2014 will see some significant changes to the 'youth' age comeptitions, including the competition age group moving from Under 18's to Under 19's as well as a reshuffle of existing teams within divisions. These changes will hopefully create more even competitions which in turn should assist in increasing participation numbers at this critical age.
The change in age group (in line with the juniors moving to Under 17's) will mean that the Under 19's teams for 2014 will be essentially the same squads as in the 2013 Under 18 comeptition.
With a significant gap between the top and bottom sides, in particular in this years Under 18 Division One competition, 2014 will see a 'best of the best' Under 19 Division One competition with 8 teams competing - being this years very evenly matches top 7 sides along with Manly-Warringah who have been promoted after a dominant season in Division Two (and importantly the strong junior talent coming through).
The Division One competition will commence on Saturday 29th March with 18 home and away matches with the Grand Final to be played as part of the Premier Division finals on Saturday 20th September.
The Under 19 Division Two competition currently has 8 nominations also. The proposed structure is to split these teams into two regional conferences (Eastern and Western) of four teams each and play the majority of matches within your conference with a number of cross conference matches. The purpose of this is obviously to lessen the travel required for this competition (and reduce the volunteers / resources required) to assist in growing the participation numbers within this level.
Those 8 clubs within the Division Two competition will be consulted before a final decision is made which is expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
The final competition structure for Division Two will determine competition start dates while an agreed finals format will determine when finals commence however the Grand Final will be played on Saturday 20th September.
Last Modified on 28/11/2013 14:19
