Monday, June 07, 2004
Winter State League.
I recently attended the Regional Coordinators meeting, on behalf of Ron, and since a nice summary of the meeting was emailed today, I thought I'd put the relevant stuff up here.
Due to some changes, or rather lack of changes (SA was not granted an NTL permit, and is to remain part of Crusaders), the format of Winter State League is going to change from what was announced earlier this year. Specifically, the requirement of having a tournament for Crusaders selection (the Australia Cup - to be held in Melbourne this year) means that the timeline must change.
The thing that is most obvious is that a carnival held at the end of the competition is something we want to get away from. People tend to be a little Touched-Out, and attendance is not as good as it should be. The winter carnival, which is a great opportunity for our junior teams to play in a real carnival before the National Championships, will go ahead, but probably before the season.
[Edit]: I must have misunderstood this part of the meeting, apparently the Winter Carnival is not going to happen!
The biggest change from last year is the inclusion of a Junior competition - basically the same rules as the summer competition, except players who play Opens (Men or Women) will not be eligible to play Junior (Mixed). This is largely because both competitions will be on at the same time. Age limit is to be 18, as it was over Summer. It is expected that most of the 18s State teams will be playing Opens anyway - this should reduce the mismatches that occurred in size over summer.
Also, it is envisioned that the cost of entering a junior team will be reduced - the problem is that TouchSA isn't making a profit as such out of State League, so there are not many areas to reduce costs. One of the ways to reduce actual costs will be to relax the uniform requirements - junior teams won't have to wear the sanctioned regional uniforms, just a uniform top amongst that team.
Some of you may have been involved in the Mens Open competition this Summer - Wolves entered a second team, and this was just short of a disaster. It reduced the quality of the Mens competition, as well as virtually killing the Mixed competition. There will only be one team per region per competition until further notice.
Since TID has already occurred for the State Open teams (and selections for 18s & 15s - 12s are in just under a fortnight), the requirement of regions to supply TID personnel during State League has been removed. The Coach and Head Selector for each Open team will continue to assess performance of TID'd players, and watch for others that might have slipped through the process. All Open reps must play at State League. I'm not sure if this applies to 18s reps as well - but I will encourage (strongly) all of my 15s girls to play Junior (if not Open) State League.
Finally, whilst dates have not yet been announced, expect the competition to start in early August (my tip is the 6th), and to run on Friday nights, with a couple of Sunday Afternoon games. Keep an ear and eye out for info about Scorpions Trials - we already have some interest from some new up-and-coming juniors!
Due to some changes, or rather lack of changes (SA was not granted an NTL permit, and is to remain part of Crusaders), the format of Winter State League is going to change from what was announced earlier this year. Specifically, the requirement of having a tournament for Crusaders selection (the Australia Cup - to be held in Melbourne this year) means that the timeline must change.
[Edit]: I must have misunderstood this part of the meeting, apparently the Winter Carnival is not going to happen!
The biggest change from last year is the inclusion of a Junior competition - basically the same rules as the summer competition, except players who play Opens (Men or Women) will not be eligible to play Junior (Mixed). This is largely because both competitions will be on at the same time. Age limit is to be 18, as it was over Summer. It is expected that most of the 18s State teams will be playing Opens anyway - this should reduce the mismatches that occurred in size over summer.
Also, it is envisioned that the cost of entering a junior team will be reduced - the problem is that TouchSA isn't making a profit as such out of State League, so there are not many areas to reduce costs. One of the ways to reduce actual costs will be to relax the uniform requirements - junior teams won't have to wear the sanctioned regional uniforms, just a uniform top amongst that team.
Some of you may have been involved in the Mens Open competition this Summer - Wolves entered a second team, and this was just short of a disaster. It reduced the quality of the Mens competition, as well as virtually killing the Mixed competition. There will only be one team per region per competition until further notice.
Since TID has already occurred for the State Open teams (and selections for 18s & 15s - 12s are in just under a fortnight), the requirement of regions to supply TID personnel during State League has been removed. The Coach and Head Selector for each Open team will continue to assess performance of TID'd players, and watch for others that might have slipped through the process. All Open reps must play at State League. I'm not sure if this applies to 18s reps as well - but I will encourage (strongly) all of my 15s girls to play Junior (if not Open) State League.
Finally, whilst dates have not yet been announced, expect the competition to start in early August (my tip is the 6th), and to run on Friday nights, with a couple of Sunday Afternoon games. Keep an ear and eye out for info about Scorpions Trials - we already have some interest from some new up-and-coming juniors!
posted by Anonymous @ 7:01 pm 
