Best SA Country Footy Leagues.

[MR FOOTYHEAD]

I've seen and played a fair bit of SA country footy in my time over the years. Tried to split hairs and list the best leagues, in order. I haven’t seen much EP footy, so haven’t listed.
Many different ways at looking at it, but simply identified which league is the hardest league to get a kick in. Other factors, amount of teams, club depth, players budgets, recruits etc…..
Just interested to see how others view the standard of leagues they’ve seen, played or coached.
1) Barossa Light & Gawler
2) Western Border
3) Hills Central
4) Southern League
5) Great Southern
6) River Murray
7) Riverland
Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara
9) North Eastern
10) Spencer Gulf
11) Yorke Peninsula
12) Mid South East
13) Northern Areas
14) Mallee Football League
15) Hills Country
16) Adelaide Plains
17) Kangaroo Island
18) Riverland Independent

[Brad]

I'd take Northern Areas above Spencer Gulf any day of the week.

[pushing forward]

I've seen and played a fair bit of SA country footy in my time over the years. Tried to split hairs and list the best leagues, in order. I haven’t seen much EP footy, so haven’t listed.
Many different ways at looking at it, but simply identified which league is the hardest league to get a kick in. Other factors, amount of teams, club depth, players budgets, recruits etc…..
Just interested to see how others view the standard of leagues they’ve seen, played or coached.
1) Barossa Light & Gawler
2) Western Border
3) Hills Central
4) Southern League
5) Great Southern
6) River Murray
7) Riverland
Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara
9) North Eastern
10) Spencer Gulf
11) Yorke Peninsula
12) Mid South East
13) Northern Areas
14) Mallee Football League
15) Hills Country
16) Adelaide Plains
17) Kangaroo Island
18) Riverland Independent

In recent years the stength of hills country div has been overlooked due to the pathetic standard of the bottom couple of clubs. If you took them out hills country would slot in to the top 10 no worries. Also would have Adelaide Plains a lot higher, and i think hills central may have over taken BL&G when you consider the recruits the clubs there are attracting, without knowing the stats i think there would be far more league footballers playing hills central than barossa

[the big bang]

i just like the fact that you tried to put the number 8 then a bracket, but it's come up like

[mighty hounds]

Agreed....Adelaide plains should be alot higher......they won the association carnival between YPFL, NAFA and NEFA.

[White Line Fever]

i just like the fact that you tried to put the number 8 then a bracket, but it's come up like

hahaha

[FlyingHigh]

Realistically, although there may be small fluctuations at times, leagues can be banded together.
Those closer to Adelaide such as BLG, Hills Central, GSFL, with more people and money can attract better players.
Then there is the next band like the YPFL, NEFL, NAFA and APFL who would all be pretty close, I would have thought.

While I have seen mainly only Mid West footy on EP, the A-Grade is pretty good footy considering the size of the populations and that teams don't have access to paying players straight out of Reserves footy (although the odd one gets paid to come form a different league). For example, Mallala were able to get a number of talented ex-Streaky Bay players there over the last few years.

[Darth Vader]

the various leagues fluctuate a lot though. Once upon a time no one would have got near the SGFL but now days it is pretty average. Northern Areas was always the poor cousin in the Central Zone but they will start favourites in this years Landmark Cup. North Eastern is very consistently above average and still seems to play the fastest flowing footy style in their domestic competition. I saw a couple of games at Strathalbyn and Langhorn Creek last year and I thought that was pretty good too.

[The Low Down]

Just like GF's, whoever wins country champs is the bees knees. Excuses on guns not playing just means there's no depth in the league so then the league must be considered weaker etc.

Hills central is good, GSFL would be above SFL nowdays with all the SLF problems.
Agree with Northern Areas being above whyalla and sgl
Can we count western border with half the club being in victoria?
BL&G still a very strong league and my top two for sure. Hills country.... no - not very good and now with Torrens Valley gone the standard will drop further.
RMFL has also dropped off in recent years that's for sure.

[GWW]

Kowree Naracoorte being under-rated on this thread. I agree that the RMFL has dropped in recent years. I personally consider Hills Central as the number 1 country league in the state.

[White Line Fever]

can we set up a poll?

I think Hills Central is the best.

[sound4]

Haven't seen many leagues but Hills Country needs to go a little higher, say around 10 or so. I would say it is better than Spencer Gulf. Port Lincoln could probably slide in there somewhere as well, pretty handy league.

Hills Central probably the best for me, but like I said haven't seen heaps of other leagues.

