JUNIOR FOOTBALL

[fathersonsfl]

Ok here is my 2 cents worth. There are some coaches/parents out there that take junior football WAY too seriously. I have played footy now for well over 30 years and let kids be kids.....please. Especially in the under 8s and 10s the kids are there to HAVE FUN.....so parents and coaches let them do that!!

[Dutchy]

Ok here is my 2 cents worth. There are some coaches/parents out there that take junior football WAY too seriously. I have played footy now for well over 30 years and let kids be kids.....please. Especially in the under 8s and 10s the kids are there to HAVE FUN.....so parents and coaches let them do that!!

Agree that should always be the overlying theme, however there also needs to be some introduction to discipline and a touch of what they will expect in higher grades as they get older. As it is very hard to teach that to a Under 14 lad if they havent been exposed to it earlier.

[lion heart]

Lets hope no more rain before the carnival sunday

[jet-airport]

Ok here is my 2 cents worth. There are some coaches/parents out there that take junior football WAY too seriously. I have played footy now for well over 30 years and let kids be kids.....please. Especially in the under 8s and 10s the kids are there to HAVE FUN.....so parents and coaches let them do that!!

Agree that should always be the overlying theme, however there also needs to be some introduction to discipline and a touch of what they will expect in higher grades as they get older. As it is very hard to teach that to a Under 14 lad if they havent been exposed to it earlier.

Agree dutchy / father son, its about participation and enjoyment. when you FIRST play for points it's a diffrent story, thats when you start to introduce set positions etc. Always remember alot of current AFL players were average footballers as kids......But with the right attitude, and work ethic,coaching, became above average footballers.

[jet-airport]

Lets hope no more rain before the carnival sunday

TRUE lion heart hows the oval looking? i'm sure after this sunday it is going to cop a hammering from 400+ kids and 20 plus 20min games on it. Great location though for carnival always a good day and hopefully your lions make a killing $$$ out of it.

[lion heart]

Oval looks fine but very soft - Hope it holds up after training tonight,friday and 3 games saturday.

[lion heart]

Oval has firmed up already - good weather over the next few days should ensure a good day is had by all on sunday.

[MatteeG]

Great news LH...

[Dutchy]

Oval has firmed up already - good weather over the next few days should ensure a good day is had by all on sunday.

Nice one, we have our first 3 games right in the middle of the main oval.

[Waterboy]

Oval has firmed up already - good weather over the next few days should ensure a good day is had by all on sunday.

Nice one, we have our first 3 games right in the middle of the main oval.

Middle of the main oval should be fine. The problem 2 or 3 years ago was the oval at the southern goals end.

[PhilH]

Congrats to

Brighton who won the U8's carnvial, Flaggies were runners up (Bad lucky Dutchy)

Reyenella White won the U10's over Happy Valley Black by 5pts

[Dutchy]

Looks like we both bombed in the GF Phil!

Was a great day out there today, well done to OSB/Lonsdale and the SFL.

[85 WAS A GOOD YEAR]

And thanks for the plug on the 5AA SANFL show Phil

Obviously the weather did the right thing for everyone today.

Congrats to everyone for putting on the Carnival, and to Dutchy for a great debut Season as Flaggies U8's Coach

[MatteeG]

Drove past around lunch time and the place was packed. Super effort from all the clubs, and well done Lonsdale for hosting it!

[jet-airport]

Drove past around lunch time and the place was packed. Super effort from all the clubs, and well done Lonsdale for hosting it!

Great day well done Lonsdale, super effort.steak s/which was a highlight to fix the hangover from a couple sherberts the night before Congrats to reynella in the u/10's.well done.Special mention to our 2 happy valley sides ,they both lost to reynella by a combined 12 points. in semi final (golds- 7 points)and grand final(blacks -5 points). Maybe next year boys!!!

[Straight Line]

Well done Lonsdale on a great day and the weather was spot on for the kids. Congrats to both flaggie u8s making finals (one in the gf)

[Mister Footy]

The SFL need to rethink the Junior competition next year for Under 14s and Under 16s. I question why some clubs are allowed to have only 1 team in these grades and play them in the "2nd" division on Sunday.

MVP and Lonsdale both only have 1 U14s team and these are playing on a Sunday. MVP also only have 1 U16s team and this is playing in the Sunday comp too.

MVP have made finals in both grades and may play in a GF - well if they are that good why not play them on a Saturday? Why play them against other clubs second sides?

