By LIAM TWOMEY
What clubs like about a three-tier competition:
Gives struggling clubs a chance to rebuild.
Will lead to less lop-sided results.
What clubs are concerned with:
Having enough teams for three strong divisions.
The ability of division three clubs to maintain players.
WESTERN Region Football League club presidents have raised concerns over the impact the looming introduction of a third senior playing division will have on their clubs.
While most agree there are benefits to the switch, the ability of Division 3 clubs to attract and maintain players is leading to some anxiety.
As a Division 2 club, Caroline Springs has already seen some of its best juniors leave to join Division 1 clubs.
Lakers president Dean Ellis said he thinks the problem will only be compounded with a third tier.
“We want to stay in Division 2 because we feel that if we do go to Division 3 it will be a lot harder to attract players to the club,” Ellis said.
“We are finding that hard now. We have lost a hell of a lot of kids and some of our better juniors to A Grade clubs.
“They have all been told that if they want to play Jets (TAC Cup side the Western Jets) they need to be playing at a Division 1 club,” Ellis said.
“We have lost, during the last three or four years, at least 15 or 16 decent kids and some of our best kids at the club.
“It is disappointing because you identify these kids as future senior players at the club and then they go to other clubs. Sometimes they come back but generally they don’t.”
The WRFL has previously indicated that once it reaches 25 senior teams it will move into the three-tier playing system.
Currently, 22 senior sides are competing in the competition, 12 of which make up the second division.
Tarneit, Williams Landing and selected areas of Melton have been identified as possible locations for new clubs in the future.
They will join recent additions to the league Sanctuary Lakes and Manor Lakes who became fully fledged WRFL senior and junior clubs during the 2012 off-season and debuted just weeks ago.
With more new teams on the way, Laverton committee member Matthew Pratt said he would like to see start-up clubs built through the juniors.
He believes the introduction of senior teams without a pre-existing junior base leads to pressure on nearby neighbouring clubs.
“All I would say at the end of the day is that putting more clubs in puts more pressure on existing clubs especially when you put them in without any juniors,” he said.
“With the utmost respect to both Manor Lakes and Sanctuary Lakes, neither of those two clubs have established themselves.
“They have essentially just taken players from existing clubs. The league has put a real strain on existing clubs.
“Where we may have had 50 guys before, there are probably about 42-44 on lists.
“Any clubs I have spoken to, they have got no more than six or seven guys left over after selection.”
While some teams are concerned over the introduction of more clubs, others see it as the only way for the three-division concept to be successful.
Sunshine Heights president John Stewart said he doesn’t want to see the switch made until there are enough teams to support three strong divisions.
“At the end of the day there is an imbalance in the system at the moment between the bottom of each competition and the top of each competition,” he said.
“If it was actually to create a healthier competition then I would be all for it.
“It really does depend on the number of teams that are coming in. You don’t want to end up with too few teams.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Albanvale president Jason Curmi.
“We don’t want to drop down obviously but the competition is a bit one-sided at the moment,” he said.
“It just depends how many sides are in each division.
“If they have eight to 10 sides in each it will be all right but any less than that, then it is not really a competition is it?”
While clubs have raised concerns over the move, they have also agreed there are a number of benefits to the switch.
The three-tier competition is seen as being the best solution to curb some of the WRFL’s lop-sided results.
Just last year the neighbouring competition, Essendon District Football League, adjusted its structure from a two-tier to a three-tier competition.
The early indication in the EDFL is that blow-out results are on the decline.
During the first 13 rounds of the 2012 EDFL Division 1 season, the average winning margin in the 14-team competition was 99.32 points.
After round 13, when the bottom six clubs were relegated to the new division two competition, the average margin dropped considerably.
For the remainder of the 2012 season the Division 1 average margin was 48.08 points while in Division 2 the average margin was 62.93.
The EDFL Premier Division, the highest playing grade, was not a part of any re-shuffle.
The average winning margin in the WRFL’s Division 1 competition during 2012 was 103.01 points.
A total of 41 games were decided by more than 100 points, including three over 300 points.
