Grade Cricket

[heater31]

Would be stiff to not renew a contract of the premiership winning coach unless it was the individual's decision....

[Tony Clifton]

Has Peter Judd stepped down at Sturt?

Really good coach. Great guy. Has been there 6 or 7 years I reckon. Longer maybe?

[backoftheroom]

Time for the second club on the list, there has been some speculation about Sam Miller recently, so lets knock of Prospect while we are at it.

Finished 13th, 10th, 5th and 1st across the respective senior grades. 11th in both the U14 and U16 Reds, mid table in the Whites competition.

Need
Penetration with the ball and someone young and talented for Miller to lean on with the bat. Hudson-Prentice was very good this season but a one man band for much of the time. Some talented young players with Boylan, Daniel, McGregor-Baptista and Dickman. However, these guys are all under performing at present. Harsh to knock guys who aren't full developed, but Boylan is probably the only one you can build a club around. M-Baptista lacks work ethic, Daniel the X-Factor to bowl sides out and Dickman has a pretty questionable attitude and character from what I'm told.

Have Spoken/Should Speak To
In the Tyrell Sinclair conversation as has been mentioned a number of times. Looking in their area there doesn't seem to be a lot of players not getting a fair go at A and B grade level. Young Cam Bullard from Adelaide may be looking for opportunities after an impressive year in the B's and a game or three in the A's. While you wouldn't say he's being treated unfairly by the Buffs he's a player who Prospect can throw in at 4/5 and give him a couple years. That's just an idea though. Trevor Keen from East Torrens may also be someone to look at as a stop gap. Good numbers in the B/A Grade but his technique is not very easy on the eye; yet it is effective at batting long periods if his strike rate suggests anything!

Key Next Season
Consistency. Showed at times that they could match it with the best teams for a session or two then would fall away. Zes seems to have turned around the clubs attitude to training, so this should be a good sign moving forward. Need the stronger C/D Grade seasons to flow into the A/B's now. Getting the right talent in will be crucial though, they don't exactly have Test cricketers coming out of the juniors right now.

Side Note: What are peoples thoughts on their history with getting Poms over? I'm for it provided they aren't keeping 16-23 yr olds out, is it a part of or a significant reason they are where they are now?

[Tony Clifton]

Interesting question. Not sure that the short term, one-season recruits are much good for them. Getting players like Miller and Dickman from interstate though - guys who have moved to South Australia to live and will become part of the club longer term - is gold and will help the younger players develop around them. Too many one-season wonders though just means you're starting from scratch each season.

Can't afford to lose Miller. Would they get Keath back if he doesn't crack AFL this season?

I really like one of their young batters, Harvey Brennan. A real dasher but has a decent technique too. Finished school cricket now I'm pretty sure. Also have a young spinner Krutarth Suthar who goes alright. Left arm orthodox spinner, could be handy.

[heater31]

Bullard impressive in the 2's

350 runs at a tick over 31 is not I would describe as impressive, solid perhaps.....

[Tony Clifton]

For an U/17 that's impressive

[backoftheroom]

Bullard impressive in the 2's

350 runs at a tick over 31 is not I would describe as impressive, solid perhaps.....

As an U17 that's really impressive. Hasn't just been in one big innings either, a consistent start-getter is all you can ask for from a young kid.

[Port Pirie Power]

Does anybody know what Bullard is like as a kid? Looks to me like a kid who would bully around Juniors, however those stats for an under 17 may be proof that I'm wrong.

I know his dad is an ordinary bloke, the son the few times I've seen him looks like he has a lot of his dad in him. Let's hope that doesn't get in the way of what could be a promising cricketing career.

[Brodlach]

Does anybody know what Bullard is like as a kid? Looks to me like a kid who would bully around Juniors, however those stats for an under 17 may be proof that I'm wrong.

I know his dad is an ordinary bloke, the son the few times I've seen him looks like he has a lot of his dad in him. Let's hope that doesn't get in the way of what could be a promising cricketing career.

