the milky bar kid wrote:marbles wrote:
of course mate, we've had a dgrade for 30 years and its in our best interests to field it for a 31st year and considering also that theyre back to back premiers
but considering the SAAFL keeping using CGraders to keep their bottom placed Agrade clubs alive in div 7, they consequently see a falling participation rate where CGraders cant be f##ked playing AGraders and as youve seen in the last 1.5 years the league has lost dgrade sides from
Broadview
TTG
Sacred Heart
Flinders Park
Salisbury (didnt face agraders)
and now possibly henley
the SAAFL structure must be changed cos its pushing players away and in business when customers are walking away, youve got a problem
Whilst I agree there is some merit behind a C grade only, the difference between a quality C grade & a lower grade A grade is usually going to be minimal & will result in an even competition. This was not a problem when your C grade sides were beating A grade sides in Grand Finals...
How many clubs have gone the other way & increased to a D grade over the last 2 years?
PAOC
PNU
ROC
TTG (extra team returned)
North Haven?
Old Ignations?
Hope Valley?
So how can you say that this is such a problem?
Most of Henley's problems, appears to be a combination of
1. Failing to stop B graders/Fringe A graders being lured away from the club
2. Not attracting enough new players to fill the void of those leaving
3. Weak minded individuals in the lower grades who aren't willing to go out & have a kick with their mates unless they are going to win
These reasons plus the one of subs as mentioned by Q all contribute to where Henley has found themselves the last few seasons. Culminating in a bad attitude as exemplified by Marbles' verbal diarrhea. Sandbagging, and poor performances in the C's.
Henley C's experienced a fair bit of success while they had player coaches, and was made up of mostly a group of friends (most of whom could play) around the same age who had been at the club for a considerable amount of years. As these players got older, stopped playing or were no longer up to playing D7 or D6 the side slowly got worse and worse. The appointment of divisive coaches from outside of the club have also contributed, as some players found themselves not enjoying the coaching styles and attitudes of these coaches.
Sad to see how poor their performances have been in the past few seasons as they were the SAAFL bench mark for C grades only a few years ago.