2025 Adelaide Footy League - Division 7

[Dutchy]

Juniors are not a short-term goal at this stage as we simply don't have the numbers from a volunteers or off field infrastructure perspective.

Our strategy is more about building the club back up, attracting more people getting more help, getting the fundamentals right and then starting to add on from there. We'd be looking at starting Juniors, maybe in 3 to 5 years perhaps.

This is a point of contention though and I know many at the club disagree with me.

Understandable, its a minimum 10 year journey once you start and everyone needs to be on board to stay the course, its a lot easier to say it than execute it.

[MW]

As a former Mitchell Park junior (U16's for a couple of years), hope you can get it back up and going.

[wenchbarwer]

Juniors are not a short-term goal at this stage as we simply don't have the numbers from a volunteers or off field infrastructure perspective.

Our strategy is more about building the club back up, attracting more people getting more help, getting the fundamentals right and then starting to add on from there. We'd be looking at starting Juniors, maybe in 3 to 5 years perhaps.

This is a point of contention though and I know many at the club disagree with me.

Understandable, its a minimum 10 year journey once you start and everyone needs to be on board to stay the course, its a lot easier to say it than execute it.

Using one of the neighbouring clubs as an example, it took a long time for Marion to get their juniors to the point it is now, and they still don't have teams in all the grades

[The Bedge]

Round 14 finished, Elizabeth, Brahma Lodge, Central United and Hackham all qualified for finals, can begin fine tuning and preparing.

Mitchell Park holding onto 5th spot, their game against Mawson Lakes will determine who plays finals. Flinders Uni would need to win their last 3, whilst Smithfield will get the spoon again.

[Dutchy]

MP have a game and % so suspect they would need to lose all 3 games to not hold onto 5th and an elimination final at Hackham, so Im guessing there is no way MP can jump up to 5th under this structure?

[The Bedge]

Didn't look at the percentage - you're right 7% is a massive amount to make up, puts MP in the box seat, although lose to ML and they'd still need to grab one or potentially two wins.

Under this system the highest they can finish is 5th - top 4 is locked away.

Looking likely to have a couple North / South finals:

Brahma vs Central United
Hackham vs Mitchell Park

It'll be interesting to see how the reserves go - they'll follow the A grade, so puts Mitchell Park in a good position to potentially make a play for Eliz.

[Down the Hill]

1st to 4th can change positions and so can 5th to 8th but only in those brackets. But if MP defeat the Crabs and Smiffies then a loss to ML shouldn't matter with the large percentage gap. If Hackham lose last 3 and finish 7-10 and MP finish 8-9 or 9-8 it won't alter who finishes 4th and 5th. Hackham will stay 4th and play a home Elimination Final v MP.

[Lightning McQueen]

Didn't look at the percentage - you're right 7% is a massive amount to make up, puts MP in the box seat, although lose to ML and they'd still need to grab one or potentially two wins.

Under this system the highest they can finish is 5th - top 4 is locked away.

Looking likely to have a couple North / South finals:

Brahma vs Central United
Hackham vs Mitchell Park

It'll be interesting to see how the reserves go - they'll follow the A grade, so puts Mitchell Park in a good position to potentially make a play for Eliz.

The week after should be sponsored by Shell.

[The Bedge]

The week after should be sponsored by Shell.

The week after will probably be:

Elizabeth v Brahma Lodge
Central United v Hackham / Mitchell Park

[Dutchy]

Thanks Gents, interesting how it all works and can see the merit of it.

Interesting spot for Hackham, basically know they are hosting the EF and little chance of them getting to 3rd so how do they play out the next few weeks? Rest a few, try a few different things?

[The Bedge]

It's an interesting one for sure - on one hand, you'd want your best 22 available and ready to go for finals, which might mean resting or extending some returns from injury.. but on the other hand you want to take some winning form and momentum into finals, and try to lock down your best side if you can.

[BenchedEagle]

Surely the Reserves needs to have open ladder still.
Elizabeth just beat Hackham and Central United to sit on a 3 way points tie between 3rd and 5th.
A great laddree battle about to be ruined by a league folly.

Basically now Elizabeth are locked into maximum 5th and still have to play 1st 2nd and 4th again.

