The Shepparton District Junior Football League (SDJFL) hosted a working meeting at Seymour Football Club on Wednesday 24 July to discuss junior grading concepts, philosophies and operational models.
Attending the meeting were executive representatives from the SDJFL, Bendigo and Yarra Junior Football Leagues as well as AFL Goulburn Murray staff and the author of AFL Victoria’s junior grading research paper Stephen Stewart.
"The Shepp Juniors has undergone a number of changes this season in response to losing a significant number of players from junior football over the preceding years" noted SDJFL President Chris Thomas. "We have already seen a positive response with an extra three teams in the boys competition."
"A key challenge we have had this year is the grading of teams and how we can ensure a fair, equitable and consistent competition for children to play in. After three rounds our average winning margin was almost 100 points which created a massive imbalance and we needed to act. We regraded the draw after Round 4 to even out the competition and this has greatly improved results."
"This meeting was an opportunity for us to review where we were at and hear of the experiences of Bendigo and Yarra who have been dealing with grading issues in their competitions for a number of years."
"The outcomes from the meeting will help us in developing our grading process for next season and we can then communicate that club delegates to approve for implementation for next season."
AFL Goulburn Murray Region General Manager Martin Gleeson facilitated the meeting and was pleased with the outcomes. "Grading of teams can be a tricky process but the sharing of the Leagues in the meeting provided some really good experiences and learnings. All junior football competitions across the State need to deal with grading issues and this session looked at the latest research findings as well as practical experiences."
"A key outcome was the development of some key parameters for the League to be able to continue to refine their structure for the benefit of the Clubs and ultimately junior footballers in the region."
Last Modified on 15/12/2014 13:54