I know him a little bit, his parents especially his mum have been really nice. Cam does have a bit of an attitude but it's that "I'm a good at sports/ my crap don't stink" teenage attitude

[heater31]

Does anybody know what Bullard is like as a kid? Looks to me like a kid who would bully around Juniors, however those stats for an under 17 may be proof that I'm wrong.

I know his dad is an ordinary bloke, the son the few times I've seen him looks like he has a lot of his dad in him. Let's hope that doesn't get in the way of what could be a promising cricketing career.

I know him a little bit, his parents especially his mum have been really nice. Cam does have a bit of an attitude but it's that "I'm a good at sports/ my crap don't stink" teenage attitude

I think this year he actually took the fitness aspect half serious and his season stats showed that. Mostly it's just his old man that comes to matches as I think Cam's sister has a disability that doesn't allow her to come to a full day of cricket very often. Yes his old man can go over the top at times but when spoken to in the past has put his hand up and admitted a line was crossed.

[Tony Clifton]

Did all the merger talk that's been going around since the Zadow Report put the wind up a few clubs? Force them to get serious, improve, get better coaches, retain players etc?

Did it ultimately have a positive effect, whether a merger ends up happening or not?

[heater31]

Did all the merger talk that's been going around since the Zadow Report put the wind up a few clubs? Force them to get serious, improve, get better coaches, retain players etc?

Did it ultimately have a positive effect, whether a merger ends up happening or not?

Reckon the biggest rocket for clubs to get their house in order is via the CA Premier Club accreditation. One would guess a continual poor performance in this would result in Cricket Australia stepping in either taking control or asking the State association to remove them from the competition.

However, I think most SACA clubs perform very well in this rating every 6 months.

[Stumps]

Has Peter Judd stepped down at Sturt?

Really good coach. Great guy. Has been there 6 or 7 years I reckon. Longer maybe?

not sure exactly but def longer than that. I would say 10 ish

[The Hound]

Looks like the GCC meeting earlier in the week was all about self interest rather than what is best for cricket in SA, when will there be some rejuvenation of membership

[Tony Clifton]

Looks like the GCC meeting earlier in the week was all about self interest rather than what is best for cricket in SA, when will there be some rejuvenation of membership

What do you mean?

[Aerie]

Did all the merger talk that's been going around since the Zadow Report put the wind up a few clubs? Force them to get serious, improve, get better coaches, retain players etc?

Did it ultimately have a positive effect, whether a merger ends up happening or not?

The perennially poor clubs still finished in the bottom half of the table - they've just got a gold pass because of who is on the SACA board.

When did Prospect, University and Adelaide last make 1st Grade Finals?

[The Hound]

Looks like the GCC meeting earlier in the week was all about self interest rather than what is best for cricket in SA, when will there be some rejuvenation of membership

What do you mean?

Clubs wanting to change by laws for junior players to play finals when they have played senior cricket. IMO the bylaws for this is pretty reasonable, follow the current bylaws and you wouldn't be in this position
Clubs on the GCC wanting decisions made straight away by the SACA Board, yet the GCC is the one group that doesn't make/blocks decisions!
Under 16 Red to Sunday, (good move) but will only work if 16 W's moves to (or are 16w's on the way out). Community clubs will be up in arms over this as they will lose their best players , CA want junior players to have more links to their community clubs at a younger age group.
How many members on the GCC have been on there for over 7 years? remove the SACA membership they get and see how many are still interested!

