Its a bit of a tricky situation and not ideal at the moment, but here's the facts:
The D grade coach approached the committee towards the end of last year and asked if he could put together a D grade side with a bunch of mates who mostly either haven't played for a few years or were currently playing lower level football at other clubs. The committee agreed that we should go down this path to increase the number of patrons at the club, as well as put us on par with the surrounding strong N/E clubs who all have 4-5 teams (TTG, Modbury, GG). They also had a sponsor already on board to buy them new jumpers
A side effect to having a new D grade is that our traditionally competitive C grade has been elevated into a very strong Div 8 competition. To further add to it, at least 12 regular C graders from the last 2-3 years decided late into the summer to hang the boots up for a number of different reasons. Something that Im sure other clubs can attest to this year. Add to that a large number of injuries in all grades, and the depth of our club has been tested. In hindsight, we could have put the D grade side (who have all come together to play) as the C grade side at the start of the year and the results for the C grade might be slightly different. Although I am fairly certain however that with the players GG had running around in their C grade on saturday, they probably would have beaten the D grade side we fielded and most likely even our B grade.
We thought with a number of kids coming up this year, the C grade side would still fill a competitive side. Another 2 x key C grade players took off overseas recently (returning soon) so the core group from 2013 is basically non existent and something we didn't see coming. The side will improve after the bye with any luck and hopefully so will their results.
I definitely wouldn't say the D grade are sandbagging. If we pick the best 25 and then the rest play D grade, we run the risk of most or all of those blokes that came to play together being split up and then not playing at all and losing our D grade side completely, stuffing around Div 8R and adding another bye to the fixture as well copping any financial penalties from the league.
We took a punt on getting up a D grade side which has brought at least 40 new blokes into the club (and let me tell you, those boys don't mind spending a bit over the bar and easily outnumbered GG players in their clubrooms after both games were finished) so from that perspective it has been a success. Not many of them train consistently either, whereas the C grade boys do train and warrant their spot. Just because there is some talent in the D grade, doesn't mean they should be playing C grade. A bloke who trains twice a week should be picked before someone who doesn't train at all, regardless of ability. #17 for example in your C grade would walk into most A grade midfield's at any club in any division. But he works and can't train. He's getting a gig before other blokes who might be training two nights a week and still playing D grade. I don't necessarily agree with that, but I'm not involved at GG and it has nothing to do with me
This whole D grade venture has been a learning experience for us and we having ongoing discussions about what to do in 2015 if we continue to have a D grade side. We will look at all options, including having this group all play together in the C grade. But then I'm sure Hefty you will still complain about them sandbagging in that grade too, because there is probably at least 5 x players who could play A grade if they were committed and actually wanted to play a higher level. I don't think we're the only club in SA who has some talent playing lower grade football
These issues are almost identical to what North Haven has faced since starting a D Grade. We seem to have got the balance write this year and hopefully it can be maintained. Being similar sized clubs that predominately play in divisions 4 and 5, it is interesting how our lower grades are following a similar pattern.
We decided to move to four sides the season after our C Grades played in the GF against each other and our Cs have struggled in that grade but have improved significantly since that season and are a far better side then they were that season.
Make of that what you will but I think you will find a similar result if you stick at it.