Originally Posted by
CKunde
The most important thing for 2018 is the Premier Division points cap. This has to be introduced immediately and set no higher than 45 (based on the current proposal), with the only concessions being years of service and incentives for having/developing Youth Girls, otherwise the competition will suffer, which will have long term negative affects on the AFLW side.
There are soft proposals around stratifying the cap based on ladder position, which may be worth considering in future years, but reality is most players are going to choose as side based on three things, 1) Financial incentives... (light years)... 2) Premiership credentials and 3) Quality of the football programme.
The competition already is imbalanced and there are no incentives for developing juniors, only to see them whisked away to the top side that can offer incentives. Manly with a local junior that's currently playing for USyd is a potential Premier Division side. North Shore with local juniors currently on scholarships to USyd is a potential Premier Division Side. USyd, that don't have juniors at all, drift down the ladder a spot or two without these three players.
I think when you consider some of the ramifications of the points cap, (i.e. high quality players being left out of the PD side some weeks due to the cap not form or ability) the Premier Division sides with reserves have to be in the same division. I think it's fair that it's the lowest division and the sides that are in this one to make up the numbers should probably be given some opportunity to preference being in the stand alone division or the division that contains all the PD reserve grade sides.
4 PD sides currently have reserves and I reckon UTS will follow in 2018.
The other thing in the mid-term is the need to bridge the gap between U18s YGs and senior women's. U18s YGs should be age increased to U19.5s and become the domain of the senior clubs. Alternatively starting with an U25s comp that is age reduced over a few years to U19.5s may work and allow U18s YGs to continue as is.
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