Dutchy wrote:Heard there are 76 teams nominated for Subbies, most ever, great signs for the future of the league...the one Edwardstown didnt want to join

... and the one that wants to remove a junior grade from Saturday footy

Why Marion and M/P did not merge 18 teams is beyond me. The reality is if kids get flogged every week they will walk away in this day and age of everybody is a winner and give it to me now. At least a merged 18 would have sufficient numbers and be competitive.

Absolutely not, if you can field a team, do it. One season a few years back we fielded an U/18 team when we only had 7 players. Each week we would scratch together a team by adding a few U/16s or even U/14s to get up to the minimum 14 players, then they went out and got belted.

By about half way we had managed to scratch a few more together to ease the burden on the younger grades, having a team in the first place is better than none at all, it gives you a base to work from.

The best part of this was each of those 7 players is still at the club, two are in the B-Grade, one is a junior coach, another a team manager, 2 others also assist the junior coach. Every single one has become a valued member of the club and each is grateful that we did not pull the pin on them. None of them seem to have any adverse effects due to losing a few games by a large margin. This was only 6 years ago, fortunately since then our numbers have been better.

Getting belted is still better than not playing at all.

Hopefully some better publicity for the club this week as the Footy Show actually has an interest in promoting grassroots footy, unlike News Ltd evidently. Tune in this Thursday. Club prez will also be on Triple M radio tomorrow @ 8:40am.

There has been enough character assassination of a junior here. To clear it up:

* He has not been reported for kicking at any time he has been at CB.
* He was reported in the U/16s a couple of years ago for striking and was given 2 games (missed out on finals).
* Noarlunga refused his clearance and held him up until they were trying to get a player from us, they cleared him in order to secure the other player. If that is sending him packing there was no indication at any point that they were happy for him to leave.
* He has been given a penalty for a stupid act.
* The player he was on was an A-Grade defender, you need an element of asshole about you in order to play that type of position at that level. That does not condone the lads actions, or even suggests that what happened was reason to react, but to try to paint it as a brain-fade where he has just randomly hit a player is just misleading.

I like you LGIL but this post is misleading.

Sent packing was sent packing with no hold up at all. (you may have the wrong lad)

I think you blokes are letting your club allegiances get in the way of the real issue here. The fact is most clubs still have a few idiots who go to far on the footy field. The issue is how the SFL deals with theses types of king hits/coward punches.

A similar incident happened a couple of weeks ago in the C Grade between Cove and Flaggies, where a first year senior player from Cove king hit an opponent from behind, leaving him concussed, the ump saw the incident and gave the lad a red card. This player was also given a 4 match ban, which in my opinion is a seriously soft punishment for such a serious offence.

The SFL is very quick to boast about how serious they take violence in football and the work they do with organisations like the Sammy D foundation, but then surely greater action must be taken when 18-20 year olds are delivering such king hits on the footy field. If they do it once and get a slap on the wrist it's much more likely that they'll do it again.

Munga and Shoey. You know I like you guys but the return of a few players and at least one out of retirement back playing A grade makes this extra points situation a bit on the nose. What's done is done but the SFL has dug itself a big hole for when applications for extra points are made in the future from other clubs. Some would say your last flag was won with "blood on your hands" with about a third of your team poached from Hackham. Could a flag this year have a similar hollow feel to it. You have a star junior player who played 8 A grade games as a 17 year old last year but is back playing U18 at the moment and dominating. I thought it was players like him that you got the extra points for to help bring in some experience around.

Thanks Petoe we are well aware of where we are at and where we want to go. We have been in the bottom 3 for 4 years now and hardly made an impact since making 3 consecutive A grade finals series in 2006,07,08. A conscious decision was made at the end of 2012 season to concentrate on other areas rather than overpay recruits to merely try to win 3 or 4 games. Really there is bugger all difference between the bottom 3 clubs we are all struggling equally although I'd kill for their 3 wins or even just 1 right now.

Anyone that has been down to the club of late would've noticed that quite a bit has happened over the last 3 months and a heap more WILL happen before the start of next season. We have a good core group of senior players, some really good juniors coming through but we certainly need some help especially in key positions. Coming into the season we thought we were up for a better year but in the space of about 4 weeks suffered a huge blow losing Baxter to the mines, Ky Miller who we let out of contract to an offer 5 x ours to KNTFL and a few others who committed with them. From there it's been an uphill battle but we've shown a lot of heart pushed a lot of sides for a half or 3/4s but as the injuries mounted up and our lack of depth was exposed our results have deteriorated. The footy gods have definitely not smiled upon us either losing our CHF & CHB in the same collision which saw them both break bones and end their seasons. The Crawf game was a distraction we didn't need and lost a few in the wake of that loss also but we chose to give the experience to some young men who will help take our club forward in the future. That day will hold them in good stead.

