Hoops

Where are the Warriors squad lists?

Alan- I think I know who you may be and feel for you in that "Anonymous" allows for free insults without respect to individual's feelings, but as discussed on here previously, this will not change.
Don't take a few criticisms to heart when the the 'silent majority' have no problems with Jodie

Hydra, I have a couple of kids at centrals and live in the feeder regions !

Bruce, what's your relationship with Norwood? And how do you claim to know so much about Centrals girls?

Hey jack very big on generalisations re centrals and very small on facts, but you present your discussions with a degree o f cred that convinces most. The basic facts of the centrals girls program is there has been a very low level of participation from local girls and the feeder country regions of Adelaide plans and the barossa are of poor quality . The quality girls are coming from too far away and have proven to be unsustainable in the program. I see little evidence of centrals putting in effort todevelop relationships in these areas. The problems began at centrals with no u12 girls div 1 last season and had some level of domino effect thru the age groups

Bruce, there's no doubt that Forestville is the programme that is setting the pace and well done to all those involved in that programme. Centrals girls were a total basket case a few years ago with 3 teams from memory. There would be a generation of girls who have never played a Lions team. My daughter Emily never played a game against Lions, and never a game Starplex.
The Lions have decided along the Mavericks model and targeted the country players. Enter Trudy Ireland who started to grow the programme and was the Girl's CD for a while. The girls programme brought in state country coaches (I can hear all the Metro coaches groan!) that didn't work out. I remember the Hoops jokes a couple of seasons ago about one coach's attendance and how his team won more games when he wasn't coaching. I know that the current Girl's CD has a skills programme that means a lot of girls are doing 2 trainings per Sunday. You can't say zero effort has been put into the girl's programme.
Low numbers hurts any club and the clubs with high numbers are more successful because they have depth and a greater talent pool.
In relation to former Lions at Norwood, going on the current squads, looks like there are 3 girls in U14 who played for Lions last season, 1 girl who was on the Lions list, but didn't play, 2 girls in U16, 1 girl in U18, 1 boy in U16.

Looking at other squad listings, there are always going to be players who have played at other clubs, but the thing that stands out between the successful clubs and the strugglers in the stability in those lists. When there are stable playing lists, success follows. I would argue that stable playing lists result from having stable coaching staff, high quality coaching, game planning, great club environment - all the common sense things. Coaches can work on experienced players, not teaching the basics. As soon as a club brings in one rule for one, one for another, inconsistencies in teams/clubs/game plays, then players leave and getting the programme back on track is like catching a falling knife.

Jack I agree with some of your points on the movement of kids but the reference to centrals and Norwood seems strange, for a start only 3 , yes three girls have gone to the u14's at Norwood and they hav left a team that finished in a gf and played in classics and nationals ! These girls have left with their coach to a girls program at Norwood that can hardly win a game ! On the girls side at centrals the relationship
You talk about does not exist , there has been zero effort put into the girls program.
Compare this to say forrestville where quality coaching and management have lifted their girls program from the mediocrity of 8 or 9 years ago. People like the recently departed Matho from the eagles are what mak a program successful !

Oh, if the girls programme at West was bigger than the boys programme, too much to Bear!

505, I am not a fan of pro/rel in Div 1 and 2 as most people would know. I believe that a district club should be exactly that. Those playing for that club live in that district.

I do like zones, but for zones to be effective, clubs need to be lifted UP to a standard, not strong clubs brought down. Zones mean that clubs can work in areas with the confidence that they can reap the benefits. The recent events with U14 girls going from Centrals to Norwood is a good example of where one club has tried to develop a relationship and provide a pathway for players, only for it to blow up in their face. I think there are around ten former Lions in the Norwood squads.

At the moment players can play whereever they like. Players (and parents) will always tend to be attracted to the most successful clubs and success breeds success. Coaches are attracted to successful clubs too. After all, if the kids want to play and be successful, it's always easier to coach them. I am not trying to take anything away from those clubs who are successful, but what I am seeing is the girls competition shrinking year after year, the gap between clubs widening, and the gap between the top and bottom teams in divisions growing. The more successful clubs have much a more stable playing population with greater experience. Those successful clubs would have a majority of players who started in U12 (or U10) and then progressed through to U18. Without checking, I would suggest that the U18 Div 1 Forestville Team girls would all have at least 12 seasons experience. Those less successful club teams in Div 1 girls may 1 or 2 girls with that experience, but likely to have most with less than half that experience.

The girl's competition is one big cluster f#ck IMO and leadership in this area is urgently required to ensure the ongoing viability and health of the competition. Girls need to be recruited, and retained to the sport.

The girl's competition needs a shake up and a re-think to get back on track.

Girl's participation in organised sport is always lower than boys and the activities girls undertake instead of sport are different. For the same population of say 100 boys and 100 girls, 30 boys may play basketball, but only 15 girls play basketball.

Society has a different attitude to boys than girls. There have been studies where babies dressed in pink and some in blue have been handed to people to hold (without telling them the gender of the child) Those handling the babies dressed in pink were more careful and more gushing of the child because they thought it was female. This carries on with parents. Parents are always more protective of their girls than their boys. As a result, girls are drawn, or directed to sports and activities that are more passive in nature. Sports that claim to be non or low contact that do not police breaches of contact are not popular.

The district competition has deteriorated to such an extent that the girl's competition is dominated by one club who has an aggressive playing style, a second club with the numbers, and then a splattering of good teams at other clubs. The variation in standard between clubs is massive and the numbers of girls participating is affected.

A spiral of doom ensues. As the numbers drop at the less successful clubs, either through participations or transfers to the stronger clubs, those teams field weaker teams, who inevitably lose by more and more, the girls drop out because they or not winning, or else the morale of the team is crushed. Teams in Div 1 have half a team of Div 1 and half a team of Div 2 standard players. The Div 2 teams have some Div 2 standard teams, but as the club is desperate for players, girls who only put down a netball and picked up a basketball 5 minutes ago fill up teams. The physical contact when playing against some clubs and the resultant no-calls then makes them hate the sport and leave. As more and more experienced players flock to a stronger club, their Div 2 teams become stronger and stronger, and would be a Div 1 standard at other clubs. Teams that would be a "regular" Div 2 standard, or high Div 3 standard are now playing against DIv 1 standard teams.

The number of teams means that a Div 3 competition is rare and so the gap in standard between the girl's Div 1 and Div 2 is smaller than the gap in boys. In boys, the bottom two Div 1 teams would be top 4 in the Div 2, and the top 2 Div 2 teams would be bottom 4. In the girls, the bottom two Div 1 teams would be smashed in Div 2 and probably the top 4 Div 2 teams would compete in the Div 1 competition. Does that mean pro/rel is the answer?

I would like to see the clubs work together on saving the girls competition while there still is one. Come 2015, I think it would be very boring if the competition was Forestville Blue, Forestville Gold, Sturt 1, Sturt 2, Forestville Black, Forestville Green, Forestville Red, Forestville Blue, Sturt 3, Forestville White

They're not the only one who has not posted squads.