Bankstown: Swans or GWS?

[DLH]

I find the whole idea of Sunday junior football to be ridiculous. How many families are going to have the time to run their kids to training for two different sports, as well as be able to afford two lots of rego fees and associated gear, given the AFL's assumption that the move will attract kids from other sport?

On the flip side, how many kids and families will be lost to the game because they consider Sunday to be a day for the family, without any other distractions? And that's not to mention those who attend church, which the AFL appear to have noted rather clumsily going by UCM's post.

I can't see that there's any grassroots support for it, but I don't suppose that makes any difference.

[Mug Punter]

I find the whole idea of Sunday junior football to be ridiculous. How many families are going to have the time to run their kids to training for two different sports, as well as be able to afford two lots of rego fees and associated gear, given the AFL's assumption that the move will attract kids from other sport?

On the flip side, how many kids and families will be lost to the game because they consider Sunday to be a day for the family, without any other distractions? And that's not to mention those who attend church, which the AFL appear to have noted rather clumsily going by UCM's post.

I can't see that there's any grassroots support for it, but I don't suppose that makes any difference.

Absolutely spot on and it just shows what a bunch of idiots we have running the game.

Most families will limit their kids to one weekend sport, preferably on a Saturday so the AFL, genuises that they are, have given the NRL and soccer a free kick here.

Use mid-week school sport as the vehicle to convert players and cater for multi-code players.

Mind boggling incompetence.....

[Hole In Bucket]

[QUOTE=DLH;604765]I find the whole idea of Sunday junior football to be ridiculous. How many families are going to have the time to run their kids to training for two different sports, as well as be able to afford two lots of rego fees and associated gear, given the AFL's assumption that the move will attract kids from other sport?
[QUOTE]

I lived in Brisbane 5 years ago and their junior and local senior footy was and still is 100 yards ahead of Sydney.

The reason is they play everything above Under 12 on a Sunday. It opens the game up to a lot of Soccer, League and Union kids who play with schools or clubs on a Saturday. It attracted heaps of talented kids who wanted to try a new game.

Given how bad local footy is down here it is well worth trying.

[unconfuseme]

Latest installment from the wacky world of AFL.

Having taken since August last year and up until a week ago to finally meet with the members of Bankstown Sports Junior AFL, and provide some minimal explanation about the proposed transition to the west, the administrators of the Sydney South Juniors have now been instructed by the AFL to advise Bankstown that they have a deadline of Friday 22nd Feb to nominate teams for the 2013 Competitions, or risk being excluded ....

This whole mess may not be on the same scale as "Tanking, when it's not tanking" or "Drugs and Criminals" in AFL, but I'm sure it will strike a much deeper vein with the sporting public in Sydney when it hits the media!!! ... but you know what they say, no such thing as bad press ...

[ShortHalfHead]

Administrators of the Sydney South Juniors have now been instructed by the AFL to advise Bankstown that they have a deadline of Friday 22nd Feb to nominate teams for the 2013 Competitions, or risk being excluded ....

Can you unconfuse me, unconfuseme.

Are you saying that they are staying in the South Sydney comp?

[unconfuseme]

Can you unconfuse me, unconfuseme.

Are you saying that they are staying in the South Sydney comp?

For 2013, Sydney South is to run as a stand alone comp with the same clubs as 2012, but under the administration of the Sydney Harbour Committee, (after the former administration ran a disastrous 2012 season, lost the confidence of all clubs and then conveniently resigned ).

The 2014 plan is that there will be NO Sydney South Comp. All Sydney South clubs (except Bankstown) will transition to be part of Sydney Harbour comp - Junior football will remain localised, Youth football will be divisionalised, all junior clubs will be East or West from 2014. The Western Sydney Comp will run on the same terms, but with far fewer teams, be less competitive and endure much more travel.

There are some positives, particularly divisionalised football, which will mean even competition, at least in the East. Downside includes the end of "Home and Away" football, with teams potentially all playing at different venues, Sunday football, which has only been popular with the dedicated AFL families whose kids are in private schools and must participate in Compulsory Saturday School Sport - the real reason it was originally brought in, if the AFL want to be honest about it.

Anecdotal evidence is, that to continue with the rest of the Sydney South clubs would be appealing to the majority at Bankstown parents, rather than to be used and abused by the AFL to fill in where they see fit.

The point is, due to the actions of the AFL, Bankstown have been given 10 days to inform their members about these things, and assuming they even want to continue under the AFL's association, they then need to arrange coaches, recruit committee, advertise and register players for 2013 ... alternatively, the club folds, and the AFL have offered to step in and "rescue" the club ...

[justabaraker]

UCM, you are slowly "unconfusing" us all and again, thanks for your well put-together post.
But I'm from the "Hills District bible belt" so I wouldn't claim to know whether your side of the story is the only side.

Seems to me that junior soccer has cornered the market on Saturday morning sport and it would be delusional for the AFL to think they could penetrate there at this stage.
After that, Sydney people expect to have sport on Sunday arvo, so it's not a big stretch to try to wedge our code into Sunday arvo...not sure that I agree with you about all the privey school families with their compulsory Saturday School sport.

It's fair to say that A-League soccer is getting a good run at the moment, (and all credit to them for doing it well), but it doesn't translate to teenagers playing soccer and becoming bloody good at it, and taking from the gene pool of potential AFL draftees.

[justabaraker]

HoleIn, I agree with your comment about how bad it is here in Sydney....I imagine it's like being in one of those AFL teams in London who are a "minority" of enthusiastic ex-pats who remember how it used to be............

