As I said in a previous post, I didn't think there was head high contact and it was possible that Phillips hit his head on the ground.
However, having not seen a replay, I can't be certain.
The cameras wouldn't really have captured it to any great level, I wouldn't think, as Phillips was running towards the boundary and Barmby got him boundary side.
Certainly wasn't malicious. I certainly wouldn't have thought it was worth three games.

He'd also have a clear record, wouldn't he? Don't remember his name in reports in the past.

LPH

Didn't want to run it during Easter week.

Kevin Sheedy was almost going to coach Centrals prior to his Essendon appointment.

No one would.

Bloody hell - I can tell you the provenance of every CD in my very large collection, or every t-shirt in my wardrobe.
I reckon if I got a bottle of Grange from some bastard, I'd remember it until the grave.
Heck, I'm still thanking a mate for a bottle of scotch he bought six years ago for helping him with something.

Interesting that SANFL members have to pay to get into finals. But supporters of a team from another competition get into the SANFL for free.

Hefty wrote:Beastie Boys - Ill Communication

A favourite.

Couldn't get anyone to come with me to this one - they're all glad they stayed home, or whatever it else is they were doing, I'm sure.

Things I learnt:
We won't play finals.
Westies goals are effing massive.
Westies have the hottest drink runner in the league.
The deck in front of the past players' bar is the best place to view the game with a beer in hand in the SANFL, sorry Coopers Hill.
No matter how old they are, former players are just as big a bunch a kids around their team-mates as they ever were.
Ken Eustice has suffered nothing, in the eyes of his former team-mates, for all of his trials and tribulations over the past 20 years - they still revere and love him as much as they ever have.
The Gowans boys can charm anyone (I should've already known this).

After watching the Dogs' reserves squander a lead and then scramble a draw, I was hoping for a positive contest from our boys in the seniors.
It was a must-win game in the context of the season.
The opening two minutes showed promise, in that we were moving forward and sending the ball into attack - what looked like promise,though, was a portent for the remainder of the game, the scene was set.
We delivered poorly to our forwards and with poor delivery comes predictability. This continued throughout the game.
We don't have the big bodies up forward to just bang the ball into contests and Retzlaff really needs to become more imposing if that is to happen.
Once the Bloods hit the scoreboard, their confidence rose and we started chasing guernseys.
They kicked goals with just about every opportunity they had, whereas we were wasteful moving forward, not only missing targets over distance but also in close.
For the second straight week, we saw comical mishandling of the ball in the forward line, resulting in a missed opportunity to score - second quarter, Retzlaff to a running Bulldog. Instead of landing in space and allowing the ball to run forward and the player to run into an open goal, the ball was kicked high and arced to the side of our player who was quickly over run.
We produce plenty of forward entries but our delivery lets us down time and time again. With our talent pool of the moment, we need to kick all of our 'sodas' and we miss far too many of them.
Wasteful use of possession and allowing Westies to break tackles, or run past, with ease were major concerns.
How we controlled much of the second half but scored so little is an indictment.
Westies were good and co-ordinated, but we gave them so much latitude that they looked a premiership contender, not the previously winless side they were.
Surpisingly, we were considered a chance, given our flood of forward entries in the third, to sneak past Westies in the final term and there was a feeling among the Centrals supporters that anything was possible. However, the Bloods withstood the torrent and went on to bang five goals, while we recorded our second goalless term for the game.

Had a very brief chat with James Gowans during the last term.
He reckons he could still outplay half the side that was out there. You'd expect him to say nothing less, given the personality of the boy, but...he may just be right.
Thommo was gutsy and battled hard, Barmby is a rare shining light for us this season and Glenn had his moments. Hard to mention many others.
Second efforts ordinary, gut running lacking and football nouse not evident. Some of the young fellows are plain lazy and play bruise-free footy - but, are all of the senior players setting the right example for them?

I don't like to post negatively about the lads and have not had much reason too for quite a few years, but yesterday was one of the worst performances I've ever seen from a CDFC outfit. It was back to the footy the club played in my childhood, the style that left us in the wilderness for so many years.
If I didn't have such a strong supporter code, I'd have done a 'Crowparture' and packed up and left at half-time. I stuck it out to the bitter end.
It's a long way back for us from here and while I'm not writing the season off totally, I would hope our recruiters are already working hard for next season and those in charge of player development are working on getting that take-no-prisoners work ethic and culture back to what it was in the not-so-distant past.

And...another thing:

Seriously, leave the female umpire alone. Some of the verbal directed at her from supporters of all sides, including my own, during the games in which I've seen her officiate are just terrible.
It was hilarious yesterday hearing an older Westies supporter having a go at her when his side was already six goals up.
Give her a break, folks. I reckon she's actually not doing a bad job.

Whatever happens, I think I'll be knocking back a few bevvies and by the end of the game, the result won't matter.