No advantage for Elizabeth in a normal open ladder, big advantage to Mawson Lakes and Mitchell Park get a crack to gain on top 5.

Common sense has to prevail surely?

[Down the Hill]

So you want B grade games separated from A grade during the last 3 games of the season. Sort of defeats the purpose of giving all 8 clubs a 17 game minor round rather than just stopping things at 14 rounds. Even the B grade teams know that the first stage of the season ends at 14 rounds and if you aren’t good enough to be in the top 4 then so be it. You conveniently didn’t mention your 2 losses to the side directly below you as a reason why your B grade didn’t finish top 4. The system implemented by the league is a great solution for giving D7 clubs a full season and providing the same finals structure as the other Divs so that come GF day the two best A grade teams have secured promotion for their club to D6. Next you will be suggesting that the B grade premier goes up to D6R but if their A grade doesn’t make the GF they will stay in D7.

[Lightning McQueen]

Surely the Reserves needs to have open ladder still.
Elizabeth just beat Hackham and Central United to sit on a 3 way points tie between 3rd and 5th.
A great laddree battle about to be ruined by a league folly.

Basically now Elizabeth are locked into maximum 5th and still have to play 1st 2nd and 4th again.

No advantage for Elizabeth in a normal open ladder, big advantage to Mawson Lakes and Mitchell Park get a crack to gain on top 5.

Common sense has to prevail surely?

You're only as good as your A Grade.

To be fair, Mitchell Park have beaten you twice and when you lose you generally lose convincingly, you do have a bit of momentum going into the finals so get past week one and it's home finals from then on, that's where the it benefits you guys, swings and roundabouts.

[The Bedge]

Could you imagine the logistical nightmare of scheduling seperate A/B grade fixtures for the final 3 rounds.

[BenchedEagle]

No definitely not, I meant still the same schedule, just dont lock the ladder.
Fair that ML and MP get an advantage, but locking the top 4? Seems a shame to ruin a close season.

[The Bedge]

Oh right, gotcha.. well might have merit this year, but without checking I would say historically the ladder in the reserves has been very lop sided in past years - the top 4 streets ahead of the rest.

Aside from first place / top 3 double chance, positions mean diddly squat given you follow A grade.

Look at D6R - if the season stopped today, Lutheran would be hosting Ingle Farm @ Ingle Farm despite being a couple games clear.

[whufc]

Not sure the locking in spots is the best system.....

If its good enough for the AFL to have some sides play each other more than others im sure Div 7 ammos could just play X amount of games and have an open ladder the entire season.

The other is the league is strategic and has some formula behind the triple up games like many country leagues do. Is it 8 teams 17 games so you play each team twice and then 3 teams 3 times.

Could the previous years A Grades 8,7,6,5 positions play their triple ups against one another and then the two div 6 relegated sides, call them seed 1 and seed 2 play last years 3rd and 4th sides in the triple ups. This would also hopefully keep for a more even comp across the A Grade. Obviously, the B Grade follow the A Grade and just take the good with the bad as each year comes.

[Lightning McQueen]

No definitely not, I meant still the same schedule, just dont lock the ladder.
Fair that ML and MP get an advantage, but locking the top 4? Seems a shame to ruin a close season.

Fair enough, I get your point to some degree. You guys just need one win and you're locked in anyway, just tank your A's for a week...............or 3.

[Lightning McQueen]

Not sure the locking in spots is the best system.....

If its good enough for the AFL to have some sides play each other more than others im sure Div 7 ammos could just play X amount of games and have an open ladder the entire season.

The other is the league is strategic and has some formula behind the triple up games like many country leagues do. Is it 8 teams 17 games so you play each team twice and then 3 teams 3 times.

Could the previous years A Grades 8,7,6,5 positions play their triple ups against one another and then the two div 6 relegated sides, call them seed 1 and seed 2 play last years 3rd and 4th sides in the triple ups. This would also hopefully keep for a more even comp across the A Grade. Obviously, the B Grade follow the A Grade and just take the good with the bad as each year comes.

I couldn't agree any less. Brilliant format from the guys at HQ.

Div 7 doesn't have showdowns, FNF timeslots, interstate scheduling and all of the other BS, just a flat comp on an even paying field.