Grade Cricket

[bunji]

The difficulty for clubs with no Under 18 program is that the lads who are slower developing ( often taller) is that you then lose the player back to the community, in my experience some of these lads are future first class cricketers and in some cases test cricketers and so I personally would prefer they stay in the grade club environment. Many players under the age of 18 are playing third and fourth grade but go on and can possibly play ten years of first grade or higher. There are numerous players in first grade at the moment and some higher who are examples of this. The other option where we keep third grade cricket as it is would then encourage clubs to have at least three older players who can act as mentors which is what exists in a number of clubs at the moment. I see many clubs at the moment who are struggling to manage the whole enterprise as evidenced by what is happening in fourth grade where they are having to go out searching for players or forfeit - none of this is helped by the constantly fluctuating numbers in grade cricket which occur with many lads having to play in the private school competition.

The under 18 and under 16 competitions in this model would have to be 12 team competitions as Uni have no juniors and the SACA Under 19/U17 teams would be under the SACA high performance banner. As the PSC identified, the undeclared conflict of interest within the board that plagued the whole merger exercise will need to be dealt with to get any meaningful change. There is no problem with people with dual interests being involved, when it is not declared however and therefore influences the process, it has a whole different flavour to it.

Adding clubs from Turf Cricket such as Pooraka etc etc would definitely present challenges and it maybe that we just have to keep the fourteen teams but definitely move to 2 divisions, SACA are desperate to have their better youngsters playing in first grade as a standalone side but with all due respect I believe they would cop a hammering so being a part of a 2 division comp would be a much more preferable option in my opinion.

Personally I believe there has been a lot of positive change in South Australian cricket however we do need to come up with something that is sustainable financially and viable culturally in the long term which I don't believe the Redbacks league is - with 2 divisions and an eight team 1st grade competition I believe the standard would improve markedly and we could therefore channel the money used for the Redbacks league competition back into grade cricket for coaching and administration etc.

[Aerie]

I think you could just have an 8 team Premier Grade.

The Grade below (call it the Community Cup or something) consists of the 1st Grade team of remaining clubs and 2nd Grade teams of the 8 Premier Grade clubs.

Over two seasons you'd need to demote the bottom 3 and then bottom 2 clubs to get to 8 clubs in the 3rd season.

After this if a club wins the premiership of the "Community Cup" they win promotion and the bottom placed Premier Grade team gets demoted.

In the meantime the SACA could choose to introduce regional clubs (such as Mt Barker) without affecting the quality of the Premier Grade.

Clubs would need to get compensation for losing players if they were not competing in the Premier Grade. All Redbacks squad members would need to play for Premier Grade clubs (even if just on loan). It would need to be made clear that SACA would support every club to be as strong as can be and not just let those demoted clubs trickle away.

Forget the Redbacks League and introduction of U19's. Pump that money in to specialist coaching and facilities for the Grade Clubs.

As for juniors - ideally College and Community Cricket would be played on a Saturday and Grade cricket on a Sunday. Perhaps just one U17, U15, U13 team for each club. Specialist training for a squad of 20 from each age group and performance in College/Community cricket impacts upon selection. Perhaps stagger and shorten the seasons of Community and Grade cricket so a kid isn't playing every Saturday and Sunday for 5 months.

[Sonofbrowny25]

Question- Do District Clubs do their research into ATCA players? there are plenty of Guns around. I am just asking i see people posting about picking up players yet there are guys in ATCA who could easily keep up at District level. other than pooraka who are mainly Ex District players there would be guys and younger player that im sure would still be keen to play higher,

[heater31]

Question- Do District Clubs do their research into ATCA players? there are plenty of Guns around. I am just asking i see people posting about picking up players yet there are guys in ATCA who could easily keep up at District level. other than pooraka who are mainly Ex District players there would be guys and younger player that im sure would still be keen to play higher,

There is a reason why those 'guns' are in the ATCA......don't have to train regularly, no earlier start than 12 noon for every game and no Sunday matches until finals.

[tigerpie]

Question- Do District Clubs do their research into ATCA players? there are plenty of Guns around. I am just asking i see people posting about picking up players yet there are guys in ATCA who could easily keep up at District level. other than pooraka who are mainly Ex District players there would be guys and younger player that im sure would still be keen to play higher,

There is a reason why those 'guns' are in the ATCA......don't have to train regularly, no earlier start than 12 noon for every game and no Sunday matches until finals.

Oh and there is quite a financial incentive as well.