[Swooper]

Tough one, being from the BLG I'm biased but from what I seen and heard I would think the Hills Central have probably just got it over the BLG and the GSFL is also tracking right up there. Agree that the closer the country league is to the big smoke the better it is going to be, due to local lads living in the city still playing for their local club and the fact that it is easier to get recruits out.

Swooper

[7-Dog]

After talking with a former SGL player who played in the HFL Central, didn't give as high a praise for the Central league as I expected.
After recruiting a former BLG footballer last year, he mentioned that us "South Augusta" would have finished in the top 4.

I don't count Southern League as Country football, but surely those "Country Boys " would have to be the best.

Port Lincoln & Western Border are 2 leagues that I have always held in high regard.

[GWW]

Western Border have traditionally been the strongest league in the state, I think in recent years they have gone down the rankings however.

[Kick'n Back]

I also think hills country should be top 10. A couple of guys i have spoken to who have played hills country and yorke pen say top teams from yp would come around middle of table in hills country. Hills country get a bad name because they have to carry Callington and Sedan/Cambrai.
I think a toss of the coin for number 1 between Hills Central and BLG it shows in recent interleague games that they are pretty even with i think hills slightly ahead. Hills do have more clubs to choose from and do play hills country players in the team also which helps them be stronger in these games.

[200 Killer Wasps]

Extremely difficult to name them in a numerical order from best to worst. Maybe easier to group them from best to worst.
I have seen games, finals or the rep team from about 80% of these leagues but that would be over 25 years. Powerhouse leagues like SGFL, WBFL and Broken Hill are not as strong as they once were and dont attract the crowds they did. While Hills Country, APFL and NEFL have all improved markedly.

Level 1
Barossa Light & Gawler
Great Southern
Hills Central
Southern

Level 2
Yorke Peninsula
Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara
Riverland
Spencer Gulf
Western Border

Level 3
Mid South East
Port Lincoln
North Eastern
Adelaide Plains
Hills Country

Level 4
Eastern Eyre
River Murray
Northern Areas
Great Flinders
Mallee
Mid West
Whyalla

Level 5
Kangaroo Island
Broken Hill
Far West
Riverland Independent
Far Northern (Woomera)

[Bush Telegraph]

[quote="Brad"]I'd take Northern Areas above Spencer Gulf any day of the week.
At the moment I would agree Brad.

Also the Barossa comp is stronger than the SGL 7 Dog. I saw my mate play in the last 2GFs and study it fairly closely.Top 3 players and bottom 6 players prob a step above IMHO.Actually I think your recruit needs to have a mental assessment! Did he play for one of the top 4 teams? Every one of these teams had a couple of ex league footballers playing for them and you had blokes like Scott Feltus!

[Poultry in Motion]

Extremely difficult to name them in a numerical order from best to worst. Maybe easier to group them from best to worst.
I have seen games, finals or the rep team from about 80% of these leagues but that would be over 25 years. Powerhouse leagues like SGFL, WBFL and Broken Hill are not as strong as they once were and dont attract the crowds they did. While Hills Country, APFL and NEFL have all improved markedly.

Level 1
Barossa Light & Gawler
Great Southern
Hills Central
Southern

Level 2
Yorke Peninsula
Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara
Riverland
Spencer Gulf
Western Border

Level 3
Mid South East
Port Lincoln
North Eastern
Adelaide Plains
Hills Country

Level 4
Eastern Eyre
River Murray
Northern Areas
Great Flinders
Mallee
Mid West
Whyalla

Level 5
Kangaroo Island
Broken Hill
Far West
Riverland Independent
Far Northern (Woomera)

Well done for having a go 200 KW.Have had involvement in or against a number of comps and spectated for a couple although most of these comps I have never seen and can only summise but can I suggest a couple of changes. SGL came from behind to beat Whyalla by a goal (?) last year so I think so on that basis I would drop the SGL 1 place and put Whyalla up 1. Northern Areas should join them. NEFL could be in level 2 and Adelaide Plains would be only a Killer Wasps whisker away from going into the same level and YP would be close to dropping down 1.

[GWW]

Level 1
Barossa Light & Gawler
Great Southern
Hills Central
Southern

Level 2
Yorke Peninsula
Kowree Naracoorte Tatiara
Riverland
Spencer Gulf
Western Border

Level 3
Mid South East
Port Lincoln
North Eastern
Adelaide Plains
Hills Country

Level 4
Eastern Eyre
River Murray
Northern Areas
Great Flinders
Mallee
Mid West
Whyalla

Level 5
Kangaroo Island
Broken Hill
Far West
Riverland Independent
Far Northern (Woomera)

That list looks pretty accurate to me. I would probably have Yorke Peninsula down a level or 2, and probably River Murray up to level 3.