Although putting 2 senior teams on the park has been a battle of late the spirit is still there and a greater bunch of people you never will meet. The club is in the best position it has been off field since the merger hopefully that can start translating to on field but that will still take a lot of hard work and perseverance. Overall It's been a bloody tough year but a lot of reason for optimism. We don't accept our results this season, it will burn in our guts and we will fight hard to make sure it doesn't happen again.

why would they lose juniors? marion edwardstown lonsdale could join msjfl?

hackham & aldinga juniors sure where da **** would they play? this is true

the sfl could separate junior league from seniors - hosting 2 organisations and allowing its 10 team SFL division to proceed....

# Southern Football League
# Southern Junior Football League

yes its crazy talk but no harm in discussing possibilities to make a better place for all

lets not all have panic attacks here

Amateur League culture - worry about the seniors, the juniors can sort themselves out

Just cleared Josh Scharenberg from Balaklava to Aldinga. Top bloke and player when work isn't keeping him off the park. Needs regular football to find his best touch.

Not sure what other messenger press coverage of the season start has been like, but the guardian that covers clubs down the hill has been nothing but ordinary. They couldn't even put the clubs ins and outs or even a comment from club coaches. If this is how they cover the start of the season we might get one or two lines by the end of year. Bring back Gordon Armstong, at least he gave the SFL some sort of support.

Im obviously not involved with HV, as I am a BDOSFC person, but I think people are very quick to have a crack at the new coach.
Surely there is more involved in the success of a club than just a coach. It is the football operations dept. the playing list, the club culture, the $ being spent.
There is a saying I would possibly use to help defend the new coach "It doesn't matter how much you polish a turd, it is never going to turn into a diamond".

I think a new coach walking into a depleted side should be given at least a year or 2 before the wolves are set on him. Or at least given the chance to show progress. but that just IMO

Taking over a team that has lost a grand total of 6 games over the past 3 seasons was always going to be hiding to nothing.
Very hard to match the predecessor's record and any slip and suddenly you are the fault.

Add to that a number of people used to having the going easy now jumping off because it's a little bit harder just increases the pressure.

Im obviously not involved with HV, as I am a BDOSFC person, but I think people are very quick to have a crack at the new coach.
Surely there is more involved in the success of a club than just a coach. It is the football operations dept. the playing list, the club culture, the $ being spent.
There is a saying I would possibly use to help defend the new coach "It doesn't matter how much you polish a turd, it is never going to turn into a diamond".

I think a new coach walking into a depleted side should be given at least a year or 2 before the wolves are set on him. Or at least given the chance to show progress. but that just IMO

Agree it is not just the coach - operations department also need to have a look in the mirror but as has been mentioned previously they were too busy having half time drinks. A lot more going on than willing to put on this forum - would like to win one game this year.Former players offering help as they don't like seeing what's going on but told everything is ok. Yes we lost some talent and have had a couple of injuries but we have also had some significant ins and A grade players choosing to play B grade. Our best side would still be a very competitive unit if everything comes together.
We are a strong proud club and sitting zip and 4 doesn't sit well with us.

0 - 4 ... 0 wins, 4 losses, 1st coach sacked!!! ...is this true

Weekend of blowouts it looks, from score through so far Reyenlla won by 97 points and had 5 other games with bigger blowouts!

Great day on the hill today supporting Kids Cancer, sadly we lost one of our subbies in March which has affected the whole community. The day raised a heap of $ and we remembered our little mate.

Thanks to the other clubs up there today in Brighton, Morphett Vale & OSB Lonsdale who all supported the day in wearing yellow armbands.

Didnt expect emus to get over winies but never expected that scoreline :shock: Did Emus have many out or were they at full strength?

Great to see Steve Wallace back at the club. Reckon he will get us back on track :D
One of the best whole of club coaches you will ever see. Wish him all the best.

Didnt expect emus to get over winies but never expected that scoreline :shock: Did Emus have many out or were they at full strength?

