I agree with the 8 team comment, but maybe other possible options could be explored. Teams such as tech cavy and roslyn contsantly finshed high on the table because they have the best players in the league. There is no doubting this. more often than not these players are Dunedin locals or have lived in Dunedin or surrounding areas for a wile, Burgess, Coburn, Scholer, Little ect This allows coaches to build a squad around their top line players as they know in most cases these players will play every year. It is unusal for a player that has come to Dunedin for Uni to make the starting line up for any of these teams, and "reasonably good" players end up playing fletcher cup or for a lower ability team and loose interest in the game.
I supose what i am trying to get across is that if otago football had some sort of capping scheme in which only 3 or 4 top line players are able to play for one club then it would make the league more even.in saying this i also realise that every team is trying to put out their strongest line up in an effort to win the league and the possibility of greater honors.
By dispersing these players around the clubs it would not only increse squad strengh,it could help to motivate reasonably good players who would otherwise loose interest. hopefullly the overall goal would be to increase the competativeness and strenght of Duniedin football and this would stretch to Otago United
My comments arise as i have been apart of the University squad for a wile and have seen players come through the ranks that have a tremendious amount of ability,possibly around or more than those names above ,only to see these players loose interest and eventually give up when they get slapped week in and week out buy these top line teams. Is this doing anything for the development on Otago football??? i think not.
i realsie something like this would be hard to implement but too my knowledge a scheme like this used to be around 5-10 years ageo. could anyone fill me in???
I feel for Otago Football to reach its potential we must develop those players that have the ability but seem to loose interest because of the gap between the top and bottom line teams
Thoughts?????
A player points system would be good similar to what is used in the Aussie NBL but every player needs to be graded and that not going to happening in a amature league such as this..Also it would not be fair say if most players had come up through the ages at one club