[backoftheroom]

Team #3 Southern Districts

Finished 11th, 12th, 12th, 11th. Juniors had both 16's teams finish 2nd (but they play on hard wicket every week so take it with a grain of salt) and 14's were mid table.

Need
Something, anything. Such a poor performance across the senior grades probably reflects their squad well. Their D Grade was shambolic, playing 16 Whites kids and a number of girls who weren't good enough through the year. Sometimes even unable to fill a full side there as well. The A Grade lost two key bowlers in Rhys Barret and Staunton, but Barret will be back next season. Their young bowlers lack the X factor to bowl a side out so they would need someone who is that bit different to really make an impact. That said, the type of cricket they play is more conducive to medium pacers anyway. Batting is probably their weakest point. McCormack and Barret are obviously both very good players, but it is a case of once they are out the whole side is. Young top-order bat Suraj Rajesh looks the goods coming through though, in the Aussie 15's team. One or two more batters could see them move from +10th to that murky 6-9th spots.

Have Spoken/Should Speak To
No rumours are floating around from what I have heard, Southerns isn;t exactly a desirable destination to go play for the guys in town. Would love to see them try get some of the guys on the fringes at Glenelg, the Bays are a strong batting group and Southerns have the ability to offer opportunity to just bout every discipline or type of player except a keeper.

Key Next Season
Barret x2. Provided Rhys and Josh both have good years then they should push up the table a couple spots at least. Rajesh needs all the opportunity in the world and seeing as he's already played A Grade then he should get batter as the year/s go on. Keeping him may be the hard part, goes to Adelaide High and the Stringrays have a looooooong history of losing good players into town. A lot of pressure on the guys at the top end of their 1's to perform, and they really need to sort out their D Grade/16's on hard wicket stuff as well.

[The Bedge]

Question- Do District Clubs do their research into ATCA players? there are plenty of Guns around. I am just asking i see people posting about picking up players yet there are guys in ATCA who could easily keep up at District level. other than pooraka who are mainly Ex District players there would be guys and younger player that im sure would still be keen to play higher,

There is a reason why those 'guns' are in the ATCA......don't have to train regularly, no earlier start than 12 noon for every game and no Sunday matches until finals.

Oh and there is quite a financial incentive as well.

And the social incentive

[Aeropti]

Gaiter was close to the top of the 16 reds bowling aggregate playing half of his games on hardwicket. Has good pace for his age.
Williams, Hynes, Stone, Miller and Barrett back is a decent mix of young pace bowlers.

Spall and Rajesh the standouts with the bat in their juniors. You'd think they'd be seeing a fair bit of opportunity next season.

Think they need runs more than anything. Do they look at getting in fringe first graders or promote youth? Maybe a good compromise to get a DLCA player or two for a couple of seasons to stay competitive while bringing that youth alongside them.

[Tony Clifton]

Question- Do District Clubs do their research into ATCA players? there are plenty of Guns around. I am just asking i see people posting about picking up players yet there are guys in ATCA who could easily keep up at District level. other than pooraka who are mainly Ex District players there would be guys and younger player that im sure would still be keen to play higher,

Which players who haven't already had a crack at grade cricket are the standouts in your opinion?

[Port Pirie Power]

Would probably be only Gareth Cox from Walkerville that hasn't played grade cricket before and makes runs in ATCA.

[The Angry Bull]

Would probably be only Gareth Cox from Walkerville that hasn't played grade cricket before and makes runs in ATCA.

Coxy is a freak however he has zero interest in playing grade cricket. he'd be out of a job, house and car if he left walkerville.

[The Hound]

Gaiter was close to the top of the 16 reds bowling aggregate playing half of his games on hardwicket. Has good pace for his age.
Williams, Hynes, Stone, Miller and Barrett back is a decent mix of young pace bowlers.

Spall and Rajesh the standouts with the bat in their juniors. You'd think they'd be seeing a fair bit of opportunity next season.

Think they need runs more than anything. Do they look at getting in fringe first graders or promote youth? Maybe a good compromise to get a DLCA player or two for a couple of seasons to stay competitive while bringing that youth alongside them.