This is the exact reason the AFL want to legislate the bump out of the game, and if you look at it in this context they are right

Wrong. They have the rule right in the context of thuggish acts where hitting the player is the sole intent - as was the case in the Symes/Grocke incident. They have it wrong if they are going to view football collisions, in a contact sport, as an illegal act - as it seems they are with Viney/Lynch.

The Symes incident has nothing to do with the current debate about legislating the bump out of the game.

Great that Colzy played 300 games. What a champ!
We used to run the club when we were kids ;)
His ol' man Kevvy played 250 games for the EFC, while younger brother Slammer has over 150 on board.
A great example of loyalty from all three.
Thanks to Webby for giving Col a guard of honour. Much respect there.

Disappointing 'no-one went into the rooms afterwards' - doesn't matter where you are, you should do it. Someone should be in there and buy a drink, we expect it of all clubs that visit us.

And...40-9 is a ridiculous count. There is no game that can justify that sort of count.

Jetters, I don't normally blast people on this forum, but how about you piss off and go whinge somewhere else. It was a sh*t incident that happened two years ago and totally unjustifiable, but it was dealt with, the player is no longer with the EFC. Time to move on.

Enjoyed that win. Not really clear on all the details, but I remember enjoying it.

I think those are things that we will have to deal with. I don't think it will be easy, by any measure.
I believe the national reserves comp/south-eastern reserves conference (SA and Vic sides) will feature on Pay TV. It will fill the void that Foxtel has tried to use the Cup competition to fill.
The 'reserves comp' will see the AFL on a par with the NRL.
I don't see it being a massive drawcard (who wants to watch reserves?) but...it does two things:
1) Provides content for Fox
2) Provides development opportunities at a more elite level than is currently occurring.

I think the fact this forum continues to be so popular and attracts so many people to discuss SANFL, means there will still be strong community support and a little bit of leverage to keep Channel 7 on board through sponsorship.
If it doesn't, so be it.

A number of our SANFL clubs are struggling financially anyway. $40k a year is very little extra in the coffers - that financial support isn't going to solve the problems that some clubs have. However, they will keep going. Financial problems aren't something new - clubs have faced them throughout their existence.

The SANFL has Football Park to work with, ensuring there will be funds to be directed to its members - the eight remaining clubs - into the future.

It will be a struggle. But for many SANFL fans it will be worth it. Ultimately, for the AFL clubs, I believe it will be worth it as well.

This AFL reserves team situation in the SANFL wasn't prompted about financial issues, it was prompted by the needs and desires of the AFL clubs.

This is also not just a challenge being faced by the SANFL but also the VFL.

If the NRL has the money to run an under 23 comp (or whatever it is), which receives national coverage on Fox, then I'm pretty certain the AFL, which already bankrolls the NEAFL competition (which has teams in two states/one territory), can afford to operate a reserves/under 23/south-eastern conference.

I watched the last half of the game and South were playing a great brand of footy - running hard and working for each other. Attacking.
Full credit to them.

no one seems to mention the fact that the ravens are bottom. Do we think that is good for the competition? Obviously tinkering is needed but not much.

Because they're playing under different rules to your mob.

Funnily enough, the ladder positions reflect the two concerns that people had about the inclusion of the AFL reserves sides to the competition:

1) They'd be too strong,

or

2) They don't give a stuff about results and are there for development.

The models by which both sides have gained entry to the competition seem to have brought both scenarios into effect.

At least when Port was belting the bejaysus out of everyone in the old days, they were doing it under the same rules as the rest of us.

I think there's been lots of change over the years.
Look back at some of the older photos and you'll see the balls were a lot rounder.
Even as a kid, I think my first footy was a lot rounder than the balls are today.
In the late 80s I think they started to streamline them a bit more and I think you'll find the balls are lot lighter now than they used to be.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't look at different designs - I'm just suggesting design hasn't been as stagnant as you might think.

I've never used the word balls so often in a post.

Balls.

confirmed

I think there's been lots of change over the years.
Look back at some of the older photos and you'll see the balls were a lot rounder .
Even as a kid, I think my first footy was a lot rounder than the balls are today.
In the late 80s I think they started to streamline them a bit more and I think you'll find the balls are lot lighter now than they used to be.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't look at different designs - I'm just suggesting design hasn't been as stagnant as you might think.

I've never used the word balls so often in a post.

Balls.

The balls were rounder because they didn't always use new balls for each game. These balls would have been used before, at training or perhaps in another game, like we do in the ammos. Today, the balls are taken out of the plastic on game day and pumped up. Probably use two balls per game, a new one for each half. I doubt in the 70s and 80s they were paying for a new ball each game

In the 80s, I'm pretty certain they were new balls at the start of the game. They were at my local club in the late 80s, so I'm pretty certain they would have been at SANFL level.
They were still rounder then than they are now. Just my observation. I could well be wrong.

Wrong, a salary cap increase will put more financial pressure on clubs. It is not worth pursuing, at this point.

