SANFL 2011 and Leagues Championship Cup

[U REDS]

Usually if I don't get a number from the paper or SAFooty, I get the Budget on the following weekend and get them that way... but even they don't get them all every single time.

[U REDS]

FRIDAY
Port Adelaide 17.14 (116)
Sturt 14.8 (92)
3,213 @ Adelaide Oval

SATURDAY
Woodville-West Torrens 19.11 (125)
Glenelg 2.6 (18)
2,542 @ Unleash Solar Oval, Woodville

West Adelaide 16.17 (113)
South Adelaide 11.5 (71)
1,696 @ Hickinbotham Oval, Noarlunga

Norwood 16.9 (105)
North Adelaide 12.6 (78)
3,774 @ Prospect Oval

Crowd total for Round 20 -- 11,225

[HoldenV8]

I was at Hickenbotham last Saturday to see Westies beat South. The crowd looked larger than posted but I didn't do a Doug Walters headcount so who am I to argue with officials? West should have won by a lot more than 42 points as they pretty much dominated after quarter time but missed a number of easy kicks for goal through either poor skills or just simply rushing when they didn't need to. Will be interesting to see how we go this Friday night @ Richmond (City Mazda) against Glenelg.

And what the above score doesn't show about The Bays loss to WWT is that the quarter by quarter score was.....
WWT 3.1 (19) 8.3 (51) 9.9 (63) 19.11 (125)
GL 1.2 (8) 2.3 (15) 2.4 (16) 2.6 (18)

Glenelg only kicked 1.4 (10) after quarter time and only 3 points after half time yet managed to hold WWT to 1.6 (12) in the third term. Unfortunately for Glenelg The Eagles, who sat on 9.9 (63) at the last change, then added another 10.2 (62) to just 2 points in a last quarter massacre.

[U REDS]

FRIDAY
Glenelg 13.8 (86)
West Adelaide 10.14 (74)
2,417 @ City Mazda Stadium, Richmond

Woodville-West Torrens 8.14 (62)
South Adelaide 8.8 (56)
2,415 @ Hickinbotham Oval, Noarlunga

SATURDAY
Sturt 16.15 (111)
North Adelaide 14.19 (103)
2,885 @ Commander Centre Oval, Unley

Central District 16.11 (107)
Port Adelaide 10.6 (66)
3,501 @ Alberton Oval

Crowd total for Round 20 -- 11,218

[Amaru]

Is Centrals still dominating the SANFL? What a joke of a league if that's the case. Maybe Collingwood should send it's second string players over for an exhibition game against Centrals so the other SANFL coaches can get some tips on how to go about flogging them into the dirt. Surely they are not that good.

[U REDS]

SATURDAY
Central District 16.14 (110)
Norwood 9.7 (61)
4,891 @ Playford Alive Oval, Elizabeth

Woodville-West Torrens 19.12 (126)
West Adelaide 8.7 (55)
2,279 @ Unleash Solar Oval, Woodville

Port Adelaide 18.15 (123)
Glenelg 12.13 (85)
4,160 @ Gilderol Stadium, Glenelg

North Adelaide 13.11 (89)
South Adelaide 12.8 (80)
2,333 @ Prospect Oval

Crowd total for Round 22 -- 13,664

[Boba Fett]

Is Centrals still dominating the SANFL? What a joke of a league if that's the case. Maybe Collingwood should send it's second string players over for an exhibition game against Centrals so the other SANFL coaches can get some tips on how to go about flogging them into the dirt. Surely they are not that good.

I think Collingwood has bigger problems on its plate right now - like trying to figure out how to recover from a 96 point flogging just before the finals start. Will this team turn out to be the biggest disappointment since the 2008 Geelong side?

[beastjim]

So what chances of the SANFL actually providing its strongest clubs for the next interstate cup? Could we see Central Districts actually go for a run?

[U REDS]

I think the Doggies and the other four finalists would have given it some thought if the AFL didn't have total control over it. In their view, and to many SANFL fans, the Foxtel Cup is just a token gesture by the AFL to get them on-side for an eventual re-branding of the two remaining organisations that don't directly answer to the AFL which are of course SA and the WAFL.

Besides, the prize money was chicken feed and playing on 90% empty arenas is sh*t. Playing at traditional grounds would have been far more beneficial. A couple thousand at Norwood, Elizabeth, Leederville or North Port Ovals looks far better than the same at Etihad, AAMI or Patersons.

Don't get us wrong, there are many SANFL fans that would like to see their clubs play for a national title, but one presented by the AFL gets many of us thinking of the "wolf in sheep's skin" scenario.

[HoldenV8]

Have to agree with Reds there. I went to the West Adelaide v Williamstown game at Footy Park and the crowd would have been lucky to hit 300. In a stadium that seats 51,224 that doesn't look good on TV when the entire outer side of the ground is empty. Every spectator was in the lower bowl of the members area. If they wanted an evening game Richmond Oval does have lights and would have been a much better choice to showcase the local leagues and may have drawn at least a couple of thousand.

The Dogs official reason for not entering the FC was because the financial reward wasn't worth their time and effort in games where they could lose players to injury that wasn't for the SANFL flag.

The day the AFL virtually took over from the old NFL as ruler over most of the Aussie Rules Kingdom was definitely NOT a good day Sometimes I think the SANFL and WAFL must feel a bit like the Gaulish village in the Asterix books being surrounded on all sides by the Romans yet never giving in with the Romans always a little weary of them hehehe.

[U REDS]

Oh, but don't ask the commentators to rough it a little... that's beneath them.

[yob]

Having been out of the "system" for a few years I have to admit with a fresher perspective South Australians are a paranoid bunch. Fair dinkum, it was a cup proposed by Foxtel for the benefit of building the Foxtel audience. And it was endorsed by the AFL. And it would've been nice to have the top SANFL teams in it. The AFL could've poo poo'd the concept, withdrawn funding here and there, fooled around with ground availability etc etc, but they didn't, they supported it.

South Australia just strikes me as having Daddy Issues.

[U REDS]

FRIDAY
West Adelaide 14.8 (92)
Sturt 8.13 (61)
1,678 @ City Mazda Stadium, Richmond

SATURDAY
Woodville-West Torrens 12.8 (80)
Port Adelaide 8.9 (57)
3,504 @ Alberton Oval

Central District 12.17 (89)
North Adelaide 13.8 (86)
2,705 @ Playford Alive Oval, Elizabeth

South Adelaide 14.8 (92)
Norwood 9.16 (70)
2,582 @ Coopers Stadium, Norwood

Crowd total for Round 23 -- 10,469

[U REDS]

End of minor season aggregate should be in excess of 283,000.

[beastjim]

I think they would have been happy enough to do it (games at local venues), but really the costs wouldn't be justified, It was easier for Foxtel to get Morningside to play NT Thunder at AAMI Stadium (when the Gabba groundsmen chucked a fit over his precious field) then say set up a seperate set of cameras at Coorparoo for instance (I say Coorparoo because Morningsides ground is crap).
Any way I know for the Qld teams the extra money they got from sponsors because of national exposure certainly helped them make the decision to jump into the comp. Hopefully the top SANFL teams will possibly think the same and "risk" it.