Howard wrote:Look Good In Leather wrote:Howard wrote:Would Mt Lofty (or any other club) be so reluctant to go to the Country division if they didn't have to drag their juniors with them? Could the solution be that the junior and senior competition be separated? ie allow clubs to nominate their junior teams wherever they best fit, whether that is in Central or Country.
As an example only - Birdwood, Meadows and Nairne juniors play Central, Uraidla, Ironbank and Torrens Valley in Country, it would take some programming but surely could be done and would be better than forcing the whole club (like Mt Lofty) into a division that could decimate their junior program.
Separating the juniors from the seniors would do more harm than good
Fair enough to disagree but I don't really know how it would do more harm - the current junior competition is in need of a total overhaul, forcing Mt Lofty's juniors to join the Country division is a recipe for disaster as far as their junior program is concerned.
Clubs can still have juniors playing games prior to their respective senior teams, but not necessarily 13's, 15's etc, may be a mix of the clubs modified teams?
If juniors were not included in the relegation process the movement of clubs between Central and Country may not be as traumatic as is currently the case?
Separate the juniors from the seniors and you might as well give up. I have seen it happen before, the focus should be to strengthen the bottom division, find away to ensure that is competitive or else it will fall apart. For a long time, the HFL had Callington bringing that division down and, although they have now gone, the damage has been done. In turn, allowing Country Div teams to continuously not field a full set of teams means that you cannot relegate a club like Lofty without long term damage, the competition structure is just not in place to suit their club, it will destroy them. The Central Div clubs will be fine - there will be not issue there in the short term, but the lower division will gradually fall apart, as we saw in the SFL. If a second division is not a viable option, as for Lofty it appears at the moment, then in reality the clubs involved are also in trouble.
As it stands, the country division will potentially diminish to 6 or 7 teams over the next 2-3 years through mergers or just disappearing, because the competition structure (ie junior setup) does not support it, one of these could be Lofty if they manage the fall well. After that, the HFL could find itself in the same predicament that the SFL found itself in 2002, with only 4 clubs left in the second division and no longer a viable competition.
Lets face it, if you do not have a full set of colts sides, the points system will destroy you but it also diminishes a clubs viability. If the country division fails, then it will become the Central division clubs' problem.
Another issue is it has never been a Division 1/Division 2 structure. It is two separate competitions, a bit like Riverland/Indys. Had it been Div 1/2 with compulsory promotion/relegation this would be just part of life. Instead, you have a situation where Echunga have to apply to join the Central Division, and the bottom side may get relegated in a season but it happens rarely, hence the extreme drop. As it has been run as two distinctly different competitions, I can understand Mt Lofty's stance. They are a member of the Hills Football League Central Division, why should they get kicked out of the competition just because someone else wants to join, why should they then have to join a competition that does not cater for their club structure?
This is not the amateur league, where you have 6 divisions of A-Grade football and total disregard for junior football. It is a semi-professional country-style competition where there are only 2 divisions, and to send a club whose culture has been based around a division 1 style, fully functioning competition, into the bottom division, where juniors are an afterthought, is akin to kicking a club out of the league altogether, it is that severe.
It is a tough situation, but a situation that has arisen because promotion has been optional rather than mandatory. Leave the competition as it is, if Echunga wanted to join Central they should have done it in 2011.