Hoops

warriors u 14/16 girls whats going on?

When you're at the lowest point, that is the best time to jump in a bean bag, put on the Dark Side of the Moon, naval gaze and work out a plan.

A lot of clubs are differentiating themselves into customer segments rather than geographical areas. Let's face it, how many kids travel past one club to fulfil their parent's dreams at another club.

I'll put the following out there:

Sturt/Forestville: Offer high quality coaching for kids/parents who are serious about making state metro teams or going further with basketball. Car equivalent: Mercedes Benz ML320 or BMW X5.
Norwood: Poor man's Sturt. Offer similar to Sturt, but are the VW Touareg of BSA.
Mavs/Centrals: If you're from the country and want to play state country, you can basically guarantee a Div 1 spot at these clubs. Think Toyota Landcruiser or Toyota Hilux SR5.
Southern: Think Holden Sandman.

Not too sure about what product difference there is with Norf, West or South.

Woodville committee with a bit of thinking to do.

Western Suburbs? There is no zoning with BSA and there's plenty of punters here that keep on telling us that clubs are entitled to attract players from anywhere.

Consider Woodville as a business that currently has few customers. The commodity it has to "sell" at this stage is Div 1 and Div 2 opportunities.

Perhaps the secret to their future success is realising their strategic advantage and making the most of that advantage.

Anonymous 978 you have an obvious personal gripe against an individual. Anonymous 979 - the committee put an online survey out to the parents and children of WDBC to get thoughts on association and or merge with Magic whilst negotiations with Magic were going on. This came back with some very positive thoughts by the parents and children without all the underlying personal jealousy and bitterness. The whole process fell afoul due to negativism behind the scenes of both clubs.

People need to stop putting the blame on whoever takes their fancy and let the Club deal with this issue, as they are trying to get things back on track - with much needed numbers in the girls side. Move on and try being positive and hopefully the Club can come to the solution that should have been reached a couple of years ago. There is not enough girl players in the Western Suburbs to share amongst three Clubs and Magic and Woodville should join.

397,
This is certainly a situation in which multiple complicated problems mutually interfere with each other's solution. I believe the military term is a "Charlie Foxtrot", or the colloquial term a "Clusterf#ck".

That's the whole point! It's not easy!

349,

Hoo-effen-ray! I am glad someone can see the sense in a strong competition.

All these people who are calling for clubs to fold and just leave strong ones is something I disagree with. Having ten strong clubs ALL at a good standard is important IMO. It's not about weakening the stronger clubs, it's about lifting weak clubs up to improve the standard.

My stats mate went through last season's results (minor round) from U12 to U18. Woodville had four teams and won a total of 12 games, or 19% of games contested with an average losing score of 24 points. Compare this to Forestville who won a total of 177 games, or 64% of all games played by the club, winning all games by an average of 11 points. That is a huge gap between 1st and last.

Can anyone actually seriously say the competition is good when nearly 50% of all girls teams come from 3 of the 10 clubs?

So what's the solution?

How can we get more girls into basketball so that ALL clubs have got depth.

Woodville 1 gone from Div 1 U16G. 3 games listed in Under 16 Girls Div 3 Group A Phase 1 as "practice match" - wtf does that mean?

There are a lot of alarm bells going off here.

1. There seems to be too many clubs out west fighting over too few girls.

This reminds me of the SANFL with West and West Torrens when Woodville started playing in '64. Prior to '64 Torrens and West were pretty strong, after '64, Torrens was knocked around and were mainly in the bottom half. Look at how well the Eagles are going now they are WWT.

2. Too many clubs pulling in the wrong directions at the expense of the sport.

Magic had an agreement with West (?) Why wouldn't the better Div 3 Magic girls flow to West? or to Woodville? Competition is best saved for the court, work together off court for the sake of the game. "Why can't we just all get along?"

4. Where have all the Woodies girls gone?

Once girls have stopped playing, they won't be back to the sport. Girls participation rates are dropping season after season and the grades are getting more lopsided. Why can't some people see that an unbalanced competition is bad for the sport? Netball is the winner by default.

5. Why wouldn't the U16 Girls Div 1 just drop down to Div 2?

Sturt, Forestville and Norwood have two teams in Div 2. Having a second team is a luxury and if Woodville want a Div 2 spot, then one of the second teams needs to drop to Div 3, not the Woodville team. The big three will respond by going down screaming, but the Div 2 comp was supposed to be dropping to 10 teams, so why keep 12?

6. Transfer rules.

The season has started and the rule is you can't transfer between clubs mid-season. But, let common sense prevail. If dropping to Div 3 means girls pull out because they can't play Thursday night, or they think they are Div 1 or 2 and there are other girls who can "mix and match", then let the negotiating begin for the betterment of the sport. Surely Magic/Woodville/West can work something out so that the team numbers and team quality is maximised.


Overall, the alarm bells ARE ringing, but it is not just Woodville. Woodville have a lot of issues, but the girls participation in basketball is woeful across the board and there actually needs to be a major rethink into how the district competition is run to get more kids into the sport.