Great to see Steve Wallace back at the club. Reckon he will get us back on track :D

Emus very close to full strength at the start of the game
Lost Tim Howell and Bill Carroll early in the first 1/4.
Winies were just to good on the day. they have great depth {although we beat them in bs and cs} and will be very hard to beat.
They had winners all over the ground were disciplined, Dogga the master of milking free kicks.
They only used 3 points {3 more than us} but the wage bill would be reasonable.
They are very good in every grade.
and look very smart in there black pants and shiny shoes.
and I f###en hate em. : :evil:

With a free Saturday I went around the corner and had a look at Hackham v Reynella. Went expecting a belting and to be honest Hackham gave a pretty decent account of themselves. They had a crack all day and applied some good pressure, however once they turned it over Reynella would open them up with pace and quick ball movement and with the size Reynella have inside 50 it is going to stretch most defenses.

25 Goals to 6 Goals is clearly a big margin but Hackham would have matched Reynella for effort, it is just lack of skill and size that hurt.

3 small schools running a single program. School footy is great but also dying, only 4 year 6/7 teams left in the West Adelaide comp.
It's interesting to me that it seems most clubs have plenty on auskickers and under 8's then number start dropping off. Maybe regardless of how the kids respond to loaded questions in the surveys, the kids actually get bored with the game pretty quickly because what they are playing after all the modifications and PC'ness, is nothing like they see their hero's doing on TV or at Adelaide oval da h week?

Contract Extension:
The Reynella Committee is proud to announce the re-appointment of Gianni Petrucci as Senior Coach for the 2016/17 seasons.
Gianni has coached the Reynella A grade for the last 3 seasons, after joining Reynella as our B gradecoach in 2010, he has taken us to the 2013 Flag and has us in a strong position at this stage in the 2015 quest for the flag.
Our team strength while built around a strong senior playing group have developed even further through G’s work with our Junior groups, seeing some of these Juniors now taking on leadership roles.
G has formed strong ties with Reynella over the last 5 years and along with his family Hayley, Eva, Max and Louie they now call Reynella home.
With G’s strengths to communicate and command the respect of his players we believe that our Club has prospered under G’s leadership and his development of the Juniors over the last 5 years and has placed our club in a very strong position for many years to come.
Please join me in congratulating Gianni on his appointment and get behind him for the remainder of the 2015 season and the future in 2016/17 !!

Shane Lynch takes Mitchell Park to the premiership ..... may be A7 but this mob were getting pumped by 40 goals last year so fair effort to turn the club around in 12 months ......

Went down to Pt Noarlunga and watched Reynella v Brighton. Brighton played well in first half but then Reynella showed there skill in the second half and won easy. Night final was great with a good crowd there. I know the SFL had a few knockers regarding the night final but I think it worked very well. My opinion the lights would be the best in the league.

Michael Shearer goes back to back in the A grade, from Coakley and Copestick

B Grade - Anthony May - Edwardstown
C Grade - Adam Bettineschi- Brigjhton
U18 - Bradley Patterson - Flagstaff Hill
U16 - Joshua Walker - Christies Beach
U14 - Tyler Oliver - Happy Valley

First decent thing I've seen come out of the SANFL for juniors in the 5 years I've been involved
Fully support what they are doing.
There may have to be some tweaking, and those with a self interest will fight it to the death, but the transition rate from juniors to seniors is at a devastating rate and getting worse.
Finally, the SANFL is being the peak body and doing something about it

The proposal only includes up to U/16, so not sure how this is going to fix the transition rate from junior into seniors.
Also, surely splitting the juniors away from the senior club is only going to make this worse.

The SFL program for 2016 is under development. A 14 team competition next season will see the season played over 18 weeks rather than 20. This placed the start date at April 9th, 2 weeks after Easter. The SFL Grand Final has traditionally been played on the weekend before the AFL Grand Final. However, with the announcement today of a later AFL Grand Final (september 1st) and our shorter than in previous years season, it was decided to maintain the April 9 start date and have our grand final 2 weeks before the AFL.
There will still be weekends off for our clubs on June 11th (Queen's Birthday Long Weekend) and July 9th (State Country Football Championships).

afc9798 wrote:

Dutchy wrote:Sam Smith returns home

Good get for Flaggies. Makes for a pretty potent forward line and I'm sure there would have been a few clubs trying to tempt him away.

Sam "the package" Smith.

Anyway, this recent conversation has hit on a theme and a post I’ve been thinking about for a while. It's a long one, but I don't care.

