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Southern Districts

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T

thegame

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Dec 10, 2006
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Melbourne
AFL Club
Melbourne
I have never seen so many changes to any side that has won a premiership the year before!
14 out of there 22 players that played on the weekend are recruits which is quite staggering as they have 6 or 7 players from the premiership side playing reserves!
The question im asking is how many of those players are going to stick around next year?
Most of them are locals so id say they wouldnt have any choice but to move on because as history has shown Mago likes to bring new faces to a club that doesnt really need them!
 
Not too many locals are missing out on games. Zammit is all I can think of at the moment but he and Feeney usually get their occassional game. I guess it is their fault they left their previous clubs.
 

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Watched the B grade on the weekend.

The only A grade players running around were Gerard Atkins, Damien Zammit and Kingsley Whitehurst.
 
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thegame said:
What about Troy Parker, Danial Keelen, Maslin Braun, Chris Kickett!
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Braun played in the A-grade. Not too sure if Parker is a local but is probably good enough to be an A-grader. Keelan wouldn't have got in last year's premiership side. Kickett goes alright but he isn't unlucky to not have a A-grade spot. Atkins is about 36 or 37, Whitehurst plays for Jabiru in the TEAFA and doesn't shine out there. Neither does he shine out in the reserves.

And it isn't like their reserves team won. They got flogged!
 
JDC! said:
Braun played in the A-grade. Not too sure if Parker is a local but is probably good enough to be an A-grader. Keelan wouldn't have got in last year's premiership side. Kickett goes alright but he isn't unlucky to not have a A-grade spot. Atkins is about 36 or 37, Whitehurst plays for Jabiru in the TEAFA and doesn't shine out there. Neither does he shine out in the reserves.

And it isn't like their reserves team won. They got flogged!
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I know they got flogged its the fact that there are local players getting pushed aside by recruits that they dont really need!
Why fix it when its not broken??
 
Is Shaun Mullane still playing for the crocs this year? He went up there last year and played in the seniors premiership, not a bad player either, think he changed on ball with russca?
 
Nah Mullane isn't up here.

Southern Districts have southerners for the same reason that Waratah and St Marys do, they want to win the premiership.

They are not head-and-shoulders above the competition and taking out some southerners to replace Keelan and Atkins would be pointless. They probably wouldn't get an A-grade run at many other clubs.
 
The best Districts side was back in 88/89 when we had Jakovich, Hughes, Cox, Kemp, Lawson, Collard, Buckley etc.
Now that was a great era in NT footy which wont be seen again, not long after the teams went downhill and the crowds followed.
For those who have been in Dwn for 40 yeras like me we have seen the best and sad to the standard now which at best at Senior level is probably equal to a mediocore B Grade side of the 70's and 80's.
 
pauld said:
The best Districts side was back in 88/89 when we had Jakovich, Hughes, Cox, Kemp, Lawson, Collard, Buckley etc.
Now that was a great era in NT footy which wont be seen again, not long after the teams went downhill and the crowds followed.
For those who have been in Dwn for 40 yeras like me we have seen the best and sad to the standard now which at best at Senior level is probably equal to a mediocore B Grade side of the 70's and 80's.
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PaulD, would you reckon if the NTFL clubs had a bit more money, they copuld attract better quality players across the board?
 
pauld said:
The best Districts side was back in 88/89 when we had Jakovich, Hughes, Cox, Kemp, Lawson, Collard, Buckley etc.
Now that was a great era in NT footy which wont be seen again, not long after the teams went downhill and the crowds followed.
For those who have been in Dwn for 40 yeras like me we have seen the best and sad to the standard now which at best at Senior level is probably equal to a mediocore B Grade side of the 70's and 80's.
Click to expand...

This season Waratahs and St Marys B grade would probably go close to beating the bottom A grade clubs on their day. But to say that mediocore B grade sides of the 70s and 80s would beat teams like Southern Districts and Tiwi Bombers I wouldnt think so.

People would probably say the 50s were better than the 60s which was better than the 70s which was better than the 80s. Everything was better in the old days.

During most of the 80s St Marys were a 10 goal better team than most of the other A grade sides.

Crowds are down in most leagues due to the simple fact that people have a broader range of interests these days.
 

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I think the standard is down since the 80's

Taking the Saints sides of that period, there were footballers of real quality playing at the height of their careers.

Benny Vigona, Michael Graham, Willie Roe etc were all very good SANFL/WAFL players.

Others like Mick Athanasiou, Ted Liddy, Bruno/Steven/Noel Long*, Dennis Dunn, Cadji Dunn and others would not have been playing NTFL. They would have gone the way of Ronnie Burns, Andrew McCleod, etc. Greg Bruce, Ninny Briston,(he makes Aaron Davey look slow, god he was quick) Steven Stokes, etc wouldn't have been playing NTFL either.

Now any decent player in Darwin goes South to try their luck in the SANFL/WAFL and players from those leagues don't come up any more. Seriously Ken Hunter (yes Carlton) played for Nth Darwin. In the 80's i'm convinced that the Daveys, Clarkes, Woneamerri's etc would still be playing NTFL.

But the same has happened in WA and SA so we're not particularly unique in that regard. It's all geared to making the AFL now.

*Mick played AFL (very well), I think John and PJ would have been too small, and Chris was just too laid back. (Altho Chrissy was possibly the most talented)
 
Having grown up here in Darwin I know most of the players mentioned above, played with/against them, went to school / worked with some of them.
Basically the sides back then WERE much better than sides today.
The Districts side of 1988/89 would beat the current Districts side by about 80 + points.
For example, who would man up on Jakovich ? Who would beat Brentley Hughes ?
The biggest difference is the footy familys have mostly left the game now. Back in the day the familys were very proud that their kids followed in the family tradition of playing for Buffs for example. The adage "old buffalos never die, they just fade away" meant something special, the players WANTED to play their hearts out for the team, their families.
I played B Grade back then and was not highly motivated, but reckon I could walk into ANY A Grade side of today and get a game. Players back then had pride, socks up, body looking like a footy player, even my mate Ninny Briston had definition on his small frame. Lokking at a few players last year with their guernseys too big, socks rolled down, skinny bodies..hell they would have been massacerd back in the "old days" if they went near the ball.
Now look around the stands, hardly any of the old families left, even I have not been to a game, or seen one on telly, this season. It is a shame to see how the standard has dropped. The crowds are way down, the atmosphere dead...sign of the times.
For those of you who like me saw the great players and games of the 70's and 80's you know what I mean, for those that don't you really missed some great footy.
Add to the list of greats who played here and pencil in Wow Jones and Val Perovich who both played for Nightcliff when in their prime....
Oh, and the question a post or two above about if money would help, well you would need to bring in a dozen players from South or more, and then you would not have much fan loyalty here as it would not be a NT team would it ?
This idea should have gone ahead back in the 80's when a truly local side could have held it's own on it's own accord. Sure players like Athanasiou, Dunn, Vigona, Longs, Hughes, Briston, Buckley, Roe etc would have done it, needing only a ruckman from South to make a very good NT side.
Our NT select beat Essendon more than once, and other AFL teams in pre season games here...reckon a current NT select side could do that now ? No..
 
pauld said:
Our NT select beat Essendon more than once, and other AFL teams in pre season games here...reckon a current NT select side could do that now ? No..
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Western Bulldogs only beat an NTFL representative side by one point a couple of years ago. Plus AFL sides have bigger and smarter pre-seasons these days and by February most clubs are raring to go.
 

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