21st, 22nd 23rd April
21st, 22nd 23rd April
DRUFC ZL3 have regrettably lost their first grade keeper dur to weekend work commitments. I suppose running a successful drinking hole can do that. We have appreciated his efforts in the 2 years with us.
We are now looking frantically to fill his spot. Anyone GK who is considering a run and not yet committed PM me. We have a solid squad this year and our best improvement have been added depth this year.
Keepers from AA most welcome.
Are any all Age teams in Newcastle area looking for numbers ?
Myself and another are keen for a run. Would prefer Friday night but will also play Saturdays if nothing is available.
Cheers,
Darby
Apparently draws are out. How the hell do they grade teams? Team i run with has been in E, finished 4th last 2 years, knocked out both times 1st week of semis and is now in C grade. To top that we now play our other team from same club that was in A grade last year. WTF? They are a much stronger outfit, makes no sense.
Stupid playing a team from your own club and ridiculous going up 2 divs without winning anything!
Yep, not sure how it works.
My team was in N last season, made the semi finals only by default after a couple of teams got kicked for playing unregistered players... now gone up 3 grades to K.
Grading is completed initially from the club side.
We fill out the team nomination sheets and suggest the grade a team should be in. This is usually accompanied with a ranking out of 10, and a reasoning if you wish to grade above or below last years level.
The associations use this as gospel essentially, and would only differ if they know the playing group is better than graded.
I'd suggest you ask for an explanation from your club.
Less teams this year going around , no P or Q grade , O is lowest
We had a team in P grade last year , in N grade this year.
Loss of interest from clubs/players?
Can I ask that all the teams from surrounding clubs (I know the clubs but won't name them now while I am in correspondence with the relative committees) stop training on our grounds (Garden Suburb) because theirs are "too wet". If you cant get on your ground because of conditions, what gives you the right to trash ours.
We have an O35's team with people in that age group. We made it abundantly clear on the grading sheet that they should not play against players 20 years younger in a higher grade.
I actually believe you shouldn't be able to nominate for a grade each season. Top 2 should go up, bottom 2 go down. The only exception being when there is a massive turnover in the squad and you can demonstrate it has been weakened. Unfortunately a system that simple won't happen.
we're down one mens and one womens team on last season at Cooks Hill - mostly because we're trying to reduce numbers across the club
in the men's All Age we nominated C, D, E, G and H and ended up with B, C, D, E and F
it's a bit shit if teams keep getting put up when their average age is over 35
The problem with older teams going into the higher grades is you have to push yourself harder to be competitive and thats when the big injuries happen. We lost 6-7 players to career ending injuries last season. Its meant we have dropped a grade back to B. Its a hard one, if the team can play there in the high grade should they despite the fact it means people are going to break?
Is it true Cooks Hill took a massive hit in the juniors due to the Newcastle SAP. I'm hearing in the U10's girls you lost 2/3rd's of your players?
That would be the NNSW Newcastle SAP!
Would love to have been a fly on the wall for some of those meetings.
The problem with the SAP and NPL squads is there is a one way flow from community clubs. nothing ever flows backwards. That just ends up with teams folding as kids leave.
It shits me because kids end up leaving the sport when their teams fold.
Elite at the cost of community.
I couldn't agree more.
The community clubs are very much aware of their position in the order of things, but quite a lot of our juniors in the valley are taken by Hunter Hawks every year, and we receive nothing in return.
Even some specialised coaching clinics to continue to develop the talent would be enough, but the associations aren't wired that way.
The grading are quite strange, but its a massive job so I don't envy Newy Football. We had a new team (New Lambton) and nominated D grade, and ended up in B. Hopefully it isn't a level above what our boys can handle, as that makes for a very unenjoyable year.
Whereas Hunter just seem to go with the suggested grading from the clubs, without even fact checking at all.
Our (Muswellbrook) 14B's trounced their comp last year. Won 12 on the trot before losing a game, and then only drew 1 more game before smashing their way to the title. And that was against teams like Kotara South and Jaffas.
With the change in NEW FM rules, Singleton offered the stars to our kids, and 3/4 of the team left for down the hill, assuming they're going to get something better.
We convinced a bunch of locals players and newbies to register for a 14/15's team, and I had to obviously grade them lower as they would probably get smacked in the same division this season.
Singleton however, came 6th in B's, took the majority of the team that won a title, and then registered them 2 gradings lower! So now they're playing in 15D!
Obviously just out for the easy wins.