So...Saturday.
It was one of least skilled games I've seen in a long time. Sturt were horrible for the first two and a half quarters.
Probably the youngest side I can recall putting on the park for a long time.
Paul Thomas tried his guts out and his mooted retirement at the end of the season is going to be a massive blow for our leadership.
After the first quarter, I was really angry because I thought we were playing so poorly.
Then, as the match progressed, I reflected on the youth of our side and its inexperience
In the end, a 10 goal loss wasn't so bad, it could've been worse - some important players out, inexperience, playing one of the leading sides - and it was only a 15 minute patch which saw the margin blow out.
Thankfully, a late goal saw us kick away the possibility of kicking our lowest score against Sturt.
So...I don't want to get too used to losing but have to accept this is a development year.
Our defence is reasonable, as we can keep opposition to low scores, it's just that when they get a run on the midfield, we seem to have no way of controlling it and stopping the flow.
We don't have enough players running both ways and we aren't intuitive with the ball, or getting into the right position to receive the ball.
One thing that does frustrate me, is our scoring - we seem to find ways every week to not score. So often we attack promisingly and through no-one else's fault but our own we butcher the shot/opportunity.
Two examples on Saturday, I think it was Habel got bumped as he kicked towards an open goal in the goal square. The ball hit the post - unless you're getting dragged down, it should always be a goal from there. There was also Hewett's dropped mark, easiest I've ever seen dropped.
It's not pressure from the opposition that forces these mistakes, it's our own lack of confidence in ourselves and our team-mates.
Hopefully we can get some of our better players back next game.
Two blokes that are having a go week-in, week-out are the Schillers. We can build a side around those blokes - hard at it, in and under and they're going to be good leaders.

Who was 21 for Sturt? Did he cop much of a ribbing after the actual siren started?

On a final note, I hate to think what Port are going to do to us when we play them.

Gee whiz. Bit rough.

bennymacca wrote:Great post LPH. I can totally understand where you are coming from

How?

I watched The Fighter the other night.
A really, really good boxing film. Right up there with Raging Bull, for mine.
I'm a big fan of boxing movies, especially the grittier ones, because I think it's remarkable what those guys can get in a ring and cop - I don't think I could do it.

Based on the story of Irish American Mickey Ward and his half brother Dicky Ecklund. Mark Wahlberg, playing a childhood hero, has the titular role, while Bale is outstanding as the keyed up ex-pug Ecklund, whose life has been defined by knocking over Sugar Ray Leonard.
Solid acting, Amy Adams is sheer underwear and some incredible fight scenes make this enjoyable to watch - Wahlberg looked like he was copping every single one of those punches (I took them as punishment for his hip hop career).
All good sporting movies are about fairytale ending, to me the fairytale in this movie wasn't about the boxing but the family drama that envelopes the ring action.
4/5

No AFL in SANFL > AFL clubs in > Concessions for AFL clubs > Redistributing zones > What communities do zones have > Africans in Kilburn and moving to Elizabeth.

I reckon it's on topic.

Don't see the difference - sing it inside and out, the opposition is still going to hear it. Often it's sung in the middle of the oval, by which time the defeated side has wandered off anyway.

She grew up about 10 years in front of our eyes in that EP.

I'm almost at that point with anything by The Beatles.
Given we're coming up to another anniversary of their visit to Adelaide and we'll hear lots more about the size of the population went out to see them, I'm pretty certain I'll have reached that point by the end of next week.

BOM wrote:

Dogwatcher wrote:

Baron Greenback wrote: Hyde - 3 matches, with one suspended.

Would BSR have wanted more than that?

No comment!!!!

That's plenty of comment.

Don and I are not related, thankfully.
Although, had we been, I might have been able to do the stake thing for you.

Failed Creation wrote:

Lightning McQueen wrote:Nickleback.

I remember singing "Look at this photograph, I haven't heard it for an hour and a half".

Funnily enough, that was the only Nickelback song I could tolerate, mainly because it reminded me of meeting my wife for the first time.

Gee, you must hate your wife

No wonder so many blokes are showering in their underwear these days.
FFS, an investigation?

There's nothing wrong with nudity.

That's good. AFL clubs should be contributing to community programs such as this. Most AFL clubs do and it's good to see Port adding to the good work it already does within the community.

No, but if you'd worn the free sombrero that came with the kids meal, it might've.

Best of luck to Ben Williams who plays his 100th game for Loxton North this weekend.
A huge effort for a bloke for whom there were concerns he may never walk again, let alone play footy.

Attended my first AFL game at Adelaide Oval on the weekend.
I have no idea what happened during the game, as I had too many frothies, but it was a great atmosphere.

Well...he is the boundary rider, so he kinda does sit on the fence.

Not AFL, but...Craig Foster's insistence on calling Socceroos players by their first name drove me batty on Saturday morning.
The only current Socceroo who could remotely be called by his first name is Tim Cahill - I let rip a Timmmmmmmmyyyyyyyy! when he scored.
Our goalie is Ryan, not Mat. Our defender was Davidson, not Jason.