Early season adjustments, promotion & demotion

[X Runna]

Some years ago I used to be involved with suburban tennis in Woodville Districts. In those days, 3 weeks into the season there was a regrading done. Sometimes it meant that there were no changes necessary, but in some years the wrongful grading was hugely apparent. The original gradings were done on the promotion/relegation method, but not so hard and fast as in the SAAFL. Recruits and loss of players was taken into account in predicting a side's performance too.

An obvious example of how this would work is (after round 3) Mitchell Park dropping back to Div7, and Smithfield going up to Div6. Rosewater going up for Brahma Lodge, Division 3 & 4 - Golden Grove & Kilburn.......

Here are some relevant points before anyone arcs up - the fixture is very easy to change, so no issue there AND a team's points, score for and against, & percentage, ALL carry over into their new grade.

There are so very few or no negatives in this method, volunteers and organisers may be very mildy inconvenienced if they have made plans around a date months ahead, but that will be about it.

Thoughts anyone?

[Footy Chick]

Back up your argument or post gets deleted

[Phantom Gossiper]

Like all things, people will find a way to manipulate the system.

Take juniors for example, I believe they do a similar thing - therefore I've known of sides that have perhaps "taken the foot off" in games to avoid being regraded higher where they would obviously struggle instead being allowed to stay in the current div and have a degree of success.

Seniors are a lot more selfish.. What if a club realises early they can't win a flag in that div so "tank" and earn relegation for that season? What if a club realises it's got the goods but holds back in games to remain in that div?

[Phantom Gossiper]

Also there can be a massive jump between some divisions - a side than may struggle in one might find it easy in another and vice versa.

[LaughingKookaburra]

Teams battle all year to get promoted. Why reward a team after 6 weeks?

Why take glory away from sides who work endlessly in the offseason to develop a strong succesful structure to keep the clubs below who potentially haven't worked as hard competitive?

What's stopping a club being demoted and recruiting before June 30?

Finally when was the last club to go the entire year undefeated in A grade competition and no one get within 5 goals of them through the season? Actually I think Seaton did in 93...... Oh wait.......

[Robb_Stark]

i think teams like kilburn M.P/A.V/B.L all should fall under some rule for an extreme case

kilburn down to 4 would still suck but at the same time you would push GG up who at the moment are a clear flag favourite how is that fair on them people play sport for different reasons me personally i play to be in the grade and standard as possibe but lets say GG players want to win flags only they shouldnt be punished by going up

overall the club should come first but that also is viewed in many different ways a flag attracts new players but if GG were to go up they probably would be middle pack and maybe struggle and this could be a negative to the club

[Phantom Gossiper]

I say just leave it as is, with the exception of this season I cant remember too many seasons where there have been so many dramas over such a vast number of clubs.

[Look Good In Leather]

I say just leave it as is, with the exception of this season I cant remember too many seasons where there have been so many dramas over such a vast number of clubs.

A bit like reducing carbon pollution?

[Lightning McQueen]

I reckon tanking would become a problem. It is a fair point Runna, there is a fair bit of rooting around when you change the program, C & D grades are affected, clubs have already pencilled in social events by this time usually too.

[bennymacca]

The answer to me would be to be more flexible before the season and clubs nominate the division they want to be in. That's how it works in cricket. You nominally go up if you make the grand final but you don't have to, especially if you can prove you lost a lot of players etc.

Possibly hard to stop clubs wanting to stay in a lower division and dominate but you would soon work out the clubs that have a history of doing this and just put them up if needed.

[Mr Beefy]

The answer to me would be to be more flexible before the season and clubs nominate the division they want to be in. That's how it works in cricket. You nominally go up if you make the grand final but you don't have to, especially if you can prove you lost a lot of players etc.

Possibly hard to stop clubs wanting to stay in a lower division and dominate but you would soon work out the clubs that have a history of doing this and just put them up if needed.

That's what happens now, clubs can elect not to go up if they have earned promotion. What happens when you get 20 clubs nominating for Div 1 or 3 or whatever div.

[bennymacca]

Yeah fair call. Pretty tough. And I guess we aren't talking about 1 division here really. when clubs are losing by 30 goals they will probably still lose most games the division below wouldn't they?

[morell]

The current system is pretty much as good as you're going to get IMO. This year is really bad for struggling clubs but there isn't much the league could have done. The only major flaw you have with promotion/relegation is that it doubles the impact of change in squads. For example if a side keeps most of their side from the year before it got relegated, adds a few good players, you go from struggler to unbeatables or at least make the comp lopsided very quickly - due to not only improving your side but also going down in standard.

Then the reverse is true. Go up a division, lose a few players, and all of a sudden the rot sets in and you're really battling.

I wouldn't mind toying with the idea that to go up or down a division, you need to finish in the GF two years in a row, ditto for going down - bottom 2 two years in a row. That might mitigate some of the massive fluctuations we're seeing in club fortunes year to year.

Never going to have everyone happy all of the time.