2024 Zone League 1

[ExWhistleMan]

Just skimmed through the FAQs on promotion and relegation on the NNSWF page...

I'm particularly impressed with the post season promotion battle in lieu of finals in NL1.
However, three things I've noted; promotion is mandatory all the way through the pyramid, juniors are only mandatory for NPL and any team that finishes top 4 in NL1 that doesn't have juniors is not allowed to partake in final series.

Why I am posting this on the ZL1 thread, is this leads to the potential if that the winner if ZL1 in 2024 has no juniors affiliated juniors (i.e. the two strongest and most consistent teams for some time) they will be forced to play in a league where they aren't even allowed to participate in the post season.

While on face value I think the administrators have done a good job and no system would please everybody, I think this kinda takes the fun out of ZL1 a little. It would be hard to be motivated to win a league if you know the 'reward' would be being forced to play in a comp where you are ineligible for finals.

Curious to see how the clubs go when the inevitable happens. I can see it being a death knell (and lets be honest I am thinking of Dudley and Suns here) to teams that from the outside and as a neutral football fan, seem to have good culture (and much less sanitised and sterile than the teams above) which would be disappointing.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.