morell wrote:To me there are two arguments going on.
One is the broader macro level discussion about money in semi-professional football and what that means for our sport. That’s a complicated, nuanced argument that requires a depth of knowledge that isn’t common in the depths of the safooty servers.
The second is micro in nature and whether or not this year for this division it’s appropriate to be spending any money paying players for what is in essence, social football.
I do think Marion in particular have perhaps slightly misjudged the cultural norms for these divisions. In D7 and perhaps even D6, it is my opinion that they’re not meant to be money driven competitions. That’s not to say nothing ought to be spent trying to recruit or it should be outright banned, but to my eyes there has always sort of been an unwritten rule to somewhat minimise spending on players to maintain that social connection we enjoy down here. That could just be me though.
It will come out in the wash and we’ll all adapt. To me it comes back to having a broken promotion/relegation system for grading teams. There must be more autonomy afforded to the executive of the AdFL to accurately place teams in the right division. Wining or placing in last years GF ought to be one criteria of a multivariate analysis .. other variables might include:
Average spend on players
Preference of club
Quality of recruits
Quality or losses
Divisional gap
Club structures (juniors, OS etc)
I would also go as far as saying… and Ill get hounded for this one. Have a pre-season grading comp for the lower divisions.
Maybe some clubs don't want to settle in the Social Div 7. Shouldn't clubs aim to play in the highest grade possible? If Marion choose to pay for a quick gateway to higher Divs you will only see them for a season or 2 in this Div. There's a lot of talk of Culture of late on here. We're just here in div 7 to have a kick on Saturday and enjoy a few beers after will only attract a certain level of player. A chance to build towards success will attract others.