James Condos takes a mark for Deer Park in the WRFL Division Two grand final. Deer Park won the grand final by 131 points, highlighting the unevenness of the second division competition this year. 70291 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
The Western Region Football League has not ruled out splitting the senior competition into three divisions next year, but will need the support of clubs to do so.
A WRFL-run survey given to all clubs will help guide the structure of the competition. One of the questions it asks is: Should the senior competitions be split into three divisions for season 2012 in order to reduce the level of competitive imbalance¡¨.
But clubs are unlikely to support a restructuring of the senior competition. The two Division One clubs that would be most affected by a restructuring, North Footscray and Sunshine Heights, have both rejected the proposal.
WRFL chief executive officer Bob Tregear said unevenness of the competition was one of the few issues the league has yet to resolve.
¡§Unevenness of the competition is something that everybody identified as one of the six major issues of the league back when they did that planning exercise at the start of last year. We¡¦ve ticked off just about everything else in the strategic plan except this one successfully,¡¨ Tregear said.
¡§When we put it to (the clubs) last year that we should restructure to three divisions, it was rejected largely on the basis that they wanted to keep the first division intact with 10 teams, nine opponents, 18 rounds. It¡¦s a perfect draw. ¡§If the survey responses are favourable enough then we¡¦ll try and drive it (for next year). But there¡¦ll obviously be opposition from those who see themselves as adversely impacted by going down a grade.¡¨
Tregear said while the demotion of Glen Orden to Division Two and the promotion of Deer Park to Division One was likely to help rectify the balance in the top division, it wouldn¡¦t fix the unevenness in Division Two. North Sunshine went winless in the second division, while Braybrook won just three games and had a paltry percentage of 45.8 per cent.
¡§If you keep 10 in first division you don¡¦t have enough to make up two more divisions. Even if we restructured now it would have to be eight in first division, seven in second and six in third, which is not ideal but it would at least give us a framework we could build on.¡¨
„P The league is also asking clubs if the under-18 and junior competitions should be modified. As it stands, the under-18 competition is actually an under-18-and-a-half competition. A problem with this, according to the league, is that under-18 teams have a mix of players who are legally able to drive and drink alcohol and about half who cannot.
The league has proposed three alternatives: drop it back to under-18s with a cut-off date of 1 January instead of 1 July, or make it an under-19 competition. The league has also asked clubs if the junior competition age range should change from under 9-16 to under 10-17.
The league originally increased the under-18 age limit by six months when it was having trouble filling teams, but that was not a problem any more.
