AFL Canberra 2024

[ruck r0v3r]

Welcome to season 2024, another huge season of footy in the capital. Sign up a mate and get ‘em yarning, numbers and posts were down in ‘23 but game on in 24.

Who are the movers and shakers this season?

What are the key player movements?

This forum will be your one stop shop for all things AFL Canberra for 2024.

Let’s hope we get treated to a terrific year as clubs embark on their journey to the Holy Grail.

Good luck to all teams.

 

[MortlockWatcher]

I'm hoping someone here can help me.

I am writing a book on the AFC Night Series competition (1979-1986) and I am hoping that someone has a copy of the Football Record from either or both of two matches between the ACT and NSW (March 16 1980 at Wagga and on April 12 1981 at Football Park).

I am seeking a scan of the page with the two team lists (with guernsey numbers) and the names of the two umpires for both games. If there is a page with the team line-ups by position, I'd love to get them too.

Naturally, those who can assist will be credited in the book.

 

[ruck r0v3r]

I'm hoping someone here can help me.

I am writing a book on the AFC Night Series competition (1979-1986) and I am hoping that someone has a copy of the Football Record from either or both of two matches between the ACT and NSW (March 16 1980 at Wagga and on April 12 1981 at Football Park).

I am seeking a scan of the page with the two team lists (with guernsey numbers) and the names of the two umpires for both games. If there is a page with the team line-ups by position, I'd love to get them too.

Naturally, those who can assist will be credited in the book.

Ahoy Watcher. Can’t help with any of that but I can help with facilitating an excellent, in depth discussion in this forum. Credit me in the book for that!
Who is your pick for ‘24?

 

[ressie heavy]

Do we know if the competition structure is staying the same in the community grades?

 

[Canberra Pear]

Do we know if the competition structure is staying the same in the community grades?

I was wondering the same.

I'm thinking about finally playing, but hoping for a third community men's division again as that'd be more my speed.

 

[Angrysteps33]

Yeah structure to stay the same across Senior & Community program unless any late objections.

Seniors 1s & 2s - Ainslie, Belconnen, Eastlake, Gungahlin, Queanbeyan Tuggeranong

Community's 1s & 2s - ADFA, Ainslie, ANU Batemans Bay, Googong, Molonglo, Woden

Community 3s - Belconnen, Cootamundra, Eastlake, Goulburn, Murrumbateman, Southern Cats, Tuggeranong, Yass

Uninventive as always..
Senior footy is what it is given the smaller Community clubs have no incentive / understandable desire to give the Seniors competion a crack.

I am very much of the opinion though that the Community Structure should be Community 1s & Community 2s in a Promotion / Relegation system. 2s grandfinalists go up & bottom 2 of 1s go down the following season.

Then every Community club that has large enough numbers & wishes to enter a 2nd side play in a Community 'Reserves' Competition.

The same system is run all over the country in amateur leagues & would give some much needed interest & meaning to a clubs season outside of only winning a flag.
Very easy to do in a comp that has 15 clubs competing in the structure

 

[Smurftown#11]

Yeah structure to stay the same across Senior & Community program unless any late objections.

Seniors 1s & 2s - Ainslie, Belconnen, Eastlake, Gungahlin, Queanbeyan Tuggeranong

Community's 1s & 2s - ADFA, Ainslie, ANU Batemans Bay, Googong, Molonglo, Woden

Community 3s - Belconnen, Cootamundra, Eastlake, Goulburn, Murrumbateman, Southern Cats, Tuggeranong, Yass

Uninventive as always..
Senior footy is what it is given the smaller Community clubs have no incentive / understandable desire to give the Seniors competion a crack.

I am very much of the opinion though that the Community Structure should be Community 1s & Community 2s in a Promotion / Relegation system. 2s grandfinalists go up & bottom 2 of 1s go down the following season.

Then every Community club that has large enough numbers & wishes to enter a 2nd side play in a Community 'Reserves' Competition.

The same system is run all over the country in amateur leagues & would give some much needed interest & meaning to a clubs season outside of only winning a flag.
Very easy to do in a comp that has 15 clubs competing in the structure

In community footy your proposal would work until teams refuse to move up divisions. The league has no spine and has never enforced the transition up from 4s to 3s when it was clear a team should go up on paper.

The 2 team clubs (now mostly 3 teams with the women's community teams too) also hate having to split their teams up to travel in 3 different directions on away days against the regional based clubs. There's just not enough volunteers/support staff to go around at the level. They can manage when all 3 teams are at 1 ground, because you can have some overlap, but they don't have the numbers.