[bunji]

PROPOSAL FOR REDEVELOPMENT OF GRADE CRICKET IN THIS STATE - when SACA reconfigure their constitution hopefully we will get a more robust management of cricket through the GCC. (I would pay an honorarium to them to give the job more credibility)

The issue of College cricket conflicting with grade cricket has been there for a long time and has never been successfully dealt with. According to Cricket Australia community cricket is meant to be a legitimate pathway on the way to grade cricket. Based on their theory having comps play alongside each other is exactly what they want. Playing 16 reds on a Sunday will at least allow a more robust competition in the short term but it does not deal with the issue of 1st and 2nd grade players having to stay playing in a half baked private school comp instead of being challenged!! ) - the reality is that the junior competition as it is won't work in the long term as it does not fit with the high performance philosophy as well as being very expensive . Within five years I believe we will need to have an Under 16 and under 18 competition that sits under 1st and 2nd grade cricket. Third grade cricket resembles this already so having 2 Under 16 comps is silly - I would say that at the moment most clubs who are awake have at least 2 or 3 Under 16 players in their third grade.

The feeder programs for these competitions can then be Ray Sutton(should stay as it is and still be selected by grade clubs) and Under 14 premier League(shortened and stand alone comp in Summer holidays) which should still be tied directly to Grade Clubs but would then take the pressure off the administration of so many junior teams and take more responsibility back to community cricket and off grade clubs. The current set up is not going to work as clubs are drowning due to not having paid administrators who can manage all of the issues relating to compliance and funding etc etc. In my opinion we will also need 2 divisions of first grade as this current set up of Redbacks league and then Grade Cricket has way too many programming issues and is very costly administratively, this will enable us to then have a much more sustainable long term 1st grade competition which is what we all want.

I would propose Division 1 - 1st and 2nd grade - 8 teams play against each other in both grades. Division 2 - 8 teams play against each other in both grades - in division 2 - one of the teams would be the SACA Under 19 team and the SACA Under 17 team would play second grade. One team may be promoted or demoted each season from 1st grade - second grade (This promotion/demotion would only occur each 2 years so the team with the lowest and highest points in division 1/2 would then be promoted or demoted) - so a team who has injuries for 1 season gets the opportunity to respond in the following season rather than being demoted off 1 season . The other 2 teams would come from Turf cricket and would need to be admitted constitutionally to the competition which would need to be restructured to support this and they would then be permanent members of SACA grade cricket, some of these clubs such as Pooraka are demonstrating that they are able to make things work a lot better than some grade clubs who are stuck in the past. We are living in a free market and the reality is that only those clubs who are prepared to do the work will survive in first grade cricket and SACA once they have reconfigured their board will now have something to work with after the Parliamentary Select Committee documented it all for them. SACA Members need to remember what has happened these past eighteen months at the next elections and agitate for change.

Alternative to admitting 2 new teams would be to just have 14 teams in 2 divisions (8 in Division 1) ( 6 in Division 2) - so the 14th team would be the SACA U19/U17 set up as previously mentioned.

[Tony Clifton]

I don't like the idea of having an U/18 competition. Talented kids who are 15, 16, 17 should be playing against adults as often as they can. Hardens them up and tests them. They improve quicker than just playing against kids.

Plus the better ones will be playing 1st or 2nd grade anyway so the others are not even playing against their best peers if there's an U/18 competition below 1st/2nd grade level.

U/18's works for football because of the physical element (need to keep adults and 16/17 year olds mostly in separate competitions) but cricket is more a game of tactics/skill. If you're good enough, you're old enough.

Sunday for Under 16's could be good. Opens up grade cricket to School 1st XI cricketers and also country kids who still play in their local competition on Saturdays. Big positives. Country kids getting to play both would be a good thing for country cricket you'd think. Currently the best kids leave the local competitions to play grade cricket.

The downside is it means kids have to 'turf' their Turf Club on Sundays. On the surface this is a negative but if they get rid of U/16 Whites at the same time the overall pool of players for community cricket may actually increase. Plus a kid who is playing grade U/16's on a Sunday could start playing ATCA senior cricket on a Saturday.

[Trader]

Not sure if Pooraka would want to go to SACA. A lot of their players play Turf because it doesn't have the demands that come with district cricket.
1pm starts and no sundays are a huge draw card.