U18 -2020 -21

Adelaide Footy League Talk

U18 -2020 -21

Postby FOURTH ESTATE » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:05 pm

To all clubs

The Adelaide Footy League has long held concerns as to the viability of an Under 18 Competition that at best has been facilitated on an adhoc and or needs basis. Those concerns have been an agenda item for discussion every year for at least the last five (5) with member clubs. Anecdotal feedback from even the most regular of U18 participating clubs is the current model is tenuous at best as clubs navigate the social habits of this age group.

2020, as difficult as it has been has presented an opportunity to address a range of challenges with this particular issue being a high priority. The AdFL and SANFL Juniors have arrived at a position that will see the dissolution of U18 as we know it and SANFL reconfiguring their junior age groups from U16.5 to U16 and introducing an U17.5* division in lieu of U18. (*Overage dispensation parameters to be ratified)

Over the course of the last decade, the League has seen this particular age group transition from U17 to U17.5 to U18 to 18.5 with overage dispensations for U19 players in an effort to assist clubs to fill teams. But it had also been a reactionary measure to what was then three separate metropolitan junior competitions adjusting their highest age group from 16 to 16.5 including dispensations for overage players.

In concert to that and in the same time period, we have also witnessed a high attrition rate of teams in that age bracket from thirty two (32) to thirteen (13). We have on occasion promoted an alternative being U19s to be played on Saturday to which has been resisted for various reasons, some valid, some not so. As recently as 2018 and 2019, an alternative was offered albeit as an extreme measure to move U18 football to Wednesday evenings but again, met with resistance. However, at the same time, our senior team nominations have increased on the back of what is widely acknowledged as a safe environment for 18 year olds to play senior footy in our League to which we can all be proud.

The data above alone indicates the current formula is broken and at a level requiring a response before it becomes an urgent response. Corresponding data with respect to participation clearly identifies a higher rate of engagement when there were U16 and U17.5 competitions respectively.

As a stark reminder of the how challenging this dynamic has been to navigate is we retain an email from a former junior league administrator in response to our protests in 2016 highlighting what was indicative of the disjoint between junior and senior football and I quote “what happens to these players after they leave our competition is of no concern to us”.

What happens to these players when they leave junior football is everyone’s concern. The Adelaide Footy League’s most significant pillar in its mission statement is to encourage participation through retention. Through natural evolution, juniors become seniors and if the numbers of players participating is an indication of competition health, then the AdFL has full confidence that a unified approach with a reconfiguration of the U16s and U17.5 age divisions, will provide every opportunity for the game to continue to proposer. It would be easy for the existing thirteen U18 clubs to consider this adjustment a disadvantage to them however our focus is to provide a platform for the other fifty plus clubs to engage with their U16s and retain them for another year into U17.5 before a decision to continue participating needs to be made. The job thereafter is to implement programs to help those boys and girls to transition from U17.5 to senior footy.

The Adelaide Footy League is committed to collaborating closely with SANFL Juniors to arrive at an outcome that football in general benefits in the long term even if there are hurdles to jump in the short term.

Both organisations are in the process of assessing a range of ongoing considerations such as overage dispensations. Both SANFL and AdFL agree that it is crucial to offer young men or women to participate as an overage player if conventional circumstances demand. But at the same time the altruistic intent of that concession has been flaunted if not abused in recent years with some offering higher priority to success of an U18 team than that of their long-term senior teams’ sustainability. It should be acknowledged that even if this age bracket was to be hosted by the AdFL in 2021, overage dispensation would be tightened.

We lament this being the day when clubs have little choice but to conform but it has been closing in on us for some time and the time to take decisive action is now which has been thwarted in the past largely due to an inherent level of self-interest, indecision or reluctance to accept alternative pathways offered. There is no more kicking the can down the road, waiting and seeing what happens, to trial or to transition from year to year because action is required now to address what is the most prevalent threat to our very being which is to have young men and now women play the game and not transition from junior to senior participants.

We urge all senior football clubs to assist their junior counterparts in accommodating this change and remain open to accepting counsel from clubs that may assist in allowing this, to prove a significant shift in direction for all of football to benefit.


Regards



John Kernahan | Chief Executive Officer
2017, 2019 & 2020 PREMIERS
RICHMOND, RICHMOND, RICHMOND.


Let that be a lesson to you Sturt. You don't beat Glenelg 3 times in a row in Grand Finals and get away with it.
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