easy solution would be to cap travel time to one hour for over 35s and AA beyond the serious grades
easy solution would be to cap travel time to one hour for over 35s and AA beyond the serious grades
How would you define 1 hour travel time? NF struggle to get the grading out on time at the moment, let alone having to google maps all the distances. And then having to rejig the comp because 1 team has to travel 1 hour and 1 minute per google. And what about matchday, do teams pull the plug if they’re stuck in traffic and have to travel more than 1 hour?Originally Posted by boz-monaut
I’m all for sensibility for Friday night comps, but Saturday’s you know you’re signing up to play in the inter district leagues, which includes Scone, Southern Lakes (if they still exist), Swansea, Nelson Bay, Cessnock etc, if you don’t want to travel, go and play 5 a side.
Last edited by Thomas477; 27-03-2022 at 02:20 PM.
Middleby Gone
Lawrie Out
If the ground is further than the time it takes to finish your half strength soy latte then it is deemed out of area perhaps
The best outcome is obviously to have a Hunter valley all age division where teams from Scone, Muswellbrook, Singleton, Cessnock etc could participate in. As long as there grades around the same level, which I'm sure would occur.
At the end of the day, the draws and gradings are done. Teams that have Scone in their competition should realise that they potentially could have to go to Scone in the early rounds. It's done, everyone needs to make an attempt to make it work. I realise for some that maybe difficult, But we all know that there are players in all teams that will make some crappy excuse not to go.
Scone have every right to play in the all Age competition, Football needs to be promoted and encouraged in the upper valley. It's probably the only time some players will ever stop in Scone.
I have always said the more teams playing zone the better. If that includes Scone then good, More teams the better. Maybe with no Muswellbrook in zone this year some of their players are playing with Scone? But I think saying 3 grades, play zone is a little short sighted.
Or the easy solution is to put the fixtures out much earlier.
Comp starts in a month, have them out this week.
Just to be very clear because people seem to not get it; I'm not arguing with anyone that Scone shouldn't be able to play in an interdistrict league, I'm not arguing that Scone should have to play more away games than everyone else, or that people shouldn't expect to travel when they sign up to an interdistrict league.
My entire argument is that there are smarter and arguably fairer ways for everyone (people from Scone and those in the cities) to incorporate Scone in to the competition to ensure fair play opportunities for everyone.
The current issues seem to be:
1. Games in the first 2-3 weeks are incredibly difficult for adults to be able to get to with such short notice.
2. People don't want to travel to Scone in the later rounds because they're out of contention.
Potential opportunities for improvement for problem 1 would be:
* Get the draw out with 3 or 4 weeks notice so that the minimum amount of forewarning that teams have that they need to travel to Scone is a month
* Play the first 2-3 games for Scone away from home every year, this way they could know that would be the case from February and start organising their lives accordingly. This would not result in less home games, just a different distribution.
* Create a Hunter Valley League, I don't know why they don't just do this, you could easily put Scone in K grade and solve half of these issues.
* At the very least, make whoever has to play Scone at home in round 2 be the closest team (in the current Div J that would be Largs)
Potential opportunities for improvement for problem 2:
* make the last 3 games of the season Away games that way it's up to Scone as to whether they're forfeiting or not (which hopefully they wouldn't want to)
* I'm not really sure what else you can do to solve that problem.
So I guess if we were to work on the idea that the scheduling can't for whatever reason (I'm not informed enough to know why so won't judge) come out earlier, then I would think the best compromise for any division with Scone (unless a HV specific league) would be:
* first 2 rounds are away
* round 3 would be a home game against whoever is the closest team
*Rounds 4-11 would see 2 away games and 7 home games, possibly a 2-1-3-1-2 set up or whatever
* Rounds 12-14 all away games.
- Minimises the risk of forfeits due to logistical issues early on
- Minimises the risk of forfeits due to not being competitive on the back end
That’s it in a nutshell right?
Any team in HV, Macquarie or NPS can enter the comp.
Maybe they could set aside 2-3 HV only comps of varying competitiveness for those teams up there that don’t want a 2 hour road trip every 2nd week. But if they wanna make the trip regularly, fair play to them.
Would be interesting to see how many teams would opt for a district only competition if offered to each district.
Apart from that, I agree releasing a draw a bit earlier would definitely be preferable and help.
At the end of the day, teams are flakey, a lot have families, work and other commitments and playing football is just a bit of fun. Similar to playing a hacking team intent on injuring players, making long road trips that take up most of your day don’t really satisfy the effort/risk to reward ratio.
It’d be interesting to see the rate of forfeits of the years with these clubs involved to see if there is actually a long term issue here, or if it’s just the odd team here and there.
There is plenty of good points in your argument, The association's will always consider requests. But things won't change due to points and ideas posted on the forum. If people feel strongly about it contact your club around October and put a request in regarding a hunter valley division. It makes perfect sense to me.
I don't entirely agree with that. A club in isolation will have no impact. A post on a forum, while not directly achieving anything does at least get the thought processes shared across multiple people from multiple clubs and even some people that seem to have sway at an association level.
So I would say open discussions on things like this in a public forum probably is important to help facilitate any change.
agree that the discussion is positive - but the way to actually get this to occur is to get the clubs in the Upper Hunter talking and agreeing on what they want, then going as a united group to the Hunter Association and the zones
there have been Upper Hunter grades in previous years (proof here showing an AA U.HV grade) - it might be worth finding out why they stopped doing them
Last edited by boz-monaut; 28-03-2022 at 09:41 PM.
All I'm saying there is a few reactive comments, It's probably time for somebody to be proactive and raise these issues. As boz has already mentioned.
Fixtures are coming out mid to late next week
Thanks for the heads up.
Anyone managed to get in a trial game? We have been washed out every week.
All opinions expressed here are my own.
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -Benjamin Franklin
we had one back in February, washed out every game since then
Total crap that the draw comes out a little over a week before season starts.
We often organise to have a trial game at speeds point. Costs about $20/person for ground hire but guaranteed not to get washed out.
draw is up
Clubs want to nominate for higher grades, they don't want to be playing the same HVF teams each year. If you win your HVF Division with high points and GD, why shouldn't you be promoted into the next div?
See you round 6 Evolution!
Glad to not have Scone away until later in the season, looking forward to sampling some of the pubs finest post game 👍
They also have only 2 home games in the last 6 games which should help them not have as many forfeits against them which is good; help them get their money's worth.
Lambton Jaffas all age B grade (Saturday) are chasing a goalkeeper for 2022 after our fella has had to pull out.
Long shot but if anyone is interested please contact Brock on 0432000111
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