Let's put life in SANFL pre-season, urges Jars (Advertiser)

[Magpiespower]

Perfect time to refloat my dream of a 16 team knockout pre-season comp featuring the nine SANFL clubs and rep sides from Darwin, the Amateurs and the strongest country leagues - Barossa, Spencer Gulf, Mount Gambier, Southern etc.

[RoosterMarty]

Perfect time to refloat my dream of a 16 team knockout pre-season comp featuring the nine SANFL clubs and rep sides from Darwin, the Amateurs and the strongest country leagues - Barossa, Spencer Gulf, Mount Gambier, Southern etc.

that sounds alright too, 16 teams will work in a knockout comp. as long as North get an away game in Darwin im happy

[Punk Rooster]

Why must pre-season comps be round robins? I was glad when the AFL switched back to a knockout- They play round robin during the season anyway, why would you want more of the same in a condensed format? Unfortunately, with an odd number of teams, I can't see a knockout format being successfull either (Duckworth-Lewis may not even have a sloution..). Either add a composite Amateur side, or 1 team gets shelved on rotation (hardly ideal). Only trouble, 10 goes into 5, 5 makes it odd... how did they deal with this in the past?

[spell_check]

I'd rather have a round robin tournament in groups like HBT said.

But answering your question, Punky, this is how they did it in 1982 and 1983:

(Based on the positions of the year befores' placings)
1st Round:
7th vs 9th
8th vs 10th
(Winners go through to the Quarter Finals)

Quarter Finals:
1:3rd vs 5th
2:4th vs 6th
3:1st vs Winner of 7th vs. 9th
4:2nd vs Winner of 8th vs 10th
(Winners to Semi-Finals)

Semi-Finals:
Winner QF1 vs Winner of QF3
Winner QF2 vs Winner of QF4
(Winners to Grand Final)

Grand Final:
Winners of Semi Finals

So, you could make what was the 10th ranked team, a team from another comp.

[RoosterMarty]

yeah i like that idea spelly
the 10th team should be the Amateur Premiers i reckon

i cant see this happening though because the SANFL cant be stuffed sitting down and working it out

agree with Punky re: the knockouts
that way we can do it like the wizard/nab/whatever afl cup.. the teams knocked out early can play each other in trials so they dont miss out on match fitness

[Aerie]

If we could combine the Champions of Australia idea with the pre-season comp that would be ideal. Premiers of the previous season play against WAFL and VFL premiers leaving 8 teams to have a 3 week knockout pre-season competition in Adelaide.

[Ecky]

I see absolutely no reason why this couldn't be done for next year. You don't even need sponsorship, just different titles attached to the games!

I believe the best format would be something along the lines of what Spelly wrote out:

Week 1
8th vs 9th (Spoon Day? )

Week 2
QF1: 1st vs winner of 8th vs 9th
QF2: 2nd vs 7th
QF3: 3rd vs 6th
QF4: 4th vs 5th

Week 3
SF1: Winner QF1 vs Winner QF4
SF2: Winner QF2 vs Winner QF3

Week 4
GF: Winner SF1 vs Winner SF2

Teams not involved in the competition can organise trial games in the weeks they are not playing if desired.

The only minor problem is the limited time available to organise grounds, as who is playing who depends on the results. But as long as some grounds are set aside beforehand, exactly who is playing there can be determined on a week by week basis (This is what happens already in the Under 17s/Under 19s Finals)

[therisingblues]

If we could combine the Champions of Australia idea with the pre-season comp that would be ideal. Premiers of the previous season play against WAFL and VFL premiers leaving 8 teams to have a 3 week knockout pre-season competition in Adelaide.

That idea has possibilites Aerie. There would be a couple of problems with having Champions of Australia in the pre-season though. One being that such a concept would carry the promise of some hard hitting footy with such a prestigious title at stake. I don't think clubs would want their teams exposed to such an ardure in the pre-season if the other teams are having relatively easy hit outs, and enjoying the luxury of experimenting with their squads. A coaches' response could be to use the Champions of Australia concept to also experiment with their squads, and to hold back their more valuable players for the real season ahead. I think that would detract from the idea's potential. The other thing was that teams sometimes change alot in the off season. For example Sturt's premiership winning side of 2002 would have been a lot stronger than the side Sturt had in the 2003 pre-season. A team on a streak obviously wouldn't have that problem (eg. Port in the 80s, Sturt in the 60s, Central now). But that is just my opinion and I could be wrong. I would be happy to see The Champions of Australia concept happening in any format that works so I reckon it is good to throw a few ideas around.

[redandblack]

Any idea that an amateur or country league team would be remotely competitive should be dismissed straight away. They wouldn't get within 15 goals.

[Magpiespower]

Any idea that an amateur or country league team would be remotely competitive should be dismissed straight away. They wouldn't get within 15 goals.

But that's not the point rab.

It's all about promoting/celebrating the league and getting people excited about it again.

And once in a blue moon there'd be an FA Cup style upset, especially if the league clubs play a lot of kids, experiment with their line-ups etc.

[RoosterMarty]

im not sure if anybody said they would be competitive but it would be a huge day for the amateur club.. i was thinking the same as MP, they could pull off an upset once every now and then which would add a bit of excitement to the comp