10 team Premier League with PDL to mirror?
Not sure how that happens with Nelson in the mix. Look at Richmond's decision.
Premier league, PDL/Reserves, Div 1 and 17/18 all needs a shake-up doesn't it?
And it needs to be looked at holistically FFS.
Do all 2011 DIV 1 clubs even aspire to Premier league? Universities, Parklands, Selwyn, Waimak, Mid Canty? And if basis of Premier League was a Reserve team too (with or without age criteria) how feasible would that be for those clubs? My point is current DIV 1 as promotion pathway to Premier League looks to have become out-dated. Modern club thinking is based around total football development across all ages. Some clubs just aren't interested/able to deliver that - so they need to either merge in order to do so or become a junior and/or feeder club (this system works well in various Aussie sports - notably Victorian Aussie Rules).
The larger/more successful clubs will want appropriate levels of competition in which to develop players. That means Premier, Reserves, Div 1 and maybe Super Youth (U16/17/18) as current 15 div 1, 17 div 1, 18 div 1 schools/clubs is a bit of a shambles. There needs to be some logical rules around player movement between those leagues. Perhaps for those div 1 clubs with aspirations, they should run super youth team plus div 1 so that at least they have basis of a squad that could be promoted to Premier & Reserves?
My information is that Cashmere and Technical merger is looking more likely but issues over name.
Any news on Danny's boys?
Not sure how that happens with Nelson in the mix. Look at Richmond's decision.
Premier league, PDL/Reserves, Div 1 and 17/18 all needs a shake-up doesn't it?
And it needs to be looked at holistically FFS.
Do all 2011 DIV 1 clubs even aspire to Premier league? Universities, Parklands, Selwyn, Waimak, Mid Canty? And if basis of Premier League was a Reserve team too (with or without age criteria) how feasible would that be for those clubs? My point is current DIV 1 as promotion pathway to Premier League looks to have become out-dated. Modern club thinking is based around total football development across all ages. Some clubs just aren't interested/able to deliver that - so they need to either merge in order to do so or become a junior and/or feeder club (this system works well in various Aussie sports - notably Victorian Aussie Rules).
The larger/more successful clubs will want appropriate levels of competition in which to develop players. That means Premier, Reserves, Div 1 and maybe Super Youth (U16/17/18) as current 15 div 1, 17 div 1, 18 div 1 schools/clubs is a bit of a shambles. There needs to be some logical rules around player movement between those leagues. Perhaps for those div 1 clubs with aspirations, they should run super youth team plus div 1 so that at least they have basis of a squad that could be promoted to Premier & Reserves?
My information is that Cashmere and Technical merger is looking more likely but issues over name.
Any news on Danny's boys?
I agree with this. For me this issue (the one ive made bold) is because PDL is getting younger and younger by the year. Clubs want to get the top young players in to their PDL/MPL/Div 1 teams earlier than they did 5-7 years ago.
Super youth (what is now the U/18s) once was a decent competition. If clubs stopped skipping kids from 14s/15s straight to mens grades we'd have decent youth leagues, increased youth numbers and probably see bigger numbers in the mens...
Better youth league at 16-18 years: Having a stonger super youth comp would be better for the region long term. If even 6 of the 8 MPL teams put in a decent under 16s team against the schools in the 18s it'd be a much better comp. Some of the clubs seem to save it for the kids who arent good enough for mens league at all.
Bigger numbers: kids drop off after 14s/15s for some reason; I suspect that this is because their friends players X & Y get selected for MPL/PDL and they don't. The club doesn't really have a home for them and off they go.
Because the younger players would stay with the youth ranks longer the mens players might stick around a bit, rather than being shuffled down to div 3 or whatever because a 16 year old has been brought it.