Between those two scenarios, we've ended up where we are. All the multi team clubs play in 3s & 4s and have all their teams together while the 1 team clubs play in the regional comp and no one has to hear them whinge about being asked to play up a grade in 3s.

 

[Plugga28]

Looks like Tuggeranong is pulling out of the community third grade with lack of numbers. This just leaves 7 teams... A twelve game season is hardly anything to get excited about. Our pre season is longer.

 

[BitOfBants]

Yeah structure to stay the same across Senior & Community program unless any late objections.

Seniors 1s & 2s - Ainslie, Belconnen, Eastlake, Gungahlin, Queanbeyan Tuggeranong

Community's 1s & 2s - ADFA, Ainslie, ANU Batemans Bay, Googong, Molonglo, Woden

Community 3s - Belconnen, Cootamundra, Eastlake, Goulburn, Murrumbateman, Southern Cats, Tuggeranong, Yass

Uninventive as always..
Senior footy is what it is given the smaller Community clubs have no incentive / understandable desire to give the Seniors competion a crack.

I am very much of the opinion though that the Community Structure should be Community 1s & Community 2s in a Promotion / Relegation system. 2s grandfinalists go up & bottom 2 of 1s go down the following season.

Then every Community club that has large enough numbers & wishes to enter a 2nd side play in a Community 'Reserves' Competition.

The same system is run all over the country in amateur leagues & would give some much needed interest & meaning to a clubs season outside of only winning a flag.
Very easy to do in a comp that has 15 clubs competing in the structure

Howdy folks, it's been awhile but it's nostalgic to be back! Can't wait for some local footy to start going again.

I've referenced this post because I'm interested in how promotion/relegation of Community 1/2s would work when every club in those grades have a team in both grade. Is the idea that their 2s would always be in the '3rd div' as that 'Reserves' competition you mentioned? The clubs with 1 community side just get passed between div 1/2? What if their performance is only competitive at Reserves level?

If I have understood correctly, I think the current system is much better than that proposal. Interested to know what significant issues people have with the current system.

Travel is probably a pain for Community 3s, but someone is always going to cop travel with these teams and it's possible that rural players are more likely to cop it than city-based.

The late start of Div 3 combined with the drop-out of Tuggeranong has resulted in a real lack of games in a season for those players. It would be great if the league could adjust to offer more games in 2024 but I'd be very surprised if that happened.

Div 1 and 2 don't seem to have many issues that I am aware of apart from some teams regular being at the top and others being flogged. Most clubs seem to be competitive in at least one of the grades that they compete in, so that would be a pretty good standard that we should aim for as it should keep some life in the club while enabling them to improve on their quality/depth.

 

[Angrysteps33]

Howdy folks, it's been awhile but it's nostalgic to be back! Can't wait for some local footy to start going again.

I've referenced this post because I'm interested in how promotion/relegation of Community 1/2s would work when every club in those grades have a team in both grade. Is the idea that their 2s would always be in the '3rd div' as that 'Reserves' competition you mentioned? The clubs with 1 community side just get passed between div 1/2? What if their performance is only competitive at Reserves level?

If I have understood correctly, I think the current system is much better than that proposal. Interested to know what significant issues people have with the current system.

Travel is probably a pain for Community 3s, but someone is always going to cop travel with these teams and it's possible that rural players are more likely to cop it than city-based.

The late start of Div 3 combined with the drop-out of Tuggeranong has resulted in a real lack of games in a season for those players. It would be great if the league could adjust to offer more games in 2024 but I'd be very surprised if that happened.

Div 1 and 2 don't seem to have many issues that I am aware of apart from some teams regular being at the top and others being flogged. Most clubs seem to be competitive in at least one of the grades that they compete in, so that would be a pretty good standard that we should aim for as it should keep some life in the club while enabling them to improve on their quality/depth.

Smurftown hit the nail on the head with all his reasoning which unfortunately limits anything that can be done to change the format.
Community Grade would however look vastly more interesting this year as the below.

Community Division 1:
ADFA, ANU, Ainslie, Batemans Bay, Googong, Molonglo, Woden, Yass, Murrumbateman, Cootamundra

Yass, Murrumbateman & Cootamundra have an abundance of football talent each that have played various levels higher than Community Division 1, all three would be competitive and win games.

Community Division 2:
ADFA, ANU, Ainslie, Batemans Bay, Googong, Molonglo, Woden, Belconnen, Eastlake, Goulburn, Southern Cats

Goulburn & Southern Cats would provide immediate opposition to ANU, ADFA & Woden for a flag.
Belconnen & Eastlake get an opportunity to play in Division 2 as bottom grades of bigger AFL Canberra clubs against similar type set up & quality (Ainslie, Batemans Bay, Molonglo, Googong).

