SANFL????

Well today dear friends we witnessed the death of the SANFL
So much for a level playing field
The IDIOTS and I include the 6 blind "$" hungry presidents for what folly has been created.
Soccer here we come.
10 goal trashing from a professional team on huge dollars each player against workers doesn'tt cut it for me
36 scoring shots to 11, very even. it was just a training outing for the Power.
Wont be 4000 at games too often from now

But don't say anything bad about Kurt "traitor" Slaven on here. This forum is only for pleasant comments

This is the first time I have really commented on this "issue" on here so let me start by saying that I am happy to admit (and i'm probably in the minority here) that I don't have an issue with the concept of the 2 AFL sides having a team in the SANFL, maybe it needs some tweaking (especially for Port) but that isn't something you can do 3 games into the first season.

Monday was interesting, about halfway through the 2nd quarter I was starting to think that maybe I was wrong and it wasn't the best idea as the margin started to get bigger and bigger. But 48 hours down the track and after having listened to Godsy speak back at the club, reading his comments in the weekly email and having read some posts on other forums that focused on the match and not the pros and cons of the "issue" maybe we need to give it time.
They came into the game yesterday with pretty close to full strength side; we have probably 4 or 5 of our best 21 on the sidelines at the moment through injury and suspension. I’m not saying that if we had a full strength side that we would have won yesterday but we may struggle against other teams as well while this situation exists.

They started with the breeze in the first quarter and kicked 6.6, it’s not the first and won’t be the last time that us or the opposition have had a big start with a strong breeze and basically then controlled the game for the next 3 quarters. For what it’s worth our twos kicked 5 or 6 with the breeze in the last quarter also and going against the breeze the kicks were clearly dropping short. What would have happened if we had won the toss? We will never know.
Yes a majority of their players are professionals on big money, but money alone doesn’t make you a superstar and that was pretty clear with John Butcher who got completely shut down by a bloke who would probably earn less from footy in a season than Butcher makes in a week.

The thing that stood out the most to me during the game and was mentioned by a Port supporter on SAFooty was how we struggled (as did the bays last week apparently) to get through the defensive structure that Port set across the midfield and our half forward line when we couldn't move the ball quickly from our defence. Once that was set it looked like a wall with no way through which seemed to make our guys panic with their disposal which resulted in turnovers, most of which were costly. When we moved the ball quickly and clean in the second and third quarters we scored 7.2 they scored 6.8, yes they still had 5 more scoring shots but it’s a lot more respectable than 12 to 1 in the first quarter! We won the second quarter and probably would have won the 3rd if not for a 50/50 free kick that they scored a goal from.

The last quarter wasn’t pretty, maybe the boys were spent after working pretty hard into the breeze in the third quarter, and we were probably pretty lucky that they didn’t kick straight. In the end it was 34 scoring shots to 11 and a disappointing 58 point defeat.

So where am I leading with all of this?

If you go back to the corresponding round of 2011, we played Sturt at Adelaide Oval on a Friday night.
In that game we didn’t score in the first quarter, (4.6 – 0.0) we pegged back 1 point by half time (6.9 – 2.4) by ¾ time we were down by 46 (9.14-3.4), in the end it was 31 scoring shots to 12 and a 58 point defeat (13.17 – 5.7)
From memory that was a game we were expected to win but we got towelled in pretty similar way to yesterday. For anyone who was back at the club Monday night maybe that could be one of those games that Gods referred to as one where we lost by similar or bigger margins to worse teams.

We have had big losses before, it will happen again, it’s disappointing regardless of the opposition.

No explanation will ever convince me that this setup is a level playing field or a sensible idea. The proof will be at the end of the season when the real clubs go to the slaughter in finals

I'm with Columbo... i'm all for the concept BUT only in the way it's operating with the Crows.

Port's set-up is different and has to change.
- They should be the Power, not Magpies
- Play all games away, none at Alberton
- have the same top up player system as the Crows, not 15 signed Magpies

While they play in the prison bar Guernsey, games at Alberton, and finals at Adelaide Oval, they will draw on that SANFL history and passion... and with their AFL contingent and 15 signings this all adds up to a dominant force that is very hard for any other club in the SANFL to compete with, including the Crows. All of a sudden the "Magpies" have their best list in 15 years... and they had NOTHING to do with it!

Put a Power guernsey on them, play all games away, and have 18-22 year old top up players, it changes the whole complexion.

How Port's conditions got passed through by SANFL clubs is beyond me.

I can tell you how it got agreed to. Because the clowns that are in charge of our competition are just gullible idiots