The girl's competition needs a shake up and a re-think to get back on track.
Girl's participation in organised sport is always lower than boys and the activities girls undertake instead of sport are different. For the same population of say 100 boys and 100 girls, 30 boys may play basketball, but only 15 girls play basketball.
Society has a different attitude to boys than girls. There have been studies where babies dressed in pink and some in blue have been handed to people to hold (without telling them the gender of the child) Those handling the babies dressed in pink were more careful and more gushing of the child because they thought it was female. This carries on with parents. Parents are always more protective of their girls than their boys. As a result, girls are drawn, or directed to sports and activities that are more passive in nature. Sports that claim to be non or low contact that do not police breaches of contact are not popular.
The district competition has deteriorated to such an extent that the girl's competition is dominated by one club who has an aggressive playing style, a second club with the numbers, and then a splattering of good teams at other clubs. The variation in standard between clubs is massive and the numbers of girls participating is affected.
A spiral of doom ensues. As the numbers drop at the less successful clubs, either through participations or transfers to the stronger clubs, those teams field weaker teams, who inevitably lose by more and more, the girls drop out because they or not winning, or else the morale of the team is crushed. Teams in Div 1 have half a team of Div 1 and half a team of Div 2 standard players. The Div 2 teams have some Div 2 standard teams, but as the club is desperate for players, girls who only put down a netball and picked up a basketball 5 minutes ago fill up teams. The physical contact when playing against some clubs and the resultant no-calls then makes them hate the sport and leave. As more and more experienced players flock to a stronger club, their Div 2 teams become stronger and stronger, and would be a Div 1 standard at other clubs. Teams that would be a "regular" Div 2 standard, or high Div 3 standard are now playing against DIv 1 standard teams.
The number of teams means that a Div 3 competition is rare and so the gap in standard between the girl's Div 1 and Div 2 is smaller than the gap in boys. In boys, the bottom two Div 1 teams would be top 4 in the Div 2, and the top 2 Div 2 teams would be bottom 4. In the girls, the bottom two Div 1 teams would be smashed in Div 2 and probably the top 4 Div 2 teams would compete in the Div 1 competition. Does that mean pro/rel is the answer?
I would like to see the clubs work together on saving the girls competition while there still is one. Come 2015, I think it would be very boring if the competition was Forestville Blue, Forestville Gold, Sturt 1, Sturt 2, Forestville Black, Forestville Green, Forestville Red, Forestville Blue, Sturt 3, Forestville White