I can hear the excuses now - let me guess - they are College kids and have to play school first?

The SFL allow BDOS to manipulate the competition and claim that Sacred Heart kids arent allowed to play on Saturday they have to play on Sunday as school footy must come first. Why then are kids from this school playing Saturday and Sunday for BDOS?

Time to man up SFL

[Courtney Fish]

The SFL need to rethink the Junior competition next year for Under 14s and Under 16s. I question why some clubs are allowed to have only 1 team in these grades and play them in the "2nd" division on Sunday.

MVP and Lonsdale both only have 1 U14s team and these are playing on a Sunday. MVP also only have 1 U16s team and this is playing in the Sunday comp too.

MVP have made finals in both grades and may play in a GF - well if they are that good why not play them on a Saturday? Why play them against other clubs second sides?

I can hear the excuses now - let me guess - they are College kids and have to play school first?

The SFL allow BDOS to manipulate the competition and claim that Sacred Heart kids arent allowed to play on Saturday they have to play on Sunday as school footy must come first. Why then are kids from this school playing Saturday and Sunday for BDOS?

Time to man up SFL

Some under 14's are still in Year 7 and play primary school football on Saturday which is a SANFL priority. Hopefully next year Lonnies will have Saturday sides.

[Mister Footy]

Courtney - Do you think that every other club in the SFL doesnt have kids in yr 7 playing in Under 14s? And since when has it been an SANFL priority?

If the SFL is not going to rectify this situation next year they need to stop referring to it as a 14/1s or 16/1s competition on Saturdays

I realise Lonsdale has not had a strong team this year in the Sunday U 14 competition looking at their results but what about Marion and Christies Beach teams in U14s who have won 2 games this season between them but they played in the Saturday comp. Lonsdale probably would have had a stronger chance against them rather than the team of Brighton yr 8s that are playing on Sundays

[Down the Hill]

Ever thought about participation and player retention Mister Footy. Bombers have been forced to play college kids some weeks on Saturday due to lack of regular numbers for the Saturday team. Some of these lads have then dashed off to school footy which is not ideal but would you rather we forfeit. In school holidays we have had access to all players but all regular Saturday players are selected first and any gaps are filled by Sunday players. So it hasn't been about trying to stack the team its to do with getting 18 on the park which is what we scraped together last week against Reynella. In 2010 no player from our Sunday team played on a Saturday for the entire season. We had 26 Saturday Under 14 last year and 21 went up to Under 16 and we didn't have as many public school kids as we thought coming out of Under 12. In fact we only had about 15 out of 50 Under 12 from 2010 (6 or 7 non-college) coming up to Under 14 in 2011 so we were caught short.

We are confident it won't happen again in the near future. The other challenge with Under 14 is that many are still in year 7 and many primary schools play school footy in the Tiger and Panther Leagues which also creates an issue with playing club footy on a Saturday. I believe Lonsdale have this issue and Morphy Park can't field a side without Sacred Heart and maybe some Immanuel lads, hence why they field teams on a Sunday. This may change in the near future for these clubs so the SFL and clubs can thank the Sunday comp for allowing these clubs to field teams and then build up to maybe playing on a Saturday.

Really who cares about who wins or make finals in the Sunday comp. It is primarily a vehicle to keep kids playing footy for the club they have played at since the age of 7 or 8 rather than lose them to another league such as Metro South or another sport altogether.

The Sunday comp is not a 2nd Division. For some clubs it may be but for others its not. If you take Brigthton out of both the Sunday Under 14 and Under 16 this year the comps have been very even with many very close games.

Pre Sunday comp Brighton were losing lots of post-minis players to Plympton, Edwardstown and PHOS Camden. This included Christian Howard who was drafted 15 last year. History will credit him as being drafted from Glenelg/Plympton yet he started his footy at Brighton but was forced to move because he wasn't able to play regular club footy for Brighton once he turned 13.

Unfortunately the Brighton dominance of particlularly the Sunday Under 14 in the last couple of years is mainly due to the sheer quality of Sacred Heart lads that started at our club when they were 7 and 8 years old 6 years ago. This group won several lightning carnivals and was always going to be strong once they entered Under 14.

I think the SFL have bigger issues to deal with such as the 2 Division debate and also the behaviour of players, parents, coaches etc. in the Saturday junior comp than worry about your concerns Mister Footy.