What happened to our culture of truly local, representative, grass roots, amateur football? I feel like its snuck up on us, this new toxicity of player payments, mass recruitment, coaching roundabouts and ruthless playing groups. When I first started playing I was in awe of Trevor Bennetts, Joe Leck, Bernie Kusterman, Phil Pike and Ian Colquhoun - all Mitchell Park legends who had been there for many years, including through the juniors. Seriously tough men, fiercely loyal types who other than earning a BoG would have never even dreamt of taking payment for playing. For them the Club was an entity to be respected, it came first and the privilege of playing senior football, even at a lower level, was seen as exactly that – a privilege. Wal and Joe in particular taught me a lot, and for that, a young introverted nerd more used to bricking threes and talking trash than shanking drop punts, their introduction to the inner sanctum of a football club shaped many of my ideals – inside of that world and out.

One would get the feeling the Club was an escape for those guys, a place to talk about tits and cars, to confess their woes and maybe even look for support, to relax and unwind with no social pressure or pretentiousness. The Front Bar at Mitchell Park certainly provided all of that, but even then, there was still a Club first attitude, they’d wash the dishes, help the canteen staff, fill water bottles, sell raffle tickets, help out with admin – whatever it was, they would always do whatever they could to help out the Football Club. As they knew that The Club provided them with so muc more. And that is precisely the right word. *Club*. To use an Americanism - a fraternity.

I fell in love with it. Mitchell Park soon turned into my happy place too. My Church. I would go there all the time, often by myself just to walk around and clear my head sometimes to celebrate or commiserate or simply to catch up. It was so incredibly important to me as a young fella to have a place to garner an instant feel of comradery and acceptance. In that regard it was so different to basketball and rugby, my childhood sports, where it was more like a high society bitch fest than sporting coterie. It didn’t matter if you were a bogan or a hipster – acceptance was for all, provided you put the Club first. Cross that Club, and sure enough street justice was known to have been handed out on occasion. In a really strange way it was like a fully legal, crime free (sort of) drug free (sort of) motor cycle gang.

Now? In its 50th Anniversary year, it is very close to death. Down from a full suite of junior teams to one and a half. From having powerful senior sides across 3 grades in the strong SAFA to lucky to be filling one in Division 7. Yeah, we’ve pulled some strings every now and then and won a flag or two along the way, but none of the above is true of the Club anymore. There are a few hanging on, but we all know of the likely impending doom that awaits.

I really like what Down the Hill wrote. It is rather sad how clubs are forced to survive these days when they were originally established to provide a recreational outlet with organised competition for their local communities. It’s a precise observation and one that rings painfully true. We’re structured from the bottom to the top that way. Despite the cries of the ignorant, there really isn’t much we can do. Smart people all sitting around the table all trying their hardest for hours on end – but constantly hitting road blocks. Be it business wise with limited options for revenue thanks to outdated management models, be it due the shifting populations and demands, be it the club reputation that despite all contrary evidence, still hangs like bad smell. We’re check mated.

Perhaps one of the most galling things, however, is this latest offseason where last year’s promising group of players, coaches and administrators have abandoned us like rats down a sewerage crusted outlet pipe. I recall the season Luke McDonnell wanted to try playing for Happy Valley. He was physically emotional and struggled to confront the playing group. We understood and wished him all the best. He returned two years later and won a GF. These days? One of our better players who smashed our highest paid player record last year by a long way – took us for every last cent and then still asked for more when the Club was on the skins of its arse. Another player, who I love dearly, left because he felt he deserved to be playing A’s but got dropped a couple of times - the Club owed him, apparently. A young star and Premiership player, son of a gun and much loved member of our club off to a nearby rival, I assume because it looked like it might be a struggle with us. Our coach who promised cultural change and 3 years of effort left half way through his contract for promises and thin air after realising that it wasn’t going to be easy and instant success might not be on the cards. Our President, who made awful decision after awful decision, also left, without so much as even having the guts to rock up to our AGM to hand over the keys. Countless more who for a bit more petrol money have decided to knife the institution that would provide them with much more valuable things than cash, should they merely give it the chance. Then we have clubs like Adelaide Lutheran, smelling a fresh carcass like a circling vulture, messaging players on Social Media from our list in an attempt to poach them.