It's dysfunctional for Belconnen & Eastlake to be fielding their clubs 45th - 66th best available player week in & week out against the best 22 of rural clubs who could comfortably play in Community Division 1

Justification:
I know this doesn't answer your question neccessairly however there is a real active problem in the Senior competition for going on a decade now that it's percieved by players & coaches as a "4 week comp".
6 sides with 2 being uncompetitive (4 team finals series).

Community Division being diluted into 3 comps of 7-8 teams has also begun to look a little predictable as to who will play finals each year. Abolishing Div 3 & folding sides into Div 1 & Div 2 would add additional excitement to the league ladder as clubs jostle week to week for finals positions.

 

[memoryofmchale]

Will they release a fixture soon for AFL Canberra? I'm wanting to return to watch my former club play a game. Can't seem to find anything anywhere and it makes planning difficult. Looks like I may have to head down to a training if they don't.

One thing in hindsight relates to my old club. They probably should have been referred to play Rising Stars at a lower level or against bodies that were closer to my size. In a sense, good to have that exposure. Not so great for confidence. One team definitely pushed me around in a flogging. However, was grateful to play on some of the grounds including ones used by AFL clubs. That said, they're a great group and are building, albeit with limited pathways and humble facilities.

Footy in Canberra is interesting and I'm fascinated to see where it goes. At a local level, huge space for development, especially with boosting numbers. Always hard to compete with rugby when it's so in your face. I'd love to see UC, the more sports-based uni, get a partnership with GWS to help expand. Ridiculous there are no goal sticks on-campus and there's not really a side. The affiliate of Belco couldn't care less.

 

[Angrysteps33]

Will they release a fixture soon for AFL Canberra? I'm wanting to return to watch my former club play a game. Can't seem to find anything anywhere and it makes planning difficult. Looks like I may have to head down to a training if they don't.

One thing in hindsight relates to my old club. They probably should have been referred to play Rising Stars at a lower level or against bodies that were closer to my size. In a sense, good to have that exposure. Not so great for confidence. One team definitely pushed me around in a flogging. However, was grateful to play on some of the grounds including ones used by AFL clubs. That said, they're a great group and are building, albeit with limited pathways and humble facilities.

Footy in Canberra is interesting and I'm fascinated to see where it goes. At a local level, huge space for development, especially with boosting numbers. Always hard to compete with rugby when it's so in your face. I'd love to see UC, the more sports-based uni, get a partnership with GWS to help expand. Ridiculous there are no goal sticks on-campus and there's not really a side. The affiliate of Belco couldn't care less.

AFL Canberra 2024 grades for AFL Canberra | PlayHQ

View AFL Canberra's grades in the AFL Canberra 2024 season.

www.playhq.com

You will be able to find your clubs fixture on this link.

I do agree that UC should really have looked by now to have set up their own AFL club in the Canberra community comp. They have involvement in most major sports in the ACT.

 

[memoryofmchale]

AFL Canberra 2024 grades for AFL Canberra | PlayHQ

View AFL Canberra's grades in the AFL Canberra 2024 season.

www.playhq.com

You will be able to find your clubs fixture on this link.

I do agree that UC should really have looked by now to have set up their own AFL club in the Canberra community comp. They have involvement in most major sports in the ACT.

Thanks mate.

Went to the UC bar once to watch the season opener not long ago and attend the advertised event.

Bar staff had no clue what the event was or what AFL is.

The partnership and links are there to be developed. A lot of kids are coming from GWS heartland and many know either current academy kids or graduates on AFL lists. Plus Tom Green and Marist links. Just needs someone to care. Maybe having an oval would be nice, too.

 

[BitOfBants]

Some big gaps in the round 1 results! Not sure which I'm more shocked about really.

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[BitOfBants]

At the risk of throwing another message into the ether.... anyone permitting some bye players this weekend?

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[BitOfBants]

Glad noone used bye players so we could keep the league's 'integrity' but I think a team full of div 2 players debuting in div 5 for the preliminary final might have damaged it somewhat.

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Brentford26]

Glad noone used bye players so we could keep the league's 'integrity' but I think a team full of div 2 players debuting in div 5 for the preliminary final might have damaged it somewhat.

On SM-S918B using BigFooty.com mobile app

The By-Laws suck in this regard, simply allowing players to drop down if the team above them is still in finals, one of the guys that played Yass in the GF played a game of first grade this year. How different it all could've been if Goulburn beat them in week one, or if Eastlake lost to Belco in the last round of the season with just 11 of those players featured in their Grand Final winning team.

Bloody stiff for Yass I think it's like one win in their last 8 grand finals or something. They gave it a good shake that's for sure.