We have to remember just how minor our sport is here, and respect the AFL's efforts to get a whole lot happening real fast. Heads will be kicked, eggs will be cracked to make omelettes, feet will be trodden on, and it's all in the pursuit of getting AFL onto the map of one of the worst-placed markets for AFL footy.

[unconfuseme]

UCM, you are slowly "unconfusing" us all and again, thanks for your well put-together post.
But I'm from the "Hills District bible belt" so I wouldn't claim to know whether your side of the story is the only side.

Seems to me that junior soccer has cornered the market on Saturday morning sport and it would be delusional for the AFL to think they could penetrate there at this stage.
After that, Sydney people expect to have sport on Sunday arvo, so it's not a big stretch to try to wedge our code into Sunday arvo...not sure that I agree with you about all the privey school families with their compulsory Saturday School sport.

It's fair to say that A-League soccer is getting a good run at the moment, (and all credit to them for doing it well), but it doesn't translate to teenagers playing soccer and becoming bloody good at it, and taking from the gene pool of potential AFL draftees.

I have no problem with Sunday footy ... any reasonable religion is flexible!

But it is not the only option.

The AFL's own review of the Greater Sydney Juniors - which was briefly on the website, but removed as soon as it was pounced upon by Roy Masters who wanted to expose the shortcomings of the AFL - actually encourages clubs to embrace Friday Night Football to " ... enable cross code participation and free up the weekend" amongst all of the positives.

It seems to be taken verbatim from the Bankstown Sports Junior AFL Youth Football Pathways Program. I was personally witness to Friday night Youth games at Kelso with Auskick prelude, a few years ago, that the coaches and volunteers went out of their way to coordinate, where there were not only parents, but as many as twenty NON-AFL 14-16 y.o.'s, boys AND girls, hanging out and watching their mates play ... naturally curiosity gets the better of them, and as many as 8 of those boys ended up playing at least one game on a Friday night (some the rest of the season) and were able to play either soccer on Saturday or League on Sunday. Other teams were requesting games. Yet this astonishing revelation ...

? Our AFL clubs Friday night community Auskick program was removed from the AFL?s 2012 draw.

? Our AFL clubs Friday night Youth Football, U16 fixtures all but stopped by the AFL in 2012.

Just mind numbing

So far as the Compulsory Saturday School Sports, it is a reality.

Unless they have back flipped on it, there was a huge push by the AFL a few seasons back to get the game into private schools and have them feed to Universities, since they have no juniors. Sunday football was to enable that.

St Ignatius College and Knox Grammar were to be the tip of the iceberg ... of course that could have all changed with a whim too!

[The Runt]

?The next "good news" story was around the "Phoenix rising from the ashes", this time in the shape of an Eagle .... Liverpool Eagles! The crowd was told how under the AFL's direction, this former defunct club now had an Auskick centre + a competitive team that has never won a game (I think?). This was quickly brought into perspective by a mother who stated that she was "... part of the 30 families that had moved from Liverpool Eagles to Bankstown years ago because of the actions of the AFL in undermining the club volunteers and restricting their recruitment area" ... sounds familiar! ... perhaps not the best example in hindsight????


The Phoenix was a small club called the Holsworthy Tigers that started to recruit players and become competitive Yulong oval was home the canteen a trailer in Black & Gold then along comes the AFL in the shape of a blokes called Mike Kenny and Bill Webb it was strongly suggested that the Tigers move to Rosedale and in the process change to a name more appropriate with the location hence the team now known as Liverpool Eagles, seemed a good thing to do at the time even though 80% of the players were from Holsworthy Wattle Grove. 3 to 4 years later the 2 gents from the AFL turns up at club meeting with the great news that the AFL had some expansion plans Mt Annan Bradbury and Holsworthy it had a new club to form in Holsworthy it was to be called the TIGERS and the Eagles (formerly the Tigers) were no longer able to recruit in the Holsworthy Wattle Grove area. This along with a committee at the Eagles that was not people friendly, personality clashes at higher levels led to up to 40 players moving to Bankstown some to the new Tigers and some to Holroyd, at proud club that had 120 players 2 12s teams and great success was down to a handful never defunct don?t let the truth get in the way of the story . At the same time games against the new Tigers were bloody horrid as in the club room was all the trophies with the Holsworthy name on them that the new Tigers thought they should have, the arguments and crap that went on surrounding the games made for an atmosphere that was at best poisonous. Even today on the Southwest tigers website they proudly announce they are the oldest club in the area celebrating 40 years when in reality they were formed in 2000.

To my eyes all the money and effort that has been spent in the SW has been just to move players from club to another I doubt that the player numbers have increased much from the late 90s to now.

This is what happens when lazy people get a great idea if anyone could find the records for the old Campbelltown Junior Ass the amount of teams that are now defunct would surprise all within 20 years. The senior club the Blues in all the time I was involved with the juniors never visited never called and done absolutely nothing to foster the game in an area that they were at the time king pins so it is to a lot of people out there it is a matter of you reap what you sow.

I could really go on about this and a lot more areas of waste.

In regards to Sunday games it will work I didn?t believe until my youngest played in the Parra 15s on a Sunday and even though it was a far flung comp it was competitive and well rounded give a while it will catch on.

[ShortHalfHead]

[QUOTE=The Runt;604924In regards to Sunday games it will work I didn?t believe until my youngest played in the Parra 15s on a Sunday and even though it was a far flung comp it was competitive and well rounded give a while it will catch on.[/QUOTE]

Everything works if you employ the right bean counters.

[tara]

Too late for bankstown