U18s opening round

[Norris Lurker]

The U18s, after the grading carnival over the last couple of weeks, have been split into 2 divisions - the Premier Cup and the Challenge Cup. 4 new teams have come in; with North Shore, Penno and St George now fielding 2 teams and Manly-Warringah entering the U18s comp. Holroyd-Parramatta, who had a team last year, will not have one this year; while Greater West Power have amalgamated into Penrith and will play on as the Penrith Rams.
Great to see the new teams come into being - hopefully the players will go on to play senior footy.

The opening round fixtures are:

Premier Cup:
Saturday 22nd April (10am starts)
Gore Hill - North Shore Bombers v St George
Ern Holmes - Pennant Hills v East Coast Eagles
Riverview 4th - St Ignatius Riverview v Wollongong
Sunday 23rd April (10am)
North Shore Wildcats v Redbacks

Challenge Cup:
Saturday 22nd April (10am starts)
Greygums Oval - Penrith v Campbelltown
Drummoyne Oval - Balmain v St George
Weldon Oval - Manly v Pennant Hills
Wests have the bye.

[swansrock4eva]

Nice to see they put a match on the SUNDAY, the same day the SWANS play in SYDNEY.

[BeeEmmAre]

You should be able to get from Gore Hill (or Willoughby) to the SCG in time if you want to see this match.
Not as if its a senior game anyway.

[Norris Lurker]

It would be a race to get there - the game would finish about 12, by the time they've had a shower it would be 12:30 and they've got 40 minutes - assuming they've got lifts arranged to get to the SCG it depends on traffic in the harbour tunnel. They should be OK but it would be tight.
But when North Shore have got 2 under-18s teams, scheduling's always going to be a challenge. The other alternative would have been to play that game at 8am on the Saturday - which may have been a better option.

The main clash with the AFL comes at the end of the season and affects all grades - I don't know if anyone else has noticed this yet, but prelim final day at Henson Park on 3rd September clashes with the Swans v Carlton game at the SCG.

[swansrock4eva]

And that's not even taking traffic at the ground into account. I've sat in traffic on Anzac Pde for 40+ minutes just to get into the parking area.

Plus the $18 parking fee... EW.

As to September... will be interesting to see how that one pans out.