The days of kids sticking to the club in their area are long gone, one team per club encourages clubs on the cusp of Div 1 footy to recruit other players to boost their playing strength, creating a higher quality competition and incentive for all clubs to stay focussed on development of coaches - no player will travel to play in a poorly coached team. A bit like the initial federation concept of providing opportunities to players in weaker teams/clubs to step up. Easily done by a simple enforcement of an existing rule - 1 team per club in all Div 1 competitions. As the school of football or whatever it is devolves back in to club based academies supported by Mainland (yes it will happen!) and the FDO's increased quality of coaches is where we will make the biggest strides in the game in the near future. That and artificial turfs at all clubs :). 2013 looks like a year where some synergies are starting to happen between Mainland and clubs in spite of one or two clubs trying to assert their own view of things.
The days of kids sticking to the club in their area are long gone, one team per club encourages clubs on the cusp of Div 1 footy to recruit other players to boost their playing strength, creating a higher quality competition and incentive for all clubs to stay focussed on development of coaches - no player will travel to play in a poorly coached team. A bit like the initial federation concept of providing opportunities to players in weaker teams/clubs to step up. Easily done by a simple enforcement of an existing rule - 1 team per club in all Div 1 competitions. As the school of football or whatever it is devolves back in to club based academies supported by Mainland (yes it will happen!) and the FDO's increased quality of coaches is where we will make the biggest strides in the game in the near future. That and artificial turfs at all clubs :). 2013 looks like a year where some synergies are starting to happen between Mainland and clubs in spite of one or two clubs trying to assert their own view of things.