Poisonous stuff, that’s for sure. As most on here would know I am hyper analytical. I have a yearning to understand why. Are we at fault? Sometimes, but I don’t think that’s the answer. To me we’re experiencing the consequences of a far more macro movement. One of individualism, narcissism and a generation of people that put image first. For a Club like ours that is about the group, humility and substance, this is decidedly out of step. Examples of this can be found all over the place – the best players in Sporting Pulse? Caused huge issues amongst our playing group. Complaints about not making it or being 4th instead of 2nd, absolutely ridiculous stuff, I tried to explain, but it was important to them. Payments? Heck, even average footballers deserve it as they are putting their body on the line, so the club ought to look after them. Forget earning it through awards. They were entitled to it for merely rocking up. Doing a chore for the club? No chance, they do enough of that at home, football is a place to escape nagging, god damnit! But easily the biggest indicator is what happens when it looks like we might not win much. It is unbelievable how quickly people pike out. The modern amateur footballer is a jellyfish, if it’s not going to be “fun” and by fun, of course we mean winning, then they want no part of it. Countless players have said exactly that. They haven’t left, per se, they just don’t want to play because it will be too hard.

So at 35 with dodgy knees, crippled hands and countless surgeries on other broken bones, I came to the realisation at full forward on Saturday that I’m now out of touch with the modern game. It’s no longer about the Club or the comradery, it’s about the person looking back from the mirror. I hope we hold on, but we’re on the precipice.

Are we good? Are we any bloody good? Well, we sure used to be.

Clearances open for 2 minutes and 3 on the way out for Cove already. Including Young and McCreery. All headed to Murrayville in Mallee League too - fair trek!

Jee whiz. What a weekend of results. Serious problems at Christies Beach. Hearing rumours of some unrest. Some players. Some committee members. Watch this space.

"unrest" seems a bit like you are trying to stir the pot.

A few challenges with injuries, Mazey (2020 Mail Medallist) & Crate (2020 Best and Fairest) out at the moment, along with Hoey (injured during trial game) and Powell (season - knee) has currently weakened the midfield. Also having Jolly and Carter out is a loss at each end, with a few more scattered around also injured is testing depth.

Positive of all that is that a number of young lads are getting games who may have been a bit further back in the queue, which will hopefully set us up for the coming years, especially with the talent coming through the juniors at the moment. Less experience in the side will cause more inconsistency, and as such results are not up to what we would hope.

All credit to Morphett Vale and Cove over the past two weeks, both have been great against us and deserved their wins. From the results this week, the competition looks very healthy with no clear pecking order at the moment.

Seems the unrest got too much... :? :shock:

FHFC MILESTONE – 250 A GRADE GAMES

After recently starring in his 350th club game, our A Grade Co-Captain, David Kearsley , reaches an even more impressive milestone tomorrow when he runs out for his 250th A GRADE GAME for the Flagstaff Hill Football Club.

This takes him in to rare air, becoming only the second player to reach the milestone for the club; and he is fast closing in on Doug Degenhardt’s club record 260 A Grade Games.

Since debuting as a 17 year old in 2006, Kears has achieved the following in his A Grade career:

5 time A Grade Premiership Player (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
A Grade Captain (2019*, 2020*, 2021)
2 time A Grade Best & Fairest (2009 & 2020*)
3 time A Grade B&F Runner-Up (2010, 2018*, 2019*)
James Warren Medal 2020 (SFL Grand Final Best on Ground)
A Grade Best Finals Player 2014
2 time A Grade Best Team Man (2015 & 2017*)
A Grade Best Team Man in Finals 2016*
311 A Grade Goals
A Grade Leading Goalkicker 2014 (58 Goals)
5 time SFL Association representative
1 time Southern Districts representative
FHFC Life Member 2016
SFL Life Member 2015
*denotes premiership year

An already amazing career for a man that has done just as much for our club off the field as he has done on it (which is clearly plenty from the list above) and there is still much more to come.

We ask that all Falcons, and Bushpigs of old, get down to Morphett Vale at 2.20pm tomorrow to cheer Kears on to the oval for this significant moment, for him and the club, and stay to watch him give it his all for the 250th time.

Congratulations and Good Luck Kears – truly one of the best the Falcons have, and ever will, see.

Anyone that has been part of a system change in their job will appreciate that until you implement, alot of the issues dont surface. I am tipping headaches for first couple of rounds but we will all be in a better place beyond that.

I had a crack at live scoring yesterday and one thing i can confirm is that i have the attention span of a toddler and am not cut out to watch every second of the game. That and wanting to talk to everyone i bumped into made it quite the challenge for me, looking forward to palming that responsibility off quick smart.

Cobby are back Will be shocked if they get a side though, especially a competitive one.