Rajesh needs to work on fitness to play out 96 overs per day in seniors, has some nice shot selection though.
Spall needs to increase the amount of shots in his kit bag, take his favorite shot away early and their is no plan b
If SD's were serious about promoting juniors why did B Gaiter play hard wicket every second week , quality bowler
Not enough turf wickets down south and the soccer club reluctant to work with SD's, so may struggle to get juniors on turf for awhile, unless they play home games at Park 25 or Women's playing fields (if they can get the curator out of the bar to prepare a pitch)

[tigerpie]

Gaiter was close to the top of the 16 reds bowling aggregate playing half of his games on hardwicket. Has good pace for his age.
Williams, Hynes, Stone, Miller and Barrett back is a decent mix of young pace bowlers.

Spall and Rajesh the standouts with the bat in their juniors. You'd think they'd be seeing a fair bit of opportunity next season.

Think they need runs more than anything. Do they look at getting in fringe first graders or promote youth? Maybe a good compromise to get a DLCA player or two for a couple of seasons to stay competitive while bringing that youth alongside them.

Rajesh needs to work on fitness to play out 96 overs per day in seniors, has some nice shot selection though.
Spall needs to increase the amount of shots in his kit bag, take his favorite shot away early and their is no plan b
If SD's were serious about promoting juniors why did B Gaiter play hard wicket every second week , quality bowler
Not enough turf wickets down south and the soccer club reluctant to work with SD's, so may struggle to get juniors on turf for awhile, unless they play home games at Park 25 or Women's playing fields (if they can get the curator out of the bar to prepare a pitch)

What happened to Christies High hound?

[The Hound]

Gaiter was close to the top of the 16 reds bowling aggregate playing half of his games on hardwicket. Has good pace for his age.
Williams, Hynes, Stone, Miller and Barrett back is a decent mix of young pace bowlers.

Spall and Rajesh the standouts with the bat in their juniors. You'd think they'd be seeing a fair bit of opportunity next season.

Think they need runs more than anything. Do they look at getting in fringe first graders or promote youth? Maybe a good compromise to get a DLCA player or two for a couple of seasons to stay competitive while bringing that youth alongside them.

Rajesh needs to work on fitness to play out 96 overs per day in seniors, has some nice shot selection though.
Spall needs to increase the amount of shots in his kit bag, take his favorite shot away early and their is no plan b
If SD's were serious about promoting juniors why did B Gaiter play hard wicket every second week , quality bowler
Not enough turf wickets down south and the soccer club reluctant to work with SD's, so may struggle to get juniors on turf for awhile, unless they play home games at Park 25 or Women's playing fields (if they can get the curator out of the bar to prepare a pitch)

What happened to Christies High hound?

Seniors play on Christies high!

Maybe they should of invested in Woodcroft College 10 years ago TP

[tigerpie]

Gaiter was close to the top of the 16 reds bowling aggregate playing half of his games on hardwicket. Has good pace for his age.
Williams, Hynes, Stone, Miller and Barrett back is a decent mix of young pace bowlers.

Spall and Rajesh the standouts with the bat in their juniors. You'd think they'd be seeing a fair bit of opportunity next season.

Think they need runs more than anything. Do they look at getting in fringe first graders or promote youth? Maybe a good compromise to get a DLCA player or two for a couple of seasons to stay competitive while bringing that youth alongside them.

Rajesh needs to work on fitness to play out 96 overs per day in seniors, has some nice shot selection though.
Spall needs to increase the amount of shots in his kit bag, take his favorite shot away early and their is no plan b
If SD's were serious about promoting juniors why did B Gaiter play hard wicket every second week , quality bowler
Not enough turf wickets down south and the soccer club reluctant to work with SD's, so may struggle to get juniors on turf for awhile, unless they play home games at Park 25 or Women's playing fields (if they can get the curator out of the bar to prepare a pitch)

What happened to Christies High hound?

Seniors play on Christies high!

Maybe they should of invested in Woodcroft College 10 years ago TP

Had their chance but we got in first

[Tony Clifton]

Weren't Cardjin College going to put a turf wicket in?

[heater31]

What happened to Christies High hound?

Seniors play on Christies high!

Maybe they should of invested in Woodcroft College 10 years ago TP

Worst Oval in the lower levels of Grade Cricket! Pitch square is about 4 foot short each end and no side facilities for players & spectators what so ever.

[Port Pirie Power]

Awful place to play,makes the drive down south even harder to take!

No offence SD fans.

Anybody know of any new player movements?

[tigerpie]

Weren't Cardjin College going to put a turf wicket in?

Wouldn't be a silly move for cardijn to do so....but can't see it happening myself.

[Tony Clifton]

Adelaide without a coach as well.

That makes Sturt, Northerns and Adelaide looking?