Trader wrote:Shark_Hunter wrote:Given some of the chat on the Premier Cricket thread, does anyone think an ATCA club would have any interest or ambition to try to join Div 2 at some point? It's been a fair while since I've seen any A1 cricket and despite some gun players throughout the teams, assume the depth would be the biggest challenge. When I last played I would say the top ATCA teams might have 1-2 players that could hold their own in Premier 1st grade, middle 5-6 would be fringe 1st graders/solid 2nd graders, last 2-3 picked probably 3rd graders. So with a couple of decent recruits, could any current clubs be competitive in SACA Div 2? Interested to hear any thoughts....
I think playing wise the top few in ATCA would certainly have competitive season in a div 2 grade comp, however, as others have mentioned, the players at ATCA aren't interested in Sat/Sun cricket, 11am starts and taking training overly seriously (some individuals might be but the generalisation that the wider group isn't; is true).
The biggest hurdle however will be aligning the promoted atca club's team structure to fit in with Grade cricket's 4 senior teams.
EG:
SPOC, Flinders Park and Trinity OS would have to find a 4th side, as they currently only have 3.
Grange, PAOC and Marion all have 5 at the moment so would need to drop a side.
Goodwood with 8 would be the biggest one impacted.
in saying this I think you will find that if this was to happen it may open up clubs to have more interest which in turn will bring that 4th side. Take TOS as an example- they have the barossa at their door step with 2 other leagues in the barossa and PDCA that would potentially have some guys looking to potentially play at a higher level without heading to Northerns or TTG