Hoops

state champs

Just looked at the State Division Boys U12, U14, U16, and U18 from 2010 and where games were played. Haven't done the reserves or girls groups, but expect a similar result.

Team, (Games on actual Home Court, %)
Sturt (10, 63%) Tigers (9, 56%), Eagles (8, 50%) North (8, 50%) Woodville (8, 50%), West (7, 44%) South (7, 44%) Norwood (4, 25%) Mavs (3, 19%) Centrals (1, 6%)

63% home game advantage is pretty nice!, Centrals WTF? only 6% home court advantage.

Dr Jack says no bias towards Eagles in the State Boys groups, but Norwood, Mavs and Centrals had the pointy end of the pineapple shoved somewhere and the lubricant was dencorub.

Pallas, you obviously have the draw from last year, how did the other clubs go?

Pallas, you obviously have the draw from last year, how did the other clubs go?

I agree that these state champs are pretty well pointless as far as the result is concerned and the same result could be concluded from the winter season results.

At first glance, there appears to be a level of favouritism that dilutes the value of the event. In the legal profession, the saying is "Apart from Justice being done, it must seen to be done". Based on the comments above, and from other previous posts, there seems to be a groundswell of discontent from a number of posters out there who feel like they have not received justice (even though it may have been done - only the evidence will decide) You can't please all the people all the time, but the consistent, elevated levels of frustration are a sure sign that people feel dis-enchanted.

In particular, the fair scheduling of games seems to be an issue that needs to be transparent and I agree that all teams deserve to play 50% of their games on their home court. I think BSA have around 34 courts to schedule on so the games need to either be at home courts, or if not available at a suitable neutral venue. There are also concerns over time schedules as well and how this impacts of some clubs. There is also the financial reward to some clubs who run a canteen, so in the event that they have a higher proportion of games at their venue, then they stand to benefit from this. One posted mentioned about setting up a BBQ outside. I can't imagine Mavs being too welcome if they setup a fundraising sausage sizzle in the Wayville carpark.

I dread the situation where a team plays all their games at one stadium and at convenient times, then wins a division.

All that aside, that is to take nothing away from the skill of the players or coaches, or clubs who do achieve success in this competition. Achievement and growth through the controlled environment of sport is an important part of juvenile development. I wish all teams good luck and fair competition.

So, how will the weekend unfold?

Boys: Sturt will dominate most divisions with West (U16B) and Mavs likely to snare a title here and there. Forestville, Norwood, North and Southern will get the odd point from the semi-finals. Woodville, Centrals and South unlikely to bother the scorers. Sturt have a very basic formula when it come to playing ball and their success is a testament to their development programme and more importantly the skill of their coaches in drawing the best out of their players. Sturt will probably draw 50% of the points on offer in the boys, 45% divided up between about 3 clubs, rest get the other 5%.

Girls: Forestville should make a sweep of around 80% of titles. We are likely to have some all eagle affairs in the B's. Sturt will put up some token resistance to Forestville in the girls but their girls are much weaker than the eagles for some reason, even though their game style is fairly similar. Mavs Div 1 teams should be right up there with their state country connections, but the Mavs Div 2's drop off significantly and so are unlikely to get many points in the B's. Norwood will get the odd point here and there, but run a third place to the above teams. Norwood should take out the U18 Div 1, but will face strong resistance from Mavs and Sturt. Other clubs will be a fair way back and so we'll see 85% of the points go to Eagles, 10% to Sturt and 5% to the rest.

So, if the point of this is to work out the best club and best team per division, we pretty much know this, however, if is to give players some carnival experience, then it achieves its goal.

339, I can't wait for the bitching to start!

I can't